Portland Harbour

The original harbour was naturally sheltered by the south coast of England, Chesil Beach and the Isle of Portland, providing refuge for ships against weather in all directions except east. The harbour had already been used by ships for centuries when, in the 16th century, King Henry VIII built Portland Castle and Sandsfoot Castle to defend the anchorage.[5] Prompted by the expansion of the French naval port of Cherbourg, just across the English Channel, the Royal Navy established a base at Portland in 1845; a scheme for the harbour to be transformed into a refuge had been granted parliamentary approval the year before. Portland was the first naval anchorage specifically designed for the new steam navy.[6] Similar harbours of refuge would be built at Alderney, Dover, Holyhead, and later (in response to the increased naval threat from Germany) at Peterhead.[3]

Dockyard Offices (left), built (as the Engineer's Office) by John Coode in 1848, extended to the west in 1910.[7] The extension to the right of the clock tower was added for FOST in 1988.

Construction of the two breakwaters began in 1849 when HRH Prince Albert laid the foundation stone on 25 July. Designed by engineer James Meadows Rendel, the work was carried out under civil engineer John Towlerton Leather, with Rendel as engineer in chief (until his death in 1856), and John Coode as resident engineer.[8] During 1848, HM Prison Portland was established to provide convict labour to quarry the stone needed to construct the breakwaters and the harbour defences.[9] Known as the Admiralty Quarries, they provided 10,000 tons of stone per week.[10] The breakwaters were declared complete by HRH Edward the Prince of Wales on 10 August 1872. A major government project, the construction work had become Dorset's greatest tourist attraction of its time.[11]

The initial southern breakwaters were built between 1849 and 1872; meanwhile, various defences were created to defend the harbour. The Verne Citadel, designed by Captain Crosman R.E., was built at Verne Hill between 1860–81: the 56 acre (23 ha) fortress was designed for 1000 troops and had gun emplacements facing seawards on three sides.[12] Below the eastern side of the citadel, East Weare Battery was built during the 1860s, along with the detention barracks East Weare Camp.[13][14] On the end of the inner breakwater was the Inner Pierhead Fort, and on the outer breakwater the circular Breakwater Fort.[15] On Weymouth's side of the harbour, the Nothe Fort was built at the end of the Nothe Peninsula, and completed in 1872.[16] In 1892, the Verne High Angle Battery was built in a disused quarry near the Verne Citadel, but was decommissioned in 1906.[17]

As part of further defence works against the threat of torpedo attack, the harbour's two northern breakwaters were built between 1893-1906.[18] In 1902, additional defences were constructed, including Upton Fort at Osmington and Blacknor Fort on the western side of Portland.[19] By 1903, the East Weares Rifle Range served the navy and other military on the eastern side of the island.[20] In 1905, the Portland Breakwater Lighthouse was erected on the southern end of northeast breakwater, where it continues to operate today.[21]

The harbour was envisaged primarily as a coaling station for the Royal Navy, being conveniently equidistant from the Royal Navy's two principal bases at Portsmouth and Devonport;[3] however it was also where the Channel Squadron was based, newly re-formed in 1858.

In the 20th century, Portland became increasingly renowned for its training and research facilities.[4]

Coaling shed (1856-60) on the inner breakwater. Coal was stored on the first floor and then deployed in railway wagons to waiting vessels moored along the length of the breakwater.[22]

Coaling facilities were initially integrated into the design of the inner breakwater. A new coaling pier was built between 1890 and 1896, and expanded coaling facilities were still being added in 1906.[4] During the 20th century the harbour increasingly became an naval oiling depot and, beginning in the early 1900s, the tidal creek the Mere began to be filled in for a vast tank farm.[6]

Over time, Portland was successively the base for the Channel and Home Fleets, as well as part of the Reserve Fleet, and it also served as a depot for submarines.[23] In the early years of the 20th century it served as base for the Navy's first Torpedo Boat Destroyers.[4]

