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State owned shipbuilding and maintenance facilities for the British navy

Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid 19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial complexes in Britain. From the reign of Henry VII up until the 1990s, the Royal Navy had a policy of establishing and maintaining its own dockyard facilities; (although at the same time, as continues to be the case, it made extensive use of private shipyards, both at home and abroad). Portsmouth was the first Royal Dockyard, dating from the late 15th century; it was followed by Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham and others. By the 18th century, Britain had a string of these state owned naval dockyards, located not just around the country but across the world; each was sited close to a safe harbour or anchorage used by the fleet. Royal Naval Dockyards were the core naval and military facilities of the four Imperial fortresses colonies which enabled control of the Atlantic Ocean and its connected seas. The Royal Dockyards had a dual function: ship building and ship maintenance (most yards provided for both but some specialised in one or the other). Over time, they accrued additional on site facilities for the support, training and accommodation of naval personnel. For centuries, in this way, the name and concept of a Royal Dockyard was largely synonymous with that of a naval base. In the early 1970s, following the appointment of civilian Dockyard General Managers with cross departmental authority, and a separation of powers between them and the Dockyard Superintendent (commanding officer), the term 'Naval Base' began to gain currency as an official designation for the latter's domain. 'Royal Dockyard' remained an official designation of the associated shipbuilding/maintenance facilities until 1997, when the last remaining Royal Dockyards (Devonport and Rosyth) were fully privatised.

Most Royal Dockyards were built around docks and slips. Traditionally, slipways were used for shipbuilding, and dry docks (also called graving docks) for maintenance; (dry docks were also sometimes used for building, particularly pre 1760 and post 1880). Regular hull maintenance was important: in the age of sail, a ship's wooden hull would be comprehensively inspected every 2–3 years, and its copper sheeting replaced every 5. Dry docks were invariably the most expensive component of any dockyard (until the advent of marine nuclear facilities).

For a long time, well into the eighteenth century, a Royal Dockyard was often referred to as The King's Yard (or The Queen's Yard, as appropriate). In 1694, Edmund Dummer referred to "His Majesty's new Dock and Yard at Plymouth"; from around that time, HM Dock Yard (or HM Dockyard) increasingly became the official designation. While, as this phrase suggests, the primary meaning of 'Dockyard' is a Yard with a Dock, not all dockyards possessed one; for example, at both Bermuda and Portland dry docks were planned but never built. Where a dock was neither built nor planned (as at Harwich, Deal and several of the overseas yards) the installation was often designated HM Naval Yard rather than 'HM Dockyard' in official publications (though the latter term may have been used informally); they are included in the listings below. While the term 'Royal Dockyard' ceased in official usage following privatisation, at least one private sector operator has reinstated it: Babcock International, which in 2011 acquired freehold ownership of the working North Yard at Devonport from the British Ministry of Defence, reverted to calling it Devonport Royal Dockyard.

The origins of the Royal Dockyards are closely linked with the permanent establishment of a standing Navy in the early sixteenth century. The beginnings of a yard had already been established at Portsmouth with the building of a dry dock in 1496; but it was on the Thames in the reign of Henry VIII that the Royal Dockyards really began to flourish. Woolwich and Deptford dockyards were both established in the early 1510s (a third yard followed at Erith but this was short lived as it proved to be vulnerable to flooding). The Thames yards were pre eminent in the sixteenth century, being conveniently close to the merchants and artisans of London (for shipbuilding and supply purposes) as well as to the Armouries of the Tower of London. They were also just along the river from Henry's palace at Greenwich. As time went on, though, they suffered from the silting of the river and the constraints of their sites. By the mid seventeenth century, Chatham (established 1567) had overtaken them to become the largest of the yards. Together with new Yards at Harwich and Sheerness, Chatham was well placed to serve the Navy in the Dutch Wars that followed. Apart from Harwich (which closed in 1713), all the yards remained busy into the eighteenth century – including Portsmouth (which, after a period of dormancy, had now begun to grow again). In 1690, Portsmouth had been joined on the south coast by a new Royal Dockyard at Plymouth; a hundred years later, as Britain renewed its enmity with France, these two yards gained new prominence and pre eminence. Furthermore, Royal Dockyards began to be opened in some of Britain's colonial ports, to service the fleet overseas. Yards were opened in Jamaica (as early as 1675), Antigua (1725), Gibraltar (1704), Canada (Halifax, 1759) and several other locations. then Chatham and Gibraltar (the last remaining overseas yard) in 1984. At the same time, Portsmouth's Royal Dockyard was downgraded and renamed a Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation (FMRO). In 1987 the remaining Royal Dockyards (Devonport and Rosyth) were part privatised, becoming government owned, contractor run facilities (run by Devonport Management Limited and Babcock Thorn, respectively); full privatisation followed ten years later (1997). The following year Portsmouth's FMRO was sold to Fleet Support Limited. As of 2019, all three (along with other privately owned shipyards) continue in operation, to varying degrees, as locations for building (Rosyth) and maintaining ships and submarines of the Royal Navy.

