In 1854, brothers Thomas and John Chubb bought land on the east bank of Goose Creek at the mouth of Tabbs Bay. On this site, they established the Chubb Shipyard prior to the Civil War. At that time, shipbuilding was a developing industry in Texas. During the war, however, in an effort to compensate for the Union's industrial advantage, the Confederate government encouraged Texans to engage in manufacturing ventures that would aid its military effort. The Chubb Brothers responded by expanding their small naval works where they built and repaired blockade runners during the war. Thomas Chubb also served in the Texas Marine Department. He obtained the rank of Captain and later became superintendent of the Confederate Naval Works.
The design and structure of ships built at the Goose Creek shipyard were integral to the South's capacity to evade the Union blockade. The shallow draft of the centerboard schooners built here made them suitable for blockade running in shallow areas of the Gulf of Mexico, where deep draft vessels could not operate. Among the blockade runners built and repaired here were the Royal Yacht, Bagdad, Phoebe, Henrietta, Marguereta and Altha Brooks. An important contributor to the Texas naval and industrial effort during the Civil War, the Goose Creek shipyard later built ships for the federal government and private mariners until Thomas Chubb left the business in 1869. The following year, the Thomas B. Gaillard family purchased the former shipyard and established Gaillard's Landing. Later, the site became part of the Goose Creek oil fields.