Invention and Engineering
HMNB Devonport
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is the largest naval base in Western Europe, and one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. It is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, England. The base began as a Royal Navy Dockyard in the late 17th century, designed and built on open ground by Edmund Dummer as an integrated facility for the repair and maintenance of warships, centred on his pioneering stone dry dock (one of the earliest stepped docks in the world). Over the next two centuries it expanded, reaching its present extent in the 20th century. Historically, the yard was also used for shipbuilding: over 300 naval vessels were built there, the last being HMS Scylla (launched in 1968). The yard was known as HM Dockyard, Plymouth until 1843, when it was renamed HM Dockyard, Devonport. (In the late 20th century, here as elsewhere, the term 'Naval Base' replaced 'Dockyard' in the official naval designation.) HMNB Devonport served as the home port of the Devonport Flotilla until it was merged into the Surface Flotilla. Commander Fleet Operational Sea Training, the training hub of the front-line Fleet, is also based there, as is the Royal Navy's Amphibious Centre of Excellence (at RM Tamar). Although shipbuilding ceased at Devonport in the late 1960s, ship repair and maintenance work has continued; the now privatised maintenance facilities are operated under the name Devonport Royal Dockyard by Babcock International Group, which took over the previous owner Devonport Management Limited (DML) in 2007 (DML had been running the Dockyard since privatisation in 1987). Babcock owns around a third of the overall area of the base (having been sold the freehold in 2011). Accommodation and support services are provided within the base for naval personnel. The Royal Naval Barracks, dating from 1889, were first commissioned as HMS Vivid, before being renamed HMS Drake in 1934. Since the early 21st century the name HMS Drake (and its command structure) has been extended to cover the entire Naval Base, while HMS Vivid is Plymouth's Royal Naval Reserve unit (which has its headquarters within the base).
Also on this shelf
Bowes Railway.
Glasses.
See also
Uncatalogued shelfText from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.