The French dockyard of Cherbourg as described in the Army and Navy Chronicle of 13 September 1838 Part III

In the Army and Navy Chronicle was a quite description dealing with the French dockyard at Cherbourg published. In France were several naval bases equipped with yard facilities. This sort of descriptions are quite useful if we want to compare the dock yard facilities available for the European, African and North American navies. (1)

P. 164: “Within the narrow spare of a work of this kind it is impossible to give a detailed account of the various buildings and apparatus of the yard. The most prominent and essential have been mentioned. The number of men employed are at this time 1,500, extending to 2,000 on any particular occasion. All the builders and men of trades permanently attached to the yard were of very respectable demeanor, and well dressed in blue jackets and trousers and glazed hats. At noon they have an hour and a quarter to dinner, when the bell rings, as with us and they are mustered in again ; leaving for the day at the hours of four, live, or seven, according to the season. The whole are well superintended in every department by petty officers, under the capitaine du port, lieutenants, and other officers, who go round the yard at intervals, keeping an eye generally on every thing. The ships in ordinary in the inner basin are chained by the bow and quarter clear of the sides of the dock, with a gangway plank on board. Line-of-battle ships have three, and frigates two quartermasters in charge; no one allowed to go on board without a written permit from the captain-superintendent. The meals of the men and others who remain permanently in the yard are brought them, or they relieve each other when they go to their homes in the town for an hour or two, as nobody has any residence in the yard - hardly excepting any of the clerks in the superintendent's office - certainly no family whatever. In a word, the whole regulations and economy of the details of the yard are extremely strict and well arranged : in no department is (here the least slovenliness, or waste, or idleness observable. Going round immediately after the men disperse to their various employs over the yard, they are all seen instantly at work with an earnest good-will and steadiness that speaks volumes for the excellence of the general superintendence. There are, besides the chief builder, two or three assistant builders, and five or six elèves studying their profession. Cherbourg has always been famous for turning out the most beautiful ships and many of their best sailers. If one may judge from the line of battle ships and frigates now here afloat and on the stocks, their reputation is well deserved; but independent of this the town abounds with good shipbuilders - men capable of laying down and running up from the keel very fine models, who, nevertheless, are mere workmen, axe in hand, and whose wages, when building merchantmen or any of their small craft at the held of the merchant basin, where there is a great deal going on in building and repairing,) seldom amounts to more than from 2s. to 2s6d. a day. The average for building a merchantman of oak it this port is 140ff to 160f.. per ton, every way solidly put out of hand, without being coppered or copper-fastened. At Jersey, with greater advantages, or at least equal, as to materials, the charge is about 9l.per ton. Even at this rate, English merchants find it their interest to give orders for some of their ships, but the French, after all, have the advantage of superior construction. At all the great naval establishment of France, the towns where the dockyards are situated, without reference to their size or  population, or their consequence in the department, are only allowed to be sous prefectures, Toulon is the only exception to this rule, if there is my exception in the live great ports as there is a prefect maritime at each station, answering not only to our Port Admiral, but with more extended powers in the place itself. As with us, there is a guard-ship - generally a sloop of war - without any officers on board more than her bare complement. the guardship in the roads is commanded by a Lieutenant de Vaisseau (a commander,) who is, in fact, flag captain, and she is manned and ready for sea ; but at other ports the flagship (which has no admiral’s flag flying)in mere covered-in hulk, with a corps de garde and clerk’s offices, (as Brest and l‘Orient.) The Admiral’s office is that of the Major du Port; a Capitaine de Vaisseau of the first class presides with a captain and commander under him, for the general routine of duty, issuing orders afloat, and visiting the dockyard. &c., with the general superintendence and charge of all government works on shore or afloat. This plan very much simplifies complicated duties and undertakings. By being under one head there is a proper care and proper responsibility, without that constant clashing of interests and petty jealousy of personal influence at the Admiralty, which is soon felt, in a proportionate carelessness, down to the most insignificant workman, and seen plain enough in the different things going on. By this method, too, the Minister of Marine, or First Lord, is sure of what is going on, and the co-operation of all the subordinate authorities, such as the Mayor, (the sous Prefect, the Captain Superintendent, etc., are issued, as a matter of course, without hesitation, reference, or delay, of any sort; the whole energy of the town, nay the department, may be brought in a few hours, on any emergency, to the aid of the local government at one point. The only question to consider al the fountain head, would be the additional expense.”

Source

The Army and Navy Chronicle. Vol VI. New Series. 1 January-30 June 1838. Edition Thursday 13 September 1838, no. 193. Washington, 1838. Digitized by Google.

Note

1. See on this weblog for instance the notes dealing with the facilities in the United States, Great Britain, Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium.