Portsmouth Dockyard Through Time
By Philip MacDougall
(Amberley, 96 pages, £14.99)
The first dockyard in Portsmouth was created in the reign of Richard I, but the modern site arose in the 1490s. Its history is fascinating, and MacDougall tackles a big subject in an engaging way. The Royal Navy’s oldest dockyard was responsible for building over 200 wooden warships during the age of sail, and for many iconic fighting vessels beyond that time including the ironclad HMS Dreadnought.
The author was given access to parts of the site not open to the public and took photos. These, and his collection of historical illustrations, are used to tell the dockyard’s story. Every page carries at least one illustration and the text explains the importance of the image. We learn, for example, about the working day for employees, visits from Queen Victoria and the assisted emigration of dockyard workers to Canada in 1869. There is little coverage of the dockyard in the world wars.
Those with ancestors who served in the Royal Navy, or worked as shipbuilders or dock workers, will enjoy this book, as will those interested in the Portsmouth area.