Chatham Dockyard - Half a millennium of supporting the Royal Navy
- Thread starter Nauti Fox
- Start date
oldgit
Well-Known Member
Took the grandkids to Greenwich Maritime Museum yesterday (its free) we had look at Nelsons unifrom with the musket ball hole .
Course HMS Victory was launched and fitted out at Chatham and Nelson joined his first ship there as well .
His "young lady " had digs in Queenborough and his pursor, Walter Burke, who held Nelson in his arms , is buried in Wouldham churchyard.
How the hell Portmouth muscled in on the act is a mystery !
HMS Victory belongs in Chatham not some dump like Portsmouth even their museum sub was not built there, it was built in Barrow in Furness.
Course HMS Victory was launched and fitted out at Chatham and Nelson joined his first ship there as well .
His "young lady " had digs in Queenborough and his pursor, Walter Burke, who held Nelson in his arms , is buried in Wouldham churchyard.
How the hell Portmouth muscled in on the act is a mystery !
HMS Victory belongs in Chatham not some dump like Portsmouth even their museum sub was not built there, it was built in Barrow in Furness.
Capt Popeye
Well-Known Member
Well when I lived in medway many many moons ago, I learnt that actually the main Naval Dockyard on the Medway was actually Gillinham Dockyard , the Chathan one came along later on . Its all in the Rochester Museum displays , some of which I designed/built moons ago .
oldgit
Well-Known Member
Thats interesting, wonder if they are still on display ?
Old maps suggest that one of the oldest the oldest bits of the dockyard was in what is now called Chatham Bight.
Do know that ships were constructed of the foreshore there.
"By 1570 dockyard facilities had been constructed below Chatham Church (close to the present day Chatham Waterfront Bus Station) with a wharf, storehouses and slipway. The first warship known to have been built at the new yard was the Merlin, a pinnace of ten guns, launched in 1579".
Greg2
Well-Known Member
But the main base for conventional boats was HMS Dolphin, which is close by and nothing was based in Barrow. ?
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Concerto
Well-Known Member
After Trafalgar in 1803 and Victory finally returned to Portsmouth she had a variety of minor roles until 1824 when she bacame the Port Admiral's Flagship. In 1831 the order was given to breakup Victory. This caused a public outroar and she was left to rot. She sank in 1854 and was raised, and had a massive leak in 1887 but was save from sinking again. It was not until 1922 was she was moved into dry dock due to her condition. The survey confirmed Victory could not be moved and has stayed there ever since. Hence, why she is in Portsmouth.
If you want the full story then Wikipedia is worth reading.
HMS Victory - Wikipedia
oldgit
Well-Known Member
Thanks. Most interesting .
There is the base of a mast in the museum with large cannon ball firmly embedded in it.
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tony_lavelle
Well-Known Member
HMS Ocelot (the museum sub at Chatham Historic Dockyard) is in Dock 2, where HMS Victory was built. Ocelot was the last ship built at Chatham for the Royal Navy, in 1962 if I remember correctly.
sailorman
Well-Known Member
It's well worth a visit. I made some rope there with 2 other chaps we were presented with a third of what we had manufactured. The lady running the demo was brillisnt
Greg2
Well-Known Member
We visited Chatham by boat many moons ago and paid the Historic Dockyard a visit and thoroughly enjoyed it. I served in the RN as a seaman so it was all of great interest to me and Ocelot was in service during my time so it was fascinating to have a look round her - I was never a submariner and our visit reminded me why!
Capt Popeye
Well-Known Member
Yes I was never involved in the Historic Dockyard attractions ; Rochester Museum and Dickens yes , but design n build of displays was my main trade /occupation whilst Self Employed moons ago ; so when I was on an explanatory trade secret visit (to see what the opporsition were up to) I was astounded when one of the Exhibition Custodians asked me if I knew why a particular life size Models Display was inaccurate ; it all looked most proffesional to me , the Custodian then pointed out that the accompanying Audio recorded script had a distinctive South West dialouge to it , which clearly was innacurate , as the Gillinham and Chatham Dockyards were mainly staffed by East Londoners , being moved down along the Thames as the need for deeper water amoungst other matters was required ; the Thames up river becomming unsuitable for the Larger Navy Ships requireds . It was also nec essary to move the Shiobuilding Yards further and further down the Thames , as it was the custom that following a Gunpowder explosion in a yard , a regular occurance it appears , the new built yard was buil;t on new marshlands along the river banks ; my last known records of New Gunpowder Factories being built is on the Thames Marshes near Bexleyheath ; ; there was a new Houising Development there some few years ago
As a Fred Drift ere ; the local dialouge / accent is clearly from East London areas not the Local Farming communities that are around the Medway Towns ; if one travells to say Sittingbourne , about 8 miles away , the dialouge is very noticeably different , the people sweeter , kinder , more open that the Medway Towns where Chatham and Gillingham are