The Royal Navy had a number of floating drydocks for the repair of warships where there was no fixed dry dock available. The docks did not receive a name and were known as "Admiralty Floating Dock" with a number. In size they went up to ones capable of lifting the largest Royal Navy battleships.
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AFD 5 and Crew 1950 (Photograph courtesy of the National Museum of Bermuda)
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved with original construction, dockyards are sometimes more linked with maintenance and basing activities. The terms are routinely used interchangeably, in part because the evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often caused them to change or merge roles.
A dry dock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, and repair of ships, boats, and other watercraft.
USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636), a James Madison-class fleet ballistic missile submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Major General Nathanael Greene (1746–1786), who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
RFA Arndale (A133) was a Dale-class fleet tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, originally one of six ships ordered by the British Tanker Company which were purchased on the stocks by the Admiralty. She was decommissioned on 12 August 1959 and was laid up at Rosyth.
Rosyth is a town on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440.
The seventh HMS Dreadnought was the United Kingdom's first nuclear-powered submarine, built by Vickers Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness. Launched by Queen Elizabeth II on Trafalgar Day 1960 and commissioned into service with the Royal Navy in April 1963, she continued in service until 1980. The submarine was powered by a S5W reactor, a design made available as a direct result of the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement.
Seven commissioned ships of the British Royal Navy have been named Bermuda and given the prefix HMS, after the British Overseas Territory and former Imperial fortress of Bermuda. Two other vessels operated by the Royal Navy that were not commissioned warships were also named Bermuda.
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.
The Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET) was the admiral responsible for the operations of the ships, submarines and aircraft of the British Royal Navy from 1971 until April 2012. The post was subordinate to the First Sea Lord, the professional head of the Naval Service. In its last years, as the Navy shrank, more administrative responsibilities were added.
His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is located on the eastern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, north of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. For centuries it was officially known as HM Dockyard, Portsmouth: as a Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth functioned primarily as a state-owned facility for building, repairing and maintaining warships; for a time it was the largest industrial site in the world.
HMD Bermuda was the principal base of the Royal Navy in the Western Atlantic between American independence and the Cold War. The Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda had occupied a useful position astride the homeward leg taken by many European vessels from the New World since before its settlement by England in 1609. French privateers may have used the islands as a staging place for operations against Spanish galleons in the 16th century. Bermudian privateers certainly played a role in many English and British wars following settlement, with its utility as a base for his privateers leading to the Earl of Warwick, the namesake of Warwick Parish, becoming the most important investor of the Somers Isles Company. Despite this, it was not until the loss of bases on most of the North American Atlantic seaboard threatened Britain's supremacy in the Western Atlantic that the island assumed great importance as a naval base. In 1818 the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda officially replaced the Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax, as the British headquarters for the North America Station (which would become the North America and West Indies Station after absorbing the Jamaica Station in 1830.
HMS Vixen was an armoured composite gunboat, the only ship of her class, and the third ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. She was the first Royal Navy vessel to have twin propellers.
MT Deerhound is a Dog-class medium berthing tugboat built for the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service (RMAS) in 1966 by Appledore Shipbuilders, Appledore, North Devon.
HMS Waveney was a Hawthorn Leslie-type River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1902–1903 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Waveney in eastern England, she was the first ship of the Royal Navy to carry this name.
HMS Boyne was a Hawthorn Leslie type River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1903 – 1904 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Boyne in Ireland, the site of a British military victory in 1689, she was the fifth ship to carry this name since it was introduced in 1692 for a two deck ship-of-the-line.
HMS Viper was an armoured iron gunboat, the only ship of her class, and the fourteenth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
HMS Advantage was a Favourite-class tugboat of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Built in the United States, she was transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease. Advantage served until the end of the war with the Royal Navy and was returned to the United States postwar. Sold to a Chinese merchant shipping company, she served successively as 109, Ming 309, and Kaoshiung until her 1965 scrapping.
An auxiliary floating drydock is a type of US Navy auxiliary floating dry dock. Floating dry docks are able to submerge underwater and to be placed under a ship in need of repair below the water line. Water is then pumped out of the floating dry dock, raising the ship out of the water. The ship becomes blocked on the deck of the floating dry dock for repair. Most floating dry docks have no engine and are towed by tugboats to their destinations. Floating dry docks come in different sizes to accommodate varying ship sizes, while large floating dry docks come in sections and can be combined to increase their size and lift power. Ballast pontoon tanks are flooded with water to submerge or pumped dry to raise the ship.
HMS Weston was a Shoreham-class sloop of the British Royal Navy. Weston was built at Devonport Dockyard in 1931–1933.