Portsmouth (naval base)
The Naval Base Portsmouth (officially Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth ) is the largest base of the British Royal Navy . It is located in the west of the city of Portsmouth in Hampshire on the Portsea Island peninsula . British sailors nicknamed both the city and the naval base Pompey . The origin of the nickname is said to lie in the originally French name for Pompiers fire department .
history
In 1194, by order of King Richard I, the first dock was built in Portsmouth and 20 years later it was surrounded by a wall for protection. In 1495 a dry dock was established in Portsmouth . With the Mary Rose , the first ship of the British Navy designed from the start as a warship was finally put into service in Portsmouth in 1510. At the beginning of the 18th century, the protective wall around the base was completely renewed and expanded into a fortification. In 1733 the Portsmouth Naval Academy was opened, where officers of the Royal Navy are trained to this day. The Semaphore Tower , built in 1824 and the building of the command post of the base, is still in use today. In the middle of the 19th century, the base with the associated shipyards covered an area of four square kilometers , making it the largest industrial site in the world. At the same time, two round forts were built in the port entrance of Portsmouth to protect the naval base from the intrusion of enemy ships.
On February 10, 1906, the HMS Dreadnought , the world's first modern battleship , was launched in Portsmouth after just 366 days of construction. Seven years later, the first super dreadnought HMS Queen Elizabeth followed , the first battleship whose steam boiler was fueled with oil. Portsmouth played a crucial role in both world wars . In addition to Scapa Flow, the base was the central base of the Royal Navy in combating the German Navy . It was also the main point of departure for the Normandy landing . After the end of the Second World War , Portsmouth remained the most important base of the Royal Navy, even if the number of ships stationed there has been significantly reduced as part of the downsizing of the fleet since the 1950s. This downsizing also reduced the need for newbuildings and ushered in a shipyard crisis in the UK. On May 24, 1967, the frigate HMS Andromeda was launched as the last warship built in Portsmouth.
today
Portsmouth is now the main base of the British Navy. A total of 27 warships are stationed there. 17,200 military and civilian employees work at the base today. In addition, Portsmouth houses the Royal Navy headquarters , several training centers and the largest warehouse for equipment and supplies for the British armed forces. Attached to the base is the Royal Naval Museum , the largest naval museum in Europe. This includes the HMS Warrior , the first ocean-going warship with an iron hull, the Mary Rose and the HMS Victory . Although it can be viewed as a museum ship, it is still officially in service as the flagship of the Royal Navy, making it the oldest active warship in the world.
future
During 2006, the Ministry of Defense leaked information to the press that the Royal Navy would be downsized by 2015 much more than officially planned. In December 2006, the Department of Defense confirmed to the Times that it was considering closing the Portsmouth naval base over the next decade and focusing the fleet on Faslane and Devonport .
In the course of these considerations, the expansion of the dock facilities and the deepening of the fairway, which would be necessary for the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers , were temporarily suspended. In July 2007, however, the Ministry of Defense announced that the base would continue to be operated and that the corresponding renovation measures would now be continued.
Another positive development is the return of shipbuilding to Portsmouth. Since 2004 builds Vosper Thornycroft in a newly built shipyard here Bugsektionen of the Daring class destroyers. The first complete ship to be launched in Portsmouth after a break of almost 40 years was the corvette HMS Clyde on June 14, 2006.
Fleet (Portsmouth Flotilla)
- 6 missile destroyers of the Daring class
- 6 Frigate the Duke class
- 8 minesweepers of the Hunt class
- 4 offshore patrol boats of the River class
- 3 Archer class patrol boats
- Training ship HMS Bristol
- HMS Victory
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kemp, Peter (ed.): The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea . 1st edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1976, ISBN 0-19-211553-7 .
Web links
- Naval Base Portsmouth website (English)
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 10 ″ N , 1 ° 6 ′ 40 ″ W.