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The dockyard—precursor to today’s naval base—has a
When British seamen established a dockyard at Portsmouth in southern England, Columbus was making his second expedition to the Western Hemisphere, and the American War of Independence was 280 years in the future. Now Her Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth is as important today to the defense of Britain as when Henry VII ordered its construction in 1495.
“Pompey,” as generations of Royal Navy sailors have called it, is adjacent to a spacious deep-water harbor adjoining the city of Portsmouth. Portsmouth Harbour opens onto the Solent, a channel between the coast and the nearby Isle
Since Henry VII ordered its construction in 1495, Portsmouth Harbour (above) has evolved into a busy hybrid of high-technology naval facilities and a priceless museum of British seafaring. Britain built Spitbank Fort (inset) one mile outside of the harbor to discourage the French from invading in the late 1800s. Portsmouth is also home to Lord Nelson’s ship Victory (right).
of Wight, beyond which lies the broad expanse of the Engl'5 Channel. Portsmouth Harbour is the third busiest in the United Kingdom, with about 60,000 ship movements in and out per year.
In addition to the naval base, the Royal Navy maintains other operational and training facilities around Portsmouth Harbour and the Solent—a complex as critical to the Roy31 Navy and British defense as San Diego or Norfolk is to u'6 U. S. Navy and the United States.
The base is a fascinating blend of an enormous museum and modem industry serving a high-technology sea service-
Some 36 combat ships, including all three of the Royal Navy’s Invincible-class antisubmarine carriers (HMS -n ble, HMS Illustrious, and HMS Ark Royal), and half the n in the Royal Navy operate from Portsmouth and the surrou ing area. Many of the 27 ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiha0 also sail from here.
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remarkable history spanning the entire life of the Royal
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commissioned, and are, in fact, “fleet chief petty officers,” roughly equivalent to a U. S. Navy master chief petty officer. There is, however, a significant increase in prestige, and certainly enhanced living conditions for warrants in the larger ships.
If Phillips is not promoted to warrant officer, and decides to leave the service, he will take with him a one-time £17,000 gratuity and a monthly pension of about £320. The job market for people with his skills is excellent, especially overseas. “But as long as the job is interesting and challenging, I’ll stay,” he said.
Many of those intending to be career officers today in the Royal Navy have academically qualified for civilian university, and join at 18 or 19 after passing navy entrance examinations. They attend the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth for two four-m° terms, the last mostly at sea in the Dartmouth training ship, where they spend much of their time doing the jobs they will demand of navy rat- ^ ings—scrubbing decks, maintaining hull, and working in the galley. Th ] then spend another ten months as hj . shipmen at sea in ships across the working in every department.
Midshipmen who pass a rigorous
Proceedings / Ju°e
l5tL^ England’s first drydock, serving from the turn of the •o iciCentUry until 1623, and a shipbuilding yard from 1650 ‘"68.
Jn February 1906, HMS Dreadnought, a battleship type
„ction;
The Royal Navy Museum is here, as well as a host
|au ^ for making all others of her day obsolete, was her t Sc* 'n Portsmouth only five months after builders laid (lUr. eef Portsmouth built eight more battleships before and 'n8 World War I and did refits on some 2,000 vessels, paring wor]<_i War II, the dockyard employed some 23,000 that anc* was a v'ta' marshal ling point for the huge forces Ija? Cr°Ssed the English Channel for the D-Day invasion of pt'Occupied Normandy.
r prtsmouth houses some astonishing nautical museum col- >0a ^er historic buildings and ships. About 400,000 people a /\(j Vls'l to examine, among other things, HMS Victory,
1S( ‘ral Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in and the warship Mary Rose, built in 1510 during the
early reign of Henry VIII (and one of the most remarkable archaeological nautical finds of recent times).
As in the days of sail, the function of the naval base is to support the fleet. But there simply is not as much money in the defense purse as there once was. In 1981, a British government defense review restructured Portsmouth into a fleet maintenance and repair organization (FMRO) under the aegis of Flag Officer, Portsmouth, and ultimately responsible to Commander-in-Chief, Fleet. This radically altered the base’s organization and mission. Where the dockyard once employed 7.000 workers, only 2,800 workers now pass through the base’s venerable Victory and Unicom gates to jobs. The naval base performs only one major frigate refit a year, and a working arrangement very unusual in Britain has evolved between the civilian trade unions and the Ministry of Defence.
Under the old organization, the civilian managers and laborers worked on the ships, while naval personnel acted as agents for the Commander-in-Chief, Fleet. Civilians and navy viewed each other as “them and us,” and the yard sometimes failed to complete its work on time.
Now, 500 Royal Navy personnel work alongside the civilian employees. Many of these sailors are on shore duty “between ships.” The unusual thing in this union-conscious society is that civilians and navy men do the yard’s work interchangeably. They even swap jobs among the various trades—a practice that British trade unions would have regarded as heretical not very long ago.
FMRO has one ship in hand for long-term availability at any one time, and these major overhauls last as long as 18 months. Two-thirds of FMRO’s responsibility is short-term work of 12 weeks or less. Basically, Portsmouth FMRO is the “pit stop,” while the other two Royal Navy shipyards, Devonport and Rosyth, perform most of the major overhauls.
Her Majesty’s Naval Base in Portsmouth is undergoing one other major change. Curiously, this could make it one of the most visited tourist attractions in the United Kingdom.
Through an agreement among the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Defence, several historical trusts, and commercial developers, the newly organized Portsmouth Naval Heritage Project is transforming part of the base into a visitors’ theme park, with the theme being the history of the Royal Navy. Organiz- ’ ers will tie the historical ships, the splendid Royal Navy Museum, and a collection of industrial buildings and residences into a park they hope will attract one to two million visitors a year.
At the same time, Portsmouth Naval Base will continue to operate—secure and unimpaired—tending to the needs of Her Majesty’s ships as it has for hundreds of years.
William M. Powers
bin-
Vg; lnat‘on become sublieutenants and trijjrj sPecialized training as seamen, engne engineers, or supply or weapon serv .er officers. Officers can also bfaln the submarine and fleet air arm u "es and in many subspecialties, ratjn°^a| Navy training for officers and engi8s *s extensive and intense. Marine thre6ers> f°r example, complete a CoUr^ear degree course. Some 3,000 Ses are administered by the Royal
““dings / June 1988
Navy at a cost of approximately £160 million annually.
“General list” career officers can expect to become lieutenants at age 22 or 23, and must spend eight years in rank. Promotion to lieutenant commander is automatic; promotion to commander and above is by selection, and selection boards sit every six months. About 50% of Royal Navy commanders attain the rank of captain.
With rare exceptions, selection boards do not tap a man for rear admiral until he has eight-and-a-half years seniority as captain. A captain cannot serve longer than nine years in that rank and must then retire. Talented career officers in the U. S. and Royal navies can achieve flag rank at approximately the same age.
Lieutenant commanders reach mandatory retirement age (with pension) at
55