Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda
Bermuda
6-inch guns overlook theGreat Sound
Site information
Type	Shipyard, dockyard, HMD
Operator	Royal Navy
Controlled by	Navy Board (1795–1832) Board of Admiralty (1832–1951) Board of Admiralty (1951–1964) andNavy Board (1964–1982) andGovernment of Bermuda 1951–1982 Navy Board and West End Development Corporation 1982–1995
Site history
Built	1795
In use	1795–1995
Battles/wars	American War of 1812 First World War Second World War Cold War
Garrison information
Past commanders	Resident Commissioner Bermuda (1816-1832) Admiral Superintendent Bermuda (1832-1938) Commodore-in-Charge, Bermuda (1938-1946) Commodore West Indies and Senior Naval Officer (1956-1976)
Occupants	North America Squadron

HMD Bermuda (Her/His Majesty's Dockyard, Bermuda) was the principal base of theRoyal Navy in the Western Atlantic betweenAmerican independence and theCold War. TheImperial fortresscolony ofBermuda had occupied a useful position astride the homeward leg taken by many European vessels from the New World since before its settlement by England in 1609. Frenchprivateers may have used the islands as a staging place for operations against Spanishgalleons in the 16th century. Bermudian privateers certainly played a role in many English and British wars following settlement, with its utility as a base for his privateers leading to theEarl of Warwick, the namesake ofWarwick Parish, becoming the most important investor of theSomers Isles Company. Despite this, it was not until the loss of bases on most of the North AmericanAtlantic seaboard (following US independence) threatened Britain's supremacy in the Western Atlantic that the island assumed great importance as a naval base (the attendantBermuda Garrison of theBritish Army existed primarily to protect the naval base). In 1818 the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda officially replaced theRoyal Naval Dockyard, Halifax, as the British headquarters for theNorth America Station and its successors.

As prior to 1959, under section 87 of the Naval Discipline Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 109),^[1] only sailors on the books of a commissioned naval vessel were subject to naval discipline, naval personnel assigned to shore duties were listed administratively as crew members ofdepot ships, originally usuallyhulks of old warships. In Bermuda, the depot ship was HMSTerror from 1857 to 1897, which was replaced by the former troopshipHMS Malabar (renamed HMSTerror in 1901). The former HMS Malabar was sold in 1918, following which the name HMSMalabar was applied to the Casemates Naval Barracks in the dockyard as astone frigate under command of theCaptain in Charge to which the shore personnel at Bermuda, whether belonging to the dockyard, to outlying naval facilities (such asAdmiralty House, Bermuda,Royal Naval Air Station Bermuda, or the Royal Naval wireless station (from 1961,NRS Bermuda) atDaniel's Head), or to minor vessels assigned to the dockyard for local use, were administratively assigned. As a consequence, HMSMalabar was often used interchangeably with HMDockyard Bermuda orRoyal Naval Dockyard Bermuda, and has been often mistaken as referring only to specific subordinate naval facilities in Bermuda, such as the wireless station at Daniel's Head or the Royal Naval Air Station. After the Bermuda dockyard was reduced to a base in the 1950s, the part that continued to operate as a naval base was commissioned as HMSMalabar until 1995.

In the decades following American independence, Britain was faced with two threats to its maritime supremacy. The first was French, asNapoleon battled Britain for military, political, and economic supremacy in Europe, closing continental ports to British trade. He also unleashed a storm of privateers from the FrenchWest Indies in an attempt to cripple British trade in the New World. The Royal Navy was hard-pressed in Europe, and unable to release adequate forces to counter the menace of the privateers. In any case, multi-deckedships-of-the-line were designed to battle each other in slow-moving, opposing lines. However many guns they might have to bring to bear, they were not able to run down, or outmanoeuvre the small privateers.

The second threat was American. The first successful English colony in the North America,Jamestown, Virginia, which Bermuda was settled as an extension of, was intended to exploit the abundance of timber on that continent. This was at a time when Britain, and much of Europe, had long been stripped almost clear of trees. American timber had been one of the enablers of Britain's ascendancy to maritime supremacy, and, by 1776, a significant part of Britain's merchant fleet was made up of American ships. Despite its own, brief, naval dispute with Napoleon, the United States took full advantage of its neutral position in the wars between Britain and France in allowing its merchant fleet to trade with France and the countries under its influence, and the British Government was enraged by what it saw as America's failure to support it in combating a common threat. TheBritish Admiralty was also enraged by the practice of American merchant and naval vessels to poach sailors from the Royal Navy at a time when its manpower was stretched to the limit. The US also had its own interest in breaking Britain's supremacy on maritime trade, and from the first days of the Republic it has often claimed to champion free trade.

