Structures, Communities and Re-use: Transactions of The Naval Dockyards Society Volume 3

by Ray Riley

This volume contains Naval Dockyard Society conference proceedings for 2001, 2002 and 2003. The themes of these conferences were technology (2001), employment (2002) and conservation (2003).For some, new technologies are the start point of naval dockyard history, for without innovation both vessels and dockyards would become increasingly ineffective. However, innovation requires funding, and funding is dependent on government foreign policv and views on the defence of the realm. The phrase 'enabling technology' better encapsulates the way in which innovation is essentially part of the politico-economic framework, rather than a stand-alone paradigm. The interrelationship between technology, cost and politics is well exemplified in Randolph Cock's examination of the evolution of methods used to defend ships against the worm, active in warm waters. HMS Dreadnought is inextricably linked with rearmament against the German threat, but Roger Thomas asks whether the innovation involved in its construction was evolutionary rather than novel. He also demonstrates the complex issues involved in the changes in big ship gunnery, not least flawed decision making. Ray Riley argues that it was the demand for quality iron by dockyards that gave rise to the development of wrought iron, the basic metal of the industrial revolution by the private sector. Inevitably during the nineteenth century wrought iron was much used in both ships and dockyard buildings, as Malcolm Tucker illustrates for Pembroke Dock. His paper was not presented at conference, but was subsequently submitted for publication.The manufacture of cotton in Britain is widely supposed to be the first industry organised on a factory basis, but not only did naval dockyards pre-date cotton mills by a comfortable margin, but also their size was very much larger, even in the heyday of the latter at the end of the nineteenth century. Perhaps because of the sheer numbers employed in the dockyards it not entirely surprising that new methods of labour organisation were applied therein. Roger Morriss considers the application of the principle of individual responsibility, developed by Samuel Bentham, to replace the culture of distrust. He suggests that the notion was of no little importance to British culture as a whole. The overriding significance of politics in the fortunes of naval dockyards may well be common knowledge, but the complexity of the decision-making process is less so. Emma Taaffe charts the labyrinthine nature of the decisions which led to the construction of nuclear submarines at Chatham, while Philip MacDougall relates the rise and fall of the various Mediterranean yards constructed to support the endeavours of the Knights of St John. Decisions are also the concern of Peter Dawson comments on correspondence received by Chatham officers, and illustrates the characteristics of the language employed in the early eighteenth century.The introduction of ballistic missiles has reduced the need for large navies, and concomitantly for extensive dockyards and victualling yards. As a consequence, a good number of architecturally important buildings have become surplus to requirements. Celia Clark offers an international perspective, examining the uses to which yards in Europe and the USA have been put, while noting that there have been some losses. Three papers provide contrasting Ian Dou Il outlines the problems besetting the Canadian base at Esquimalt, British Colombia; Andrea Parsons reports on the archaeological survey undertaken at Royal Clarence Yard, Gosport, before conversion to residential use; and Chris Mazeika deals with the sad fortunes of the remnants of the Great Storehouse at Deptford, almost certainly the earliest royal dockyard structure on Britain.

136 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 13, 2020