Royal Dockyards

Government-owned shipyards where the Royal Navy built, repaired, refitted, and maintained its ships, as well as storing naval equipment and supplies. The principal British dockyards in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included Chatham, Devonport, Portsmouth, and Sheerness, with others established or developed as naval requirements changed. They were major centres of employment and industrial activity, employing large numbers of skilled craftsmen, labourers, naval personnel, and administrators.