In the 1850s it had been proposed that a full Royal Navy Dockyard be established, with three dry docks, three shipbuilding slips, a fitting-out basin and associated factory facilities. These plans were not carried through, however a floating dry dock was introduced in 1914, enabling Portland to function as a repair and refit facility,[4] and by 1914 Portland was officially listed as a Naval Dockyard (remaining so until 1959).[24] Onshore amenities included a range of storehouses, workshops and office buildings.[25]

Support facilities for the fleet were also added over time, including a canteen and recreation ground.[25] The nearby Royal Naval Hospital in Castletown served the naval base from 1904 (replacing an earlier small hospital) until 1957, when it was handed over to the NHS.[26]

The development of both the torpedo and the submarine led to Portland Harbour becoming a centre for research into underwater warfare, beginning with the establishment of Robert Whitehead's Torpedo Works at Wyke Regis in 1891. A purpose-built pier projecting into the harbour from the factory was used for torpedo testing and practice firing. The factory closed in 1997 and was cleared to make way for a housing development named Whitehead Drive, which includes a memorial stone and plaque to commemorate the factory.[27]

In 1862 HMS Britannia was moored at Portland to serve as a training ship for naval cadets. She was replaced by HMS Boscawen in 1866 (following Britannia's relocation to Dartmouth). Boscawen was herself replaced in 1873 by HMS Trafalgar, which took on the same name. As the Royal Navy grew in size towards the end of the 19th century, additional accommodation was required for boys' training, which saw the arrival of HMS Minotaur in 1898 and Agincourt in 1904; they were named Boscawen II and Boscawen III respectively. All three Boscawen ships were sold in 1906.[28]

The increasing threat of conflict with Germany before the Great War erupted saw the arrival of the Dreadnoughts in Portland, while seaplanes began to operate in Portland's skies. King George V watched aerial displays from the royal yacht in the harbour in May 1912. This occasion saw a biplane demonstrate the first British flight from a moving ship, and afterwards the king took the first ever royal trip in a submarine. In 1914, the Grand Fleet assembled in Portland Harbour before sailing to Scapa Flow.[11] As a measure against submarine attack, the battleship HMS Hood was scuttled across the harbour's southern entrance in 1914.[29]

In 1917 the RNAS seaplane base at Portland was commissioned as HMS Sarepta. It was decommissioned two years later, but not before the establishment under its command of a 'listening school' to help develop hydrophone underwater listening devices and other anti-submarine measures, and to train personnel in their use. Its shore-based activities continued, moving from temporary accommodation in Weymouth to accommodation in East Weare, just south of the Dockyard. In 1924, Portland's Anti-Submarine School (having been consolidated with similar units from HMS Vernon and HM Signal School, Portsmouth) was commissioned as HMS Osprey, becoming an independent shore command.[30] Its facilities included laboratories and workshops, a large water tank for conducting experiments and an inshore testing site for trials of ASDIC on the inner breakwater (by the late 1930s over 200 civilians were employed in Osprey's ASDIC Research and Development Unit (ARDU)).[30]

From 1940, the harbour came under fierce German air attack, with Portland suffering 48 air attacks, in which 532 bombs were dropped, over the course of the war.[31] In July 1940, the anti-aircraft ship HMS Foylebank was attacked by Stuka dive-bombers and sank in the harbour. The second of only two Victoria Crosses awarded for action in the United Kingdom was posthumously bestowed on Jack Foreman Mantle, who died at his post on the ship. Although mortally wounded he continued to fire his gun against the attackers until he died. Mantle is buried in Portland's Royal Naval Cemetery, which overlooks the harbour.[32] In 1940–41, the Portland Naval Communication Headquarters was constructed, built into the hillside at the rear of the dockyard.[33]

