The navy was called the Continental Navy from 1775 until Congress disbanded it and sold the ships in 1785. It was started again as the Department of the Navy on April 30, 1798. The Department of the Navy needed places to make ships, which are called shipyards. So it paid slaveowners to borrow their slaves, then forced the slaves to build and run the shipyards in Washington, D.C., Norfolk, Virginia, and Pensacola, Florida.