Ships' ordnance (guns, weapons and ammunition) was provided independently by the Board of Ordnance, which set up its own Ordnance Yards alongside several of the Royal Dockyards both at home and abroad. Similarly, the Victualling Board established Victualling Yards in several Dockyard locations, which furnished warships with their provisions of food, beer and rum. In the mid eighteenth century the Sick and Hurt Board established Naval Hospitals in the vicinity of Plymouth Dock and Portsmouth; by the mid nineteenth century there were Royal Naval Hospitals close to most of the major and minor Naval Dockyards in Britain, in addition to several of them overseas (the oldest dating from the early 1700s). As the age of steam eclipsed the age of sail, Coaling Yards were established alongside several yards, and at strategic points around the globe. In addition to naval personnel and civilian workers, there were substantial numbers of military quartered in the vicinity of the Royal Dockyards. These were there to ensure the defence of the yard and its ships. From the 1750s, naval yards in Britain were surrounded by 'lines' (fortifications) with barracks provided for the soldiers manning them. A century later these 'lines' were superseded by networks of Palmerston Forts. Overseas yards also usually had some fort or similar structure provided and manned nearby. Moreover, the Royal Marines, from the time of the Corps' establishment in the mid 18th century, were primarily based in the dockyard towns of Plymouth, Portsmouth and Chatham (and later also in Woolwich and Deal) where their barracks were conveniently placed for duties on board ship or indeed in the Dockyard itself.

Portsmouth Dockyard (1496) Rose to prominence during the wars with France, late 18th century. Expanded significantly in the nineteenth century with new facilities for steam engineering and ironclad shipbuilding. Privatised 1993. In November 2013 the operator BAE Systems announced that it was closing its shipbuilding facility at Portsmouth; part of the shipyard will remain open for repair/maintenance.

Woolwich Dockyard (1512) Important shipbuilding centre, 16th–17th centuries. Became a specialist steam yard 1831. Closed 1869. It closed due to persistent flooding in 1521. However, according to naval historian Nicholas A. M. Rodger although Erith dockyard closed it was an important center of naval administration of the English Navy from 1514 into the 1540s. Deptford Dockyard (1513) Important shipbuilding centre, 16th 17th centuries. Experimental yard for new technology, early nineteenth century. Closed 1869. (The adjacent victualling yard, which supplied the Thames and Medway yards, remained open for a further 98 years.) Chatham Dockyard (1567) The leading Royal Dockyard during the 16th–17th centuries, when the Fleet was principally based in and around the River Medway. Began to suffer from silting in the eighteenth century, but remained active. During the nineteenth century, other more accessible yards led on fleet repairs and maintenance, while Chatham focused more on shipbuilding. The following century, it specialised in building submarines. In 1960 the adjacent Royal Navy barracks and facilities were closed; the Dockyard itself closed in 1984. (Today the site is preserved as Chatham Historic Dockyard.) Significant expansion for steam engineering, 1844–53 and 1896–1907. Shipbuilding ceased in 1971, but the Yard remains active as a maintenance and repair facility.

