HM Dockyard, Harwich | |
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Harwich, Essex | |
Site information | |
Operator | English Navy (1652–1660), Royal Navy (1660–1717) |
Controlled by | The Navy Board (1652–1717). |
Site history | |
In use | 1326–1829 |
Harwich Dockyard (also known as The King's Yard, Harwich) was a Royal Navy Dockyard at Harwich in Essex, active in the 17th and early 18th century (after which it continued to operate under private ownership). Owing to its position on the East Coast of England, the yard was of strategic importance during the Anglo-Dutch Wars; however, due to a lack of deep-water access and the difficulty of setting off from Harwich against an easterly wind, its usefulness was somewhat limited and its facilities remained small-scale compared to the other Royal Dockyards over the same period. [1] Nonetheless, it remained actively involved in repairing and refitting the nation's warships, as well as building them: of the eighty ships built for the Royal Navy in Britain between 1660 and 1688, fourteen were built at Harwich Dockyard. [2] (Naval vessels had occasionally been built at Harwich in earlier times, but by private shipbuilders on or around the Town Quay). [2]
After the Royal Navy withdrew from the yard in 1713, shipbuilding continued on the site under private ownership; over the course of the next century, through to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, just under forty more warships were built there. [2]
The present-day name for the site of the former Dockyard is 'Harwich Navyard'; [1] for the past 50 years it has been run as a commercial port, however in 2018 plans were announced for it to be transformed into space for more than 300 homes. [3]
During the Hundred Years' War, Harwich was an important assembly point for the Navy; in June 1340 King Edward III set sail for France from the mouth of the Orwell with a fleet of 200 ships, engaging the French fleet off the coast of Flanders in the Battle of Sluys. [2] In 1405 a fort was built on the promontory at the north-easternmost part of the town. Over the following century the fort fell into disrepair, but during the Commonwealth period, the government took out a 99-year lease on the parcel of land on which the fort had stood in order to establish a naval dockyard there. [2] The yard was praised by General Monck for its efficiency in fitting out the fleet. [2]
Following the Restoration, in 1660, the yard was run down and leased out to private ownership. [1] In 1664, however, the yard was taken back under Crown control: a new resident Commissioner (John Taylor) was appointed and Samuel Pepys, as Clerk of the Acts of the Navy, engaged his protégé Anthony Deane as Master Shipwright. The years of the Second Dutch War would prove to be the most prestigious for Harwich Dockyard (in terms of the volume and strategic importance of its activity). Not only was it kept busy repairing and refitting naval vessels on their way to and from the front line, but under Deane's skilled oversight it also began to be active in shipbuilding. Despite its relatively small size as a Royal Dockyard, Harwich developed a particular speciality for itself in constructing small and medium-sized fighting ships. [2] In 1668, however, after peace had been restored, the dockyard was again run down: its officers were reassigned (except for the Storekeeper, Silas Taylor, who was left more or less in sole charge). [4]
During the Third Dutch War, the Dockyard was again put to work, but by this time its front-line role had been eclipsed by the Navy's new East-Coast dockyard at Sheerness. Nevertheless, between 1673 and 1675 Anthony Deane (now a Commissioner of the Navy) built three more warships at Harwich Dockyard, this time as a private contractor; one of these, HMS Harwich, was considered by Pepys to be one of the finest vessels in the Navy. [2] Again, once peace had been re-established, the yard was wound down; by 1676 its storehouses had been given over to the Royal Fishery Company. The following year, however, a new Master Shipwright was appointed (Isaac Betts) and shipbuilding began again. [5]
In 1676, Silas Taylor (the aforementioned 'Keeper of the King's Stores at Harwich') wrote a description of the dockyard: it had wharves, built on reclaimed land, with strong cranes (one of which had been rendered unusable by the action of the tide depositing sand against the wharf). There was a 'Great Gate' over which were placed the Royal Arms, "carved and in colours", and above which (inside and outside) were the dials of an "excellent" pendulum clock, which struck the hours on a bell in a turret (which also served as a muster bell, rung at the start and end of the working day). Within the yard he noted that there were several storehouses, "launches" (slipways) for building and launching ships, and offices for the officers of the yard. [6]
Harwich ceased to operate as a Royal Dockyard in 1713, but was leased to a succession of private operators (including John Barnard, Messrs Barnard & Turner, and Joseph Graham) [7] under whom naval and commercial shipbuilding continued. The last Royal Navy vessel to be built at Harwich was HMS Scarborough in 1812; the last commercial vessels were ten steamers, built between 1825 and 1827. [2] The Navy maintained a small storage and refitting base on site until 1829. [8]
One unusual structure surviving from the dockyard is a very rare treadwheel crane of 1667, which was in use until the early twentieth century before being re-sited on Harwich Green in the 1930s. [9] The dockyard bell, dating from 1666, is preserved on the original site, which still operates as a commercial port (known as Navyard since 1964). [10]
During the First World War a flotilla, the Harwich Force, was based at the port. [11]
During the Second World War parts of Harwich were again requisitioned for naval use, and ships were based at HMS Badger, a shore establishment on the site of what is now Harwich International Port. Badger was decommissioned in 1946, but the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service maintained a headquarters on its site until 1992. [12]
The Master Shipwright was the key official at the royal navy dockyards until the introduction of resident commissioners by the Navy Board after which he became deputy to the resident commissioner.
