Thanks to the fact that nowadays more and more books are digitized we are able to read books that are some times for decades no longer available for the public for several reasons. That's quite a pity while these books contains useful information while the archives are destroyed, incomplete or nor accessible.
P. 7: “The Dockyard, which extends over 90 acres, was commenced in the reign of Elizabeth, and its importance has arisen from its convenient position for the site of a Naval Arsenal on the banks of one of the deepest rivers in Europe, considering the shortness of its course. James I. had the present Dock made, which was enlarged by Charles I., and further improved in the time of Charles II. It is surrounded by a high wall; the entrance being a gateway, flanked by embattled towers. The houses of the principal Officers are handsomely built, and commodiously arranged. The extensive Storehouses, one of which is 660 feet in length, contain immense
P. 8: quantities of every essential for naval equipment; so arranged that even a first-rate can be fully equipped in a few days. The Mast-house is 240 feet long, and 120 feet wide; and there are capacious Basins, with floating mast timber. In the Rope-house, 11,000 feet long, enormous cables are twisted by powerful machinery; and in the Smith's shop, which contains 40 forges, every article necessary for ship building, from the smallest bolt to an anchor of five tons in weight, is made. A duplicate of the Block-making machine is kept here ready for use, in case of necessity. The Saw Mills, erected upon a most extensive scale under Sir I. Brunel, cost £ 57,000. The sawing room, 90 feet square, contains eight fixed saw frames, each capable of carrying from one to thirty saws; and two circular saw benches with machinery for supplying them with wood ; the whole being set in motion by a steam-engine, which produces 80 strokes of the saw per minute. The Wet Docks are four in number, sufficiently capacious for first-rate men-of-war, with a Store Dock constructed on a larger scale, and six slips for building and repairing ships of the largest dimensions. The wood is floated into the yard by a canal, which passes under a tunnel 300 feet long into an elliptic basin of immense depth, whence it is raised by machinery. On the Ordnance Wharf the guns of each ship are laid up in tiers, with the weight of metal and name of the ship marked on them. The number of workmen employed in this Yard often exceeds 3000, and the amount of wages voted for them in 1853 was £ 87,992, with the additional amount of £ 22,915 for salaries, &c, and a further sum of £ 28,977 for alterations, repairs, and improvements. Under an Act, passed in 1758, ground was purchased for the erection of works to protect Chatham ; and those extensive, complete, and regular fortifications called the Lines, were in consequence constructed. It was in this Dockyard that Sir R. Seppings first put in practice his improvements in ship building, to attain which
P. 9: object he had to triumph over those numerous and venerable axioms consecrated by the pride and ignorance of our ancestors, and preserved religiously by the self-love of their descendants. Dupin, sur la Marine dAngleterre.’”
Source
Dockyard Politics and Patronage: a collection of memoranda to assist future enquiries. London, 1854.
