The Royal Naval Dockyard holds wonderful childhood memories for me.
My father and two uncles worked there during WWII. Because of the uncertainty of the times, Dad decided that Mom and I should live with my grandparents. My uncles lived at Dockyard. I loved going there because it was like going to another country. The buildings were made so unlike our Bermuda ones and they spoke with very English accents which fascinated me. One uncle lived on Albert Row and had many birds. I loved hearing them talk and whistle. My parents let me stay with them often and I fondly remember in the evenings we would walk north of the house and fish off the rocks.
The British Royal Navy established the Royal Naval Dockyard after defeat in the American War of Independence left Britain without a secure operational base between Halifax, Nova Scotia and the West Indies. Because of its location, it became a reliable port for the Navy's fleet with a dockyard, victualling yard and ordnance deport to maintain the ships.
The Royal Navy purchased 200 acres on Ireland Island and in 1809 work began on the North America and West Indies Station, as the base became known, and continued into the early 20th Century. It was a huge project involving large land reclamations and the labor of thousands of convicts from Britain who were housed in appalling conditions aboard rotting hulks of former naval fighting ships.
This acquisition gave the island a huge boost economically. It employed over 1,000 Bermudians which afforded them first-rate training in plumbing, carpentry and other trades.
It was from Dockyard in the summer of 1814 that a British force of 5,000 troops and Royal Marines set sail for the famous attack on Washington, D.C. and Baltimore during the War of 1812. And it was from one of the British ships that a prisoner, Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key, penned the words to the Star-Spangled Banner, after seeing the American flag still flying above Fort McHenry after a heavy bombardment.
Dockyard played an important part in WWI and WWII where nearly 600 ships were repaired and put back into action. Sea patrols escorted people from and to the UK and Canada.
The Royal Navy left Dockyard in 1951 although the naval base was not officially closed until 1995. Today, Dockyard is the most visited site in Bermuda.