Chatham Historic Dockyard

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Here we are delivering two loads of play pit sand to a former RN Dockyard. If you think that sounds strange, then read on...

Chatham became a Royal Naval Dockyard for the Thames area in Henry VIII's day - it was finally fully established in 1567 and delivered its first ship, HMS Sunne in 1586. The yard was decommissioned in 1984 and about a third of the original space occupied by the dockyard was taken over by the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, which now runs it as a museum.

This summer, the Trust is running various activities for children. Arrr, in the Smithery, there be Pirate themed activities and the sand is for a grand, huge, sandpit, aye me hearties [/end pirate speak]. There is also, for example, a science show for children. The activities run until 2nd September and there is even a promotion on: a children's annual ticket is only £1 when bought with an adult ticket.

Over the 400 years of operation, more than 500 ships were built at Chatham, including HMS Victory of Trafalgar fame. The last ship actually launched at Chatham was HMCS Okanagan, a submarine for the Royal Canadian Navy, in 1966. In this photo, you can see parts of the three ships which are now preserved as museum exhibits in docks at the yard. The bowsprit nearest the lorry belongs to HMS Gannet. Launched in 1878, she was a sloop with an 1100 hp steam engine, as well as a three-masted barque rig (she could do 15 knots under sail but only 12 under steam). The next vessel is HMS Ocelot, a diesel-electric submarine of the same class as Okanagan and the last ship (well, "boat" if you ask submariners) built at Chatham for the RN. She is rather hard to see in the photo but if you look directly under the 'B' turret of the destroyer in the background, you can see a black bulbous shape, which is the sonar dome of Ocelot. Finally, the destroyer which you can actually see properly is HMS Cavalier, launched in 1944 and decommissioned in 1972. With twin steam turbines delivering 40,000 hp, she could reach a max speed of 37 knots (43 mph).