Pembroke Dockyard (1815) Unlike all the previous yards, Pembroke was built purely for shipbuilding rather than for repair and maintenance. It was successor to a yard at Milford Haven leased by the Navy Board for shipbuilding since the late eighteenth century. Active through to the end of World War One, the yard was closed temporarily in 1923, reopened in the 1930s and closed permanently in 1947. (A small naval base remained on the site until 2008.) It was extended in 1869 in order to create a sizeable Royal Navy Dockyard, specialising in ship repair and maintenance. In 1923 the island was handed over to the Irish government; Haulbowline remains the principal Naval base of the Republic of Ireland. A steelworks was established on the site of the Dockyard in 1938.

Rosyth Dockyard (1909) Built with a strategic view to countering the threat from Germany. Closed after World War One, reopened 1939, and has remained open since. Privatized in 1993, but continues to build and maintain Britain's warships. Dover Dockyard (1913) In 1847 the government began construction on Dover's Admiralty Pier, envisaged as forming the western arm of a protected haven. This project was only completed after work began on the eastern pier in 1898; the Admiralty Harbour was formally opened in 1909. During both World Wars Dover served as a ship repair station and was listed as a Naval Dockyard. Invergordon Dockyard (1916) Fully staffed dockyard through World War I, serving the fleet's anchorage in Cromarty Firth. A floating dry dock was towed here from Portsmouth in 1914 and was in use for the duration of the war. Closed after the war, but the Navy maintained the site as an oiling station during World War II, finally withdrawing in 1993. Scapa Flow Dockyard (1939) Established at Lyness Naval Base and operational through World War II.

Other, minor yards (with some permanent staff and basic repair/storage facilities) were established in a number of locations over time, usually to serve a nearby anchorage used by Naval vessels. For example, during 18th century a small supply base was maintained at Leith, for ships on Leith Station; but there was no strategic impetus to develop it into a full blown Dockyard.

