Royal Navy bases in England: Royal Navy bases in Hampshire, Royal Navy dockyards in England, Sheerness, Chatham Dockyard, HMNB Portsmouth, HMS Ganges, Convoys Wharf, HMNB Devonport, HMS President, HMS Vernon, Submarine Escape Training Tower, HMS Forward,

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 38. Chapters: Royal Navy bases in Hampshire, Royal Navy dockyards in England, Sheerness, Chatham Dockyard, HMNB Portsmouth, HMS Ganges, Convoys Wharf, HMNB Devonport, HMS President, HMS Vernon, Submarine Escape Training Tower, HMS Forward, HMS Standard, HMS Mercury, HMS Excellent, HMS King Alfred, HMS Royal Arthur, HMS Badger, HM Fort Roughs, HMS Imperieuse, HMS Daedalus II, HMS Raleigh, HMS Calliope, Woolwich Dockyard, HMS Cricket, HMS St Vincent, HMS Abatos, HMS Collingwood, HMS Ferret, Amport House, Brunswick Dock, HMS Sultan, HMS Forest Moor, HMS Cambridge, HMS Dryad, HMS Flycatcher, Holton Heath. Excerpt: Sheerness (pronounced ) is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island. Sheerness began as a fort built in the 16th century to protect the River Medway from naval invasion. In 1665, plans were first laid by the Navy Board for a Royal Navy dockyard where warships might be provisioned and repaired, a site favored by Samuel Pepys, then Clerk of the Acts of the navy, for shipbuilding over Chatham. After the raid on the Medway in 1667, the older fortification was strengthened; in 1669 was established the Royal Navy dockyard the town, where warships were stocked and repaired until its closure in 1960. Beginning with the construction of a pier and a promenade in the 19th century, Sheerness acquired the added attractions of a seaside resort. Industry retains its important place in the town and the port of Sheerness is one of the United Kingdom's leading car and fresh produce importers. The town is the site of one of the UK's first co-operative societies and also of the world's first multi-storey building with a rigid metal frame. The first structure in what is now Sheerness was a fort built by order of Henry VIII to prevent enemy ships from entering the River Medway and attacking the naval dockyard at Chatham. In 1666 work began to replace it with a stronger fort. However, before its completion, this second fort was destroyed during the 1667 Dutch raid on the Medway. The Secretary of the Admiralty, Samuel Pepys, subsequently ordered the construction of a naval dockyard at Sheerness as an extension to that at Chatham, where naval ships would be maintained and repaired. Low quality housing and the poor water supply near the dockyard led to a lack of workers and caused construction delays, and the first dry-dock was not completed until 1708. Using materials they were allowed to take from the yard, dockyard construction workers built t