Post holders included: [5] [14]
Post holders included:
Post holders included:
Post holders included: [15]
The first ship to be built at the dockyard following the Restoration was the eponymous HMS Harwich, a 5-gun hoy launched in 1660. Between 1660 and 1827 some 56 men-of-war were built there, including the following (a wooden board on the present-day Navyard gate gives a fuller list). [16]
Date | Ship | Notes | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
1666 | HMS Rupert | third rate, 66 guns. | [17] |
1667 | HMS Resolution | third rate, 70 guns. | [17] |
1673 | HMS Swiftsure | third rate, 70 guns. | [17] |
1674 | HMS Harwich | third rate, 70 guns. | [17] |
1675 | HMS Sapphire | fifth rate, 32 guns. | [17] |
1678 | HMS Restoration | third rate, 70 guns. | [17] |
1679 | HMS Breda | third rate, 70 guns. | [17] |
1679 | HMS Sandwich | second rate, 90 guns. | [17] |
1680 | HMS Albemarle | second rate, 90 guns. | [17] |
1694 | HMS Ipswich | third rate, 70 guns | [17] |
1696 | HMS Yarmouth | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1743 | HMS Harwich | fourth rate, 50 guns. | [17] |
1744 | HMS Colchester | fourth rate, 50 guns. | [17] |
1745 | HMS Eagle | fourth rate, 58 guns. | [17] |
1746 | HMS Lichfield | fourth rate, 50 guns. | [17] |
1747 | HMS Severn | fourth rate, 50 guns. | [17] |
1748 | HMS Seahorse | sixth rate, 24 guns. | [17] |
1757 | HMS Achilles | fourth rate, 60 guns. | [17] |
1758 | HMS Conqueror | third rate, 68 guns. | [17] |
1758 | HMS Alarm | fifth rate, 32 guns. | [17] |
1761 | HMS Arrogant | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1762 | HMS Terrible | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1764 | HMS Robust | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1773 | HMS Orpheus | fifth rate, 32 guns. | [17] |
1774 | HMS Centurion | fourth rate, 50 guns. | [17] |
1775 | HMS Sultan | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1777 | HMS Proserpine | sixth rate, 28 guns. | [17] |
1780 | HMS Inflexible | third rate, 64 guns. | [17] |
1782 | HMS Irresistible | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1785 | HMS Castor | fifth rate, 32 guns. | [17] |
1786 | HMS Hannibal | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1787 | HMS Excellent | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1794 | HMS Alcmene | fifth rate, 32 guns. | [17] |
1797 | HMS Ethalion | fifth rate, 38 guns. | [17] |
1797 | HMS Busy | brig-sloop, 18 guns. | [17] |
1801 | HMS Conqueror | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1810 | HMS Vengeur | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
1812 | HMS Scarborough | third rate, 74 guns. | [17] |
Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on-Sea to the south. It is the northernmost coastal town in Essex.
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich in north-west Kent, where many ships were built from the early 16th century until the late 19th century. William Camden called it 'the Mother Dock of all England'. By virtue of the size and quantity of vessels built there, Woolwich Dockyard is described as having been 'among the most important shipyards of seventeenth-century Europe'. During the Age of Sail, the yard continued to be used for shipbuilding and repair work more or less consistently; in the 1830s a specialist factory within the dockyard oversaw the introduction of steam power for ships of the Royal Navy. At its largest extent it filled a 56-acre site north of Woolwich Church Street, between Warspite Road and New Ferry Approach; 19th-century naval vessels were fast outgrowing the yard, however, and it eventually closed in 1869. The former dockyard area is now partly residential, partly industrial, with remnants of its historic past having been restored.
Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham.
Royal Charles was an 80-gun first-rate three-decker ship of the line of the English Navy. She was built by Peter Pett and launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1655, for the navy of the Commonwealth of England. She was originally called Naseby, named in honour of Sir Thomas Fairfax's decisive 1645 victory over the Royalist forces during the English Civil Wars. She was ordered in 1654 as one of a programme of four second rates, intended to carry 60 guns each. However, she was altered during construction to mount a complete battery of guns along the upper deck, and so was reclassed as a first rate.
HMS Royal Katherine was an 84-gun full-rigged second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1664 at Woolwich Dockyard. Her launching was conducted by Charles II and attended by Samuel Pepys. Royal Katherine fought in both the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars and afterwards, the War of the Grand Alliance before entering the dockyard at Portsmouth for rebuilding in 1702. In this rebuilding, she was upgraded to carry more guns, 90 in total, and served in the War of the Spanish Succession during which she was renamed Ramillies in honour of John Churchill's victory at the Battle of Ramillies. She was rebuilt again in 1742–3 before serving as the flagship of the ill-fated Admiral John Byng in the Seven Years' War. Ramillies was wrecked at Bolt Tail near Hope Cove on 15 February 1760.
Royal Navy 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.
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Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events and ships have been associated with it.
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HMS Truelove started her career as the Royalist 14-gun Katherine during the English Civil War. She was captured by the 'Irish Squadron' of the Parliamentary Forces in early 1647, then purchased for 75.1.02d and fitted for service at Bristol. She was commissioned in 1648, joined the Royalists then surrendered in November 1648 to Parliament. In the Commonwealth Navy she spent her time patrolling, as a guardship, moving troops. After the restoration of the monarchy, she was converted to a fireship and expended at the Battle of Texel in 1673.
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