Northumbrian Gunner: Portsmouth 2022

History of the Dockyard - Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust (portsmouthdockyard.org.uk)

Royal Dockyard Portsmouth

The Portsmouth Royal Dockyard was established in 1496, and was the first of the Navy's dockyards where ships were built, fitted and repaired, as well as being their base for operations.

The first known ships launched from Portsmouth dockyard in 1497 were the Sweepstake and the Mary Fortune.

Mary Fortune

When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 he began to build a fleet of ships to protect newly developing trade routes and the vital English Channel. This included the Mary Rose, the Peter Pomegranate and the Sovereign, the three most powerful ships in the world at that time. The Mary Rose became flagship of the King's Fleet.

Mary Rose

The Dockyard would expand over the the following centuries as British Empire expanded and the Royal Navy (established by Royal Charter in 1546) grew in size to protect vital trade routes. Other dockyards were established around the UK and the Empire.

Royal Dockyard Portsmouth

Royal Dockyard Portsmouth
Shipbuilding and Repairs

Royal Dockyard Portsmouth
Ship Resupply

Royal Dockyard Portsmouth
Naval Base

In 1816, HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, was moored in Portsmouth harbour as a floating depot ship. It would return to service in 1817, returning to repaired in 1822. It became the Port Admirals flagship in 1830, only for the Admiralty to order the ship to be broken up a year later. The fame of the ship as Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar led to a public outcry, and it was retained within the Royal Navy in a variety of roles.

HMS Victory moored in Portsmouth Harbour

The industrial revolution brough new technology to the dockyard and it was further expanded. The building of an internal railway commenced in 1843. In 1846 the first steam screw propeller vessel was launched, the Rfileman, a 483 ton wooden steamboat.

HMS Rifleman

The first ironclad warship built for the Royal Navy was HMS Warrior which was constructed in London and commissioned in 1861. It would be ten years later before Portsmouth would construct an ironclad, HMS Devastation the Royal Navy's first mast less ocean going turret ship.

HMS Devastation

Further developments in naval ships occurred as the ironclads were replaced by steel hulled ships. HMS Majestic was launched in Portsmouth in 1895 and commissioned in the same year.

HMS Majestic

On 4th August 1914, the First World War began and Portsmouth became a centre for naval activity. In 1915, Portsmouth built its last battleship, HMS Royal Sovereign which served in both World Wars.

HMS Royal Sovereign

The First World War brought about a major evolution in naval warfare with the use of submarines. The Royal Dockyard building their first, HMS J1 and J2 in 1915.

HMS J1 Portsmouth 1915

The most crucial naval battle of WW1 occurred on the 31st May 1916 when the British Grand Fleet and and German Highs Seas Fleet clashed in the Battle of Jutland. Over 6,000 Royal Naval personnel lost their lives, many from Portsmouth Naval Base.

Battle of Jutland

Ships that had been damaged during the battle were repaired in dockyards throughout the country, including the Royal Dockyard Portsmouth.

HMS Warsprite Portsmouth after Jutland Battle

HMS Royal Royal under repair Portsmouth

During the period of the war, Portsmouth Royal Dockyard built three battleships, Iron Duke, Queen Elizabeth, Royal Sovereign, together with submarines J1, J2, K1, K2, and K5. There were 1,200 vessels refitted including 40 battleships and battle cruisers, 25 cruisers, over 400 destroyers, 150 torpedo boats, 140 trawlers and drifters, 20 submarines and other vessels. In addition 1,658 vessels were dry docked or hauled up slipways for repair.

Royal Dockyard Portsmouth WW1

In September 1939, Britain once again found themselves at war with Germany. Portsmouth, as in WW1, became a major centre of naval activity.

Portsmouth HMS Vincent WW2

In May 1940 the British Expeditionary force was being forced back towards the English Channel coast by the onslaught of the German Blitzkrieg. On 21st May the Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth received a signal to prepare for withdrawing the Army from France and began a survey of all small craft in home waters. On 26th May 1940 the evacuation code for Operation Dynamo was given, and an armada of naval and civilian ships left Portsmouth for Dover. Those ships would be pat of the armada that rescued 330,000 troops.

Dunkirk Evacuation

The prominence of Portsmouth as a naval base and the Royal Dockyard as a major maintenance facility made it a prime target for the Luftwaffe. The first major air rid on Portsmouth took place on 12 August 1940. The dockyards sustained damage and 68 dock workers were killed.

Portsmouth Harbour bombings WW2

Over 30 air raids would occur in 1940. The worst air raids occurred on the nights of 10th and 11th January 1941 when 300 raiders dropped 25,000 incendiary bombs causing 28 major and 2,314 other fires. Over the course of the war there were 67 major air raids which caused extensive damage., killing 930 civilians and injuring thousands more.

Portsmouth Guildhall WW2 bomb damage

The last air raid was in May 1944, though V1s flying bombs targeted Portsmouth in July 1944.

The Royal Dockyard was heavily involved with the Normandy Invasion as a supply base and the maintenance of warships and landing crafts of all types in order to sustain the supply of materiel as the allies broke out of the Normandy Bridgehead and advanced through Europe.

Portsmouth Royal Dockyard May 1944

During WW2 the Royal Dockyard had dry docked 2,548 vessel of all classes, built two floating docks, launched 4 submarines, and built the light cruiser HMS Sirius the cost of which was raised by the citizens of Portsmouth.

HMS Sirius

After the Second World War the Royal Dockyard continued it's role maintaining, re-fitting and building naval vessels. This continued till 1981 when it was announced that the Portsmouth Dockyard workforce would be reduced from 7,200 to 1,200.

The Royal Dockyard would be called upon in April 1982 to prepare the Naval Taskforce for the Falklands Conflict. Three months later a victorious Royal Navy would return to Portsmouth.

Portsmouth Royal Dockyard July 1982
HMS Ark Royal returns from the Falklands

Through the end of the 20th Century and into the 21st the Royal Dockyard reduced in size, re-organised and parts turned into museums and visitor attractions.

The building of warships effectively ended in 1967 HMS Andromeda, a Leander Class Frigate was launched.

Portsmouth Royal Dockyard
Launching HMS Andromeda 1967

It was forty years later before shipbuilding return to Plymouth, the final complete warship to be launched at the Royal Dockyard was HMS Clyde on 14th June 2006.

HMS Clyde

Shipbuilding came to an end in 2014, when one of six modular blocks built in shipyards around the country was towed to Rosyth, Scotland to be assembled to build the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The completed aircraft carrier arrived at it's home base at Portsmouth, November 2019.