OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

ROYAL DOCKYARD  |  SOUTH YARD

BUILDING SLIP 3

The original Building Slip number 3 was the only one not to be renumbered in 1849.  However, in 1900 it was to be replaced by a new slip number 3 built on the site of the old Mast Pond so on this occasion it was renumbered as Building Slip 4.  Later still it became the Scrieve Board.

Hence what was in 1912 Building Slip 3 was created brand new.  Work started on clearing the site in July 1900.  The Mast Ponds were filled in with some difficulty because of the soft ground beneath.  Likewise there were problems laying the floor of the Slip.  It had been assumed that there was a fine bed of limestone but during the course of blasting it was discovered the rock was fissured and water springs had to be diverted and piped.  Designed by Major E R Kenyon, Royal Engineers, who was the Superintendent Engineer of the Royal Dockyard, the Slip was to be 450 feet long but it was quickly extended to 600 feet by 90 feet wide.  During 1909 it was extended by a further 90 feet.  The stone floor extended out into the Hamoaze so that even the largest of ships would not touch the sea bottom before floating.  The gradient was 1 in 19.  The work was supervised by Major Kenyon with the assistance of Mr C Millard, Civil Engineer, and Mr J Bazley, Clerk of Works.

Building Slip 3 was officially measured by the Ordnance Survey in 1912 as being 752 feet in length and 90 feet wide at the entrance.

It had  been planned to build the battleship HMS "Hibernia" on this Slip but when it came time to lay her keel none of the twenty-four lifting Derricks had been erected around the Slip so she was moved to the Slip number 5.  Thus the first vessel to be built on Building Slip 3 was HMS "Minotaur", the keel of which was laid on January 2nd 1905.  She was launched on Wednesday June 6th 1906.

The last British warship to be constructed on Building Slip 3 was the frigate HMS "Scylla".  She was launched on August 8th 1968.  The last vessel of any sort to be built on Building Slip 3 was a purpose-built electrical barge, MAC 1013, which was used for testing main generators on warships.  She was launched in February 1975.  During 1979 the cantilever cranes that had replaced the lifting derricks before the Second World War were removed.  The last crane was dismantled and sold to Messrs Marple and Gillott, of Sheffield, for scrap in June 1981.  Warship building in Devonport had come to an end.