ABSTRACT
As the British navy and naval vessels grew larger during the eighteenth century, docks and basins required renewal and reconstruction. In May 1795, Samuel Bentham made proposals to the Board of Admiralty for the improvement of yard facilities of which a leading feature was the use of ‘inanimate force’ to raise and lower water levels. Samuel Bentham also had new ideas for the organisation and use of yard facilities based on his Panopticon principle. This shaped his vision for the reconstruction of both Portsmouth and Sheerness dockyards. There were six royal yards, but the inland yards at Deptford, Woolwich and Chatham were difficult of access owing to silting rivers. Sheerness, Portsmouth and Plymouth were on the coast, but limited numbers of shallow docks demanded that ships prepare for docking by queuing and reducing their draught in deep water using boats. Even when they were taken into dock on two-weekly high tides, large vessels had to be hauled in, and the reverse happened on completion of the work, sometimes damaging their keels and hull sheathing. During the French Revolutionary War, when large ships were constantly needed at sea, at Portsmouth Bentham thus proposed to reduce the unloading and re-loading of ships by boat, to double the size of the basin and to increase the number of deep docks that could be drained and filled by steam-driven pumps. By this means he aimed to hasten the entry and exit of ships, to enhance control over yard operations and to accelerate turn-around speed.
