Abstract
This attractive softcover book fills a niche in publications on Portsmouth Dockyard. It is a well-written and accessible book, aimed at a readership which knows little about the site’s history. It would complement a visit to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard perfectly, although it is too large to fit in a pocket, being 24.5 by 22.5cm to convey the marvellous photographs.
Although the book’s title begins at 1212, this serves merely as an appetiser. ‘Beginnings’ introduces maritime Portchester Castle and the Roman utilisation of Portsmouth Harbour from the third century AD. Richard and John’s first 1212 galley dock, now vanished, was eventually followed by Henry VII’s first durable Tudor drydock and Henry VIII’s expanded shipbuilding at Portsmouth, notably producing Mary Rose. Crucially, however, ‘Beginnings’ sets the scene for Portsmouth as a British naval base for 2,000 years and dockyard for 800 years.
The main body of the book covers the principal eras of Portsmouth Dockyard’s history, tracing chronological periods of high activity due to war until the twentieth century. This begins with seventeenth century investment by the republic, the restored monarchy and the post-1688 constitutional monarchy. Eschewing the recent scholarship of J. D. Davies, Brown advances a policymaking portrayal of Samuel Pepys as Navy Board Clerk of the Acts (secretary). He retells the familiar story of Dockyard Commissioner Thomas Middleton lodging in the overcrowded mayor’s house in 1665 and credits Pepys with authorising a new house in the dockyard, whereas he would have communicated a decision made by the whole Navy Board. The longest chapter, at 23 pages, is ‘The Georgian Dockyard’, but marginally more pages (90) cover the Victorian era to the end of the twentieth century than earlier chapters (80).
Five thematic chapters balance chronological chapters usefully, explaining the national structure of naval administration and the social life of the yard. ‘Discipline and Security’ traces the ‘abuse’ of chips, with management’s attempts to curtail this traditional perquisite leading to riots but does not question why the practice had developed and why it was so important to the workforce. In ‘Pay and Productivity’ Brown describes management attempts to increase productivity and compares efficiency and effectiveness. ‘Building a Ship-of-the-Line’ describes comprehensively the sourcing, cutting, and storing of timber, ship construction and evolution, fitting out and launching wooden ships. ‘The Royal Naval Academy’ critiques the historical portrayal of its pupils as undisciplined in relation to those attending eighteenth century public schools. ‘The Dockyard Apprentice’ details the evolution of training from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries and is the focus of the eponymous free exhibition.
Although Brown situates The Portsmouth Dockyard Story within national and international events, its focus is internal, making few comparisons with Portsmouth’s coeval yards of Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Harwich, Sheerness, Kinsale, Devonport, Pembroke Dock, Portland, and Rosyth. Interactions are described, however, for instance the movement of Admiralty Floating Dock 5 from Portsmouth to Invergordon in 1914, back to Portsmouth in 1919 and to Alexandria in 1939.
The Portsmouth Dockyard Story contains little new analysis and theory, but narrates many stories to a new audience, such as the visit of Czar Peter the Great to Portsmouth in 1698, the nuisance of hogs running free in the yard in the early eighteenth century, and the disguised female shipwright Mary Lacy. Navy Surveyor Edmund Dummer, who designed Portsmouth’s new docks in the 1690s, is introduced to a wider readership. It meticulously traces the development of the docks, basins, slips, storehouses, and workshops, as well as the chapel and officers’ houses. Consistent with the minimal analysis, there is no conclusion, the story ending with the conversion of the dockyard into a Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation in the 1980s and the separate development of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to the present day.
The Portsmouth Dockyard Story is more than a picture book aimed at the populist market. It addresses the main eras in a balanced way, enriching the story by its detail and accessible nuggets of information. It is well written and superbly illustrated (including 31 colour plates), with many images sourced from the collection of Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust. Textual sources comprise academic, recited anecdotal, and primary archival. It is well organised, including an index, and footers make it easy to locate endnotes. The Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust Support Group’s meticulously researched list of Portsmouth-built ships adds to a valuable appendix, supplying the most reliable list to date.