Marine History of Hampshire

As the First World War approached, Portsmouth Royal Dockyard was producing almost a warship a year. The last of these before the war was the Royal Sovereign. Unsurprisingly, the city of Portsmouth and the dockyard were major bombing targets during the Second World War. Over 65,000 homes in the city were hit and the dockyard suffered major losses. For the first time in the dockyard’s history, large ‘capital ships’ could not based at Portsmouth as it was simply too dangerous. However, the dockyard serviced and repaired thousands of ships and smaller vessels in dry dock and afloat during the war and played a major role in Operation Overlord — the D-Day landings.

Portsmouth Harbour and Dockyard 1906

Hampshire’s coastline is home to classic ports such as Portsmouth and Southampton and has a rich and varied history, please add your memories and stories to this Hampshire website.