HMNB Portsmouth
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Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth, which also incorporates the area known as HMS Nelson, is a large naval base to the east of the city of Portsmouth on Portsea Island in Hampshire on the south coast of England. It is the largest base of the Royal Navy. It utilises the north eastern area of Portsmouth Harbour.
It is operated by the Queen's Harbour Master, Commander K Carter the regulatory authority of the Dockyard Port of Portsmouth, an area of approximately 50 square miles that encompasses Portsmouth Harbour and the Eastern Solent. Shipping movements are handled by a team of admiralty pilots headed by Chief Admiralty Pilot Anthony Bannister.
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[edit] Functioning base
It plays host to a large part of the surface fleet of the Royal Navy including Invincible-class aircraft carriers, Type 42 destroyers, the majority of the Type 23 frigates, fishery protection vessels and two squadrons of mine counter-measures vessels (minesweepers and mine hunters). Most of the vessels based in Portsmouth form part of the Portmouth Flotilla, under the Fleet First reorganisation which saw the three port flotillas replace the frigate & destroyer squadrons and other groupings.
In total some 17,200 people work in the base. Until recently it was the base of the Second Sea Lord who flies his flag in HMS Victory, which is the oldest commissioned warship in the world (but was built at Chatham Dockyard).
[edit] Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
In addition to HMS Victory, a portion of the base serves as a maritime museum (now called Portsmouth Historic Dockyard) and plays host to:
- the raised wreck of the Tudor carrack Mary Rose
- HMS Warrior
- HMS M33, a WWI monitor
- the Royal Naval Museum
- Action Stations - featuring InterAction
- Portsmouth Harbour Tours
- The Trafalgar Sail - foretop sail of HMS Victory from the Battle of Trafalgar 1805
Across the bay is Gosport, centre of naval munitions at Priddy's Hard and of Royal Navy submarines (HMS Dolphin shore-establishment, and the Royal Navy Submarine Museum).
[edit] History
Along with Chatham, Woolwich, Plymouth and Deptford, it has been one of the main dockyards for the Royal Navy throughout its history.
[edit] The Tudors
[edit] Napoleonic Wars
From here Nelson, embarking on HMS Victory, left Britain for the final time before his death at the Battle of Trafalgar.
[edit] Victorian
[edit] First World War
[edit] Second World War
Portsmouth and the Naval Base itself were the headquarters and main departure point for the military and naval units destined for Sword Beach on the Normandy coast as a part of Operation Overlord and the D-Day Landings on June 6 1944
[edit] Post Second World War
[edit] Falklands Task Force
In 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. In response a task force of British military and merchant ships was dispatched from Portsmouth Naval Base to the island's in the South Atlantic to reclaim the islands for the United Kingdom.
The task force comprised of the following:
- Two Aircraft Carriers
- Two Landing Ship Docks
- Eight Destroyers
- Fifteen Frigates
- Three Patrol Ships
- Five Submarines
- Three Survey Vessels
- Five Minesweepers
- Ten Fleet Tankers
- Six Logistic Landing Ships
- Five Supply Ships
- One Helicopter Supply ship
- Eighteen Merchant ships including troop/cruise ships such as RMS Queen Elizabeth 2
Following some losses, the majority of these ships returned to Portsmouth later that year.
[edit] Trafalgar 200
In the summer of 2005 Portsmouth Naval Base and the Solent played host to two special events organised with the intention of celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. These were the International Fleet Review and the International Festival of the Sea (Portsmouth).
[edit] Further reading
- Stephen Courtney, Brian Patterson - Home of the Fleet: A Century of Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in Photographs (Sutton Publishing, 2005) ISBN 0-7509-2285-0
[edit] External links
- HMNB Portsmouth web page
- Portsmouth Historic Dockyard website
- Portsmouth Historic Dockyard history
- Portsmouth D-Day Museum
| Royal Navy Bases | Image:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |
|---|---|
| HMNB Devonport | HMNB Clyde | HMNB Portsmouth | RNAS Yeovilton | RNAS Culdrose | |
