Qualla: HMNB Portsmouth

HMNB Portsmouth: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Barry Skeates from newbury, UK, CC BY 2.0. Richard the Lionheart ordered the first dock at Portsmouth in 1194, on his way out to a French campaign. Eight hundred and thirty years later, the same patch of water on the eastern shore of Portsmouth Harbour is still building, repairing, and basing warships - the same activity, on the same coordinates, with most of the names of the streets in between unchanged. It is the oldest naval base in the Royal Navy. By 1800 it was the largest industrial complex in the world. Today, two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, every Type 23 frigate still in service, and a flotilla of patrol vessels call HMNB Portsmouth home.

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Image: Barry Skeates from newbury, UK | CC BY 2.0

HMNB Portsmouth: Henry VII's Dry Dock

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0. The first recorded dry dock in the world was built at Portsmouth in 1495, on Henry VII's orders. It was, on this single piece of evidence alone, the most innovative piece of marine engineering anywhere on the planet. Then came the Mary Rose in 1509 and the Peter Pomegranate in 15...

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Image: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK | CC BY 2.0

HMNB Portsmouth: Dummer's Great Stone Dock

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. By 1689, France was again a serious threat, and Parliament ordered a new dry dock at Portsmouth large enough for first-rate ships of the line. Edmund Dummer, surveyor to the Navy Board, drew the Great Stone Dock - the first stepped masonry dry dock in England, with brick and ston...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

HMNB Portsmouth: Steam Power and Block Mills

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer: User:Ballista (original: Image:HMSVictory.jpg Modified by User:Pline), CC BY-SA 3.0. Samuel Bentham arrived in 1796 as Inspector General of Naval Works with a brief to drag the dockyards into the modern world. He installed the first steam engine ever used in a Royal Naval Yard in 1799 - a table engine designed by his staff chemist, James Sadler. He invented the i...

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Image: Photographer: User:Ballista (original: Image:HMSVictory.jpg Modified by User:Pline) | CC BY-SA 3.0

HMNB Portsmouth: HMS Victory in Stone

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Surgeon Oscar Parkes, Public domain. Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar - launched in 1765, fought at Cape St Vincent in 1797, Trafalgar in 1805, and Baltic actions thereafter - was brought into Portsmouth's No 2 Dry Dock in 1922 and has never left. She has been continuously commissioned since 1778, making her the oldes...

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Image: Surgeon Oscar Parkes | Public domain

HMNB Portsmouth: Two World Wars

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Jones, CC BY 2.0. HMS Dreadnought - the battleship that gave its name to the entire class and made every other capital ship in the world obsolete - was built at Portsmouth in 1905-06, completed in one day more than a year. More dreadnoughts followed: Bellerophon in 1907, Iron Duke in 1912, Queen E...

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Image: David Jones | CC BY 2.0

HMNB Portsmouth: Carriers in Portsmouth

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0. Shipbuilding came back to Portsmouth in 2003 when VT Group put up a new yard on the site of No 13 dry dock. Modules for the Type 45 destroyers and the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers were assembled here under BAE Systems Maritime - Naval Ships - until 2014, when the work ...

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Image: Christine Matthews | CC BY-SA 2.0