In 1728 Antigua Naval Dockyard was established at English Harbour which had been used by the Navy since 1671 as a place for shelter and maintenance. It gives access not only to Murray's Anchorage (named for Commander in Chief Vice Admiral Sir George Murray, who led the fleet of the North American Station through the channel to anchor there for the first time in 1794) but to the entire northern lagoon, the Great Sound and Hamilton Harbour, making the channel vital to the success of the Town of Hamilton, which had been established in 1790, and the economic development of the central and western parishes of Bermuda. Although the navy had already begun buying property at the West End with the intent of constructing the dockyard there, there was little infrastructure west of St. George's at the time and no functional port at Ireland Island, hence the need at first to operate from St. George's Town, with Admiralty House first on Rose Hill in St. George's, then at Mount Wyndham above Bailey's Bay. Convict Bay, beside St. George's Town and below the army barracks of St. George's Garrison, became the first base, with other properties at the East End leased or acquired to support it. The blockade of US Atlantic ports during the American War of 1812 was orchestrated from Bermuda, as was the Chesapeake Campaign. Admiralty House moved in 1816 to Spanish Point (near to the new Government House and the Town of Hamilton, which has become the colonial capital in 1815), facing Ireland Island and Grassy Bay across the mouth of the Great Sound, with the concurrent move of the anchorage and shore facilities to the West End. Bermuda became, first the winter (with Halifax serving this role in the summer), and then the year round, main base and dockyard of the station, which was to become the North America and West Indies Station after absorbing the Jamaica Station (ultimately designated the America and West Indies Station, once it absorbed the areas that had formerly belonged to the South East Coast of America Station and the Pacific Station). Aside from the roles played by Royal Naval squadrons based at Bermuda during the two world wars, Bermuda also served as a forming up point for trans Atlantic convoys during both conflicts. Between the wars, a Royal Naval Air Station was established in the North Yard of the dockyard. Operated by the Royal Air Force on the navy's behalf until the Royal Navy took over complete responsibility for the Fleet Air Arm in 1939, this was originally tasked with maintenance, repair, and replacement of the floatplanes and flying boats with which the station's cruisers were equipped. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the air station, which relocated to Boaz Island, began flying anti submarine air patrols on an ad hoc basis until the handing this duty over to United States Navy patrol aircraft. The United States Navy and United States Army were permitted to establish bases in Bermuda under 99 year leases during the war, with command of the North Atlantic split between the Royal Navy in the East and the United States in the West. The alliance would endure after the war, with profound effects on the Royal Naval establishment in the region and the status of the dockyard in Bermuda. After the Second World War the dockyard was no longer deemed relevant to Royal Navy operations and was closed between 1951 (when a floating drydock was removed, and the yard status changed to a base) and 1958, when most of the dockyard, along with other Admiralty and War Office land in Bermuda was sold to the Colonial Government. However, a small base, HMS Malabar, continued to operate from the South Yard throughout the Cold War. Ships of the fleet (which went from being a mix of cruisers and smaller vessels to a handful of station frigates before being removed and replaced in the 1980s with a single frigate designated West Indies Guardship, which only stopped at Bermuda on its way to take up station in the West Indies and again on its departure) based there after 1951 were required to cross the Atlantic to Portsmouth for repairs. This base was finally closed in 1995, 200 years after the establishment of permanent Royal Navy forces in Bermuda. Site re developed and now include Bermuda Maritime Museum, pedestrian mall and cruise ship dock. Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard, Esquimalt, Canada. In 1865, the Royal Navy relocated its Pacific Station headquarters from Valparaíso, Chile, to Esquimalt Harbour (site of a small naval hospital and coaling station since the mid 1850s). In 1887, a naval base was located at Work Point. In 1905, the Royal Navy abandoned its base, but the Pacific Fleet headquarters of the new Royal Canadian Navy replaced it in 1910. Partially home to Pacific Command of the RCN, historic buildings are now preserved. Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax, Canada (1759) (Imperial fortress). Operated as HM Dockyard from 1759 to 1905 and sold to Canada in 1907. Halifax was the main base of the North American Station until the establishment of the base at Bermuda, subsequently designated as the main base in Summer, with the fleet moving to Bermuda for the winter. Ultimately, Bermuda (which was less vulnerable to attack over water or land) became the main base and dockyard year round, with Halifax and all other yards and bases in the region as subsidiaries). It became a RCN facility in 1910 and is now known as HMC Dockyard and is a component of CFB Halifax. The Great Lakes, as largely self contained bodies of water, required their own dockyards to service the Provincial Marine. Several substantial ships were built at these yards during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard, Amherstburg, Ontario operated from 1796 to 1813. Preserved as national historic site and municipal park. Grand River Naval Depot, Port Maitland, Ontario – planned facility was never built and now site of Port Maitland Sailing Club. Île aux Noix, operated from 1812 to 1834, the principal yard for Lake Champlain (replacing an earlier establishment at St Jean). Gunboats were built here. Fort Lennox historic site is now preserved. Rest of island is naturalised as parkland. Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard, Kingston, Canada. The RN dockyard operated at Point Frederick from 1789 to 1853; the site was expanded during the War of 1812. It is now closed, this yard was near where the Royal Military College of Canada is now situated. Navy Island Royal Naval Shipyard on Navy Island near Niagara Falls, Ontario (1763–1813). Island has naturalised and now owned by Parks Canada. Not open to public. Penetanguishene Naval Yard, Penetanguishene, Ontario operated from 1813 to 1834; transferred to British Army until 1856. Now site preserved as Discovery Harbour. Naval Shipyards, York (Upper Canada) from 1798 to 1813. Later became commercial hub for shipyards and wharfs. Since filled in and re developed as retail and residential neighbourhood.

New South Wales, Australia (1859) In 1858 the Admiralty acquired land on Garden Island in Sydney Harbour, and established a small naval base there. In the 1880s it was substantially expanded (though no dry docks were built, as the Navy had use of the facilities at nearby Cockatoo Island Dockyard operated by the Government of New South Wales). In 1913 HM Naval Yard, Garden Island was handed over to the nascent Royal Australian Navy which is based there to this day. New Zealand (1892) Devonport Dockyard began in the 1890s as a small complex of wooden storehouses; since 1913 it has served as the principal base of the Royal New Zealand Navy. .