Building the Steam Navy

Book excerpt: By the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Royal Navy's shore-based facilities employed nearly 16,000 people in Great Britain and formed the greatest manufacturing complex in the world. This volume recounts the development of the dockyards and their infrastructure, logistics, and operations as the introduction of new technology forged a revolution in ship design and construction. It spans the construction of the first purpose-built workshops for maintenance and repair in 1830 to the symbolic end of the Victorian era in the Royal Navy with the completion of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. The book includes chapters on Woolwich and the first steam factory; iron construction; the technological edge; Greene, Scamp and the integrated factory; HMS Volcano and the development of mobile logistics; mechanization; building the first iron warships; and coaling the navy. Fully illustrated with plans, drawings, engravings, and maps, this comprehensive history is both an essential reference and fascinating reading.