On 1 May 1944, the harbour was commissioned as USNAAB Portland-Weymouth.[11] Both Portland and Weymouth were major embarkation points for American troops during D-Day, particularly the US 1st Division who embarked for Omaha Beach in June 1944. The King, Prime Minister Churchill and Free French leader Gen. de Gaulle came to see the great D-Day preparations at Portland; activity in the harbour was continuous. After the war, Portland's role in the liberation of Europe was marked by a ceremony in August 1945, when the American Ambassador John D. Winant unveiled a stone in Victoria Gardens commemorating the passing by the spot of 418,585 troops and 144,093 vehicles the previous June.[34]

During both World Wars I and II, the bay was filled with neutral ships at anchor waiting to be searched for materials that might be useful to the enemy.[6]

After the war, in 1946, ten Phoenix caissons of the Mulberry Harbour were towed back to Portland, eight of which were later given to the Netherlands to repair storm breaches in the dykes in 1953.[35] The remaining two units now act as a wind-break, helping ships berth at Queen's Pier in the harbour.[36]

Having suffered bomb damage, the ARDU had transferred out to Fairlie for the duration of the war. In 1946, however, it returned (having been renamed HM Anti-Submarine Experimental Establishment); over the next few years its headquarters on Balaclava Bay were rebuilt and extended, and it was again renamed as HM Underwater Detection Establishment (HMUDE).[30] At the same time, a new headquarters for the Admiralty Gunnery Establishment (AGE), which had transferred to Portland from Teddington, was built at Southwell between 1949–52; it, however, transferred again in 1959 (to Portsdown Hill), allowing the building to be taken over by the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE), formed from an amalgamation of different establishments from different parts of the UK involved in researching and developing underwater weapons and detection systems (including HMUDE, which nevertheless remained in its Balaclava Bay premises).[37] The AUWE later became infamous for espionage infiltration, known as the Portland Spy Ring.[38]

In February 1958 it was announced in Parliament by the First Lord of the Admiralty that Portland Dockyard was to close the following year (though the naval base would be retained).[39] At the time, the Dockyard employed 'some 1,600 industrial and non-industrial staff'.[37] Within the same statement Sheerness Dockyard and a number of other naval establishments were also slated for closure.

As planned, Portland's Royal Dockyard closed in 1959, but the Naval Base remained open 'in support of the local establishments and H.M. ships using the harbour'.[37] From 1958, the base's main occupation was Flag Officer Sea Training, which was a major success, and the harbour soon became the world's premier work-up and training base. Aside from the training of Royal Navy ships, many ships of NATO countries also trained and frequented at the harbour.[11] Part of the Falklands War task force sailed from Portland in 1982.[40] In 1984, two large accommodation blocks, totalling £25-30 million, were built in Castletown as barracks for Royal Navy personnel, along with a sports centre.

With the advent of the helicopter and its importance as an anti-submarine weapon, an airfield was formed following World War II. In 1946, Hoverfly R-4Bs began operating from the base's playing fields, which were transformed into a landing ground.[41] In 1959, RNAS Portland was officially established as part of HMS Osprey,[41] further land having been reclaimed from the Mere the previous year to serve as a runway and landing area, and the old canteen building having been adapted to serve as a combined headquarters and control tower.[42] It went on to become the largest naval helicopter airfield in Europe.[25]

The Ministry of Defence continued to invest in HMNB Portland until the late 1980s; however in 1991 the closure was announced of both the naval base and the research establishments on Portland as part of defence spending cuts following the end of the Cold War.[6] There was opposition against the closure from the local economy, as well as all ranks of naval personnel, who felt Portland's surrounding coast was perfect for exercising ships.[43]

Royal Navy operations ceased on 21 July 1995 and the harbour was sold on 29 March 1996. FOST was relocated to Devonport.[40] Following this, RNAS Portland also closed in October 1999. The combined closure of all Portland-based establishments was believed to have cost the area 4,500 jobs, along with a loss of £40 million in the area's economy, according to a study carried out for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council in 1995.[40]