ABSTRACT
John constable's painting 'Boatbuilding near Flatford Mill' shows us in detail what must have been the earliest type of dry dock. This chapter examines the invention of the graving dock which contributed most in the solution of this basic problem. The dock is a development of this last method which was still in use at Calais in 1784 for example, but this wás only for small craft. The first references come from English sources from the end of the fifteenth century: The modern history of Portsmouth dockyard begins in 1495 when Henry VII ordered the construction of the first dry dock in this country. An example existed then in France of the type of dock which interests us; but it was not to the Mediterranean, but towards England that the Colberts were to turn in 1666 when they undertook the construction of the model arsenal at Rochefort: they were to try and build a drydock 'a langlaise'.