The Royal Navy sought to counter the threat of French privateers in the New World by commissioning its own light vessels, built along the lines of traditionalBermuda sloops. The first three vessels commissioned from Bermudian shipyards were 200 ton, 12-gunsloops-of-war, ordered in 1795, and commissioned as HMSDasher, HMSDriver and HMSHunter. Over the next fifteen years, the Admiralty would commission a great many more vessels from Bermudian builders, manned by locally recruited officers and crews. Although the first were intended to counter the privateer menace, Bermudian sloops ultimately became 'advice' vessels, using their speed and handling to evade enemies, and carrying communications and vital freight around the globe. They were also used for reconnaissance and maintaining pickets. In addition to ships commissioned by the Admiralty, Bermudian merchant vessels were also bought up and commissioned for this purpose. The most famous was undoubtedlyHMS Pickle, which carried the news of British victory back fromTrafalgar.

The Royal Navy began to invest into Bermudian real-estate in 1795. Very early, it began to buy islands at the West End of the chain, and in theGreat Sound, with the view to building a naval base and dockyard. Unfortunately, at that time, there was no known channel wide and deep enough to allow large naval vessels to gain access to the Great Sound. A naval hydrographer,Thomas Hurd, spent a dozen years charting the waters around the Colony, and eventually found the Channel through the reefs, which is still used today by vessels travelling to the Great Sound andHamilton Harbour.^[2]

Initially, the Royal Navy bought and developed property in and around the then capital of St. George's, at the East End. These included Convict Bay, which became aRoyal Canadian Naval Base,HMCS Somers Isles, during the Second World War, and the brick building now housing the Carriage House Museum, and Restaurant. Once Hurd's Channel had been discovered, however, the Royal Navy soon relocated all of its facilities to the West End.

In 1788 the Admiralty commissioned a nautical survey of Bermuda, with a view to establishing a new naval base there. Lt. Thomas Hannaford Hurd was ordered to undertake this, in the company of Lt. Andrew Fitzherbert Evans as his Assistant Surveyor.^[3] In 1794,Rear Admiral George Murray was appointed to command the North American squadron. He was sent a chart from Hurd's survey, and quickly saw the potential benefits of a base in Bermuda. The passage Hurd had surveyed through the reef into a new anchorage was named as "Murray's anchorage". On 18 May, Murray and his captains visited the town ofSt. George, where they were welcomed with a great reception. In the following week, Hurd and Murray explored the new anchorages, including other possible entrances, and also westwards to Grassy Bay andIreland Island, which Murray regarded as an ideal location for a dockyard.Admiral St Vincent, First Lord of the Admiralty commented that Hurd's accurate survey had convinced him that the arsenal should be transferred from Halifax to Bermuda.^[4]

Captain Andrew Fitzherbert Evans was approached to be the first Commodore in March 1811.^[5] He accepted in April 1811.^[6] He sailed aboard the Guerriere in July 1811.^[7] Evans used theTourterelle as his flagship, but later flew his pennant fromRuby.^[8] Evans was married to a Bermudian in 1794. His wife and children lived there from 1794 to 1808, hence his links to the island.^[3] On 25 July 1811, HMS Ruby left Portsmouth and sailed to Bermuda.^[9] During 1812, HMS Ruby was fitted as a Receiving Ship at Bermuda. The ship remained in Bermuda and was broken up there in April of 1821.^[10]

Numerous islands at the West End, and in the Great Sound were used for various purposes, but the core of the base, the Dockyard, began to take shape on Ireland Island, at the North West extremity of the archipelago. Initially, local labourers, free or enslaved, were sought to carry out the construction. With most working-age Bermudian men being skilled workers, involved in seafaring or shipbuilding, local labour proved scarce and expensive (the Admiralty had acknowledged Bermuda's reliance on its merchant seamen by exempting them fromimpressment into the Royal Navy, to which all other British seamen were liable).

In view of attitudes found amongst the Bermudian population to manual labour, the labour force for the start of the work was, apart from specialist Bermudian artisans, built up from slaves and ex-slaves from various sources. Alongside hired Bermudian slaves, who led unusually independent lives, finding their own work and bargaining with prospective employers for wages and conditions, there were ex-slaves taken off intercepted ships and who, by theSlave Trade Act 1807, should not have been treated as slaves but were considered still slaves by dockyard officials and, from 1813, refugees from American slavery of theWar of 1812 who had opted for employment at Bermuda rather than armed service or resettlement in Canada, and who suffered similarly from the dockyard officials’ attitudes, finding their situation inferior to that of the hired Bermudan slaves, and who at the end of the War found themselves sent toCanada, despite their original choice of location, to make way for that part of theCorps of Colonial Marines that had been recruited on the Atlantic coast. The absence of suitable labour for the continuation of the dockyard works over the following six years led to the decision late in 1822 to use convicts shipped from Britain and Ireland to carry out most of the original phase of building at the base, the first arriving in 1823.^[11]Admiralty House in Bermuda, at that time, was still in the East End, at Mount Wyndham, aboveBailey's Bay.

One of the first Naval actions of the War was the capture of the Bermuda-built,HMS Whiting, in a US port.

During the War, the British blockade of American ports was orchestrated from Bermuda, and a squadron based in Bermuda was active in theChesapeake from February 1813 until the end of the War, British forces briefly occupyingKent Island in 1813 and establishing a base onTangier Island in 1814, where the Royal Navy recruited from among refugee slaves aCorps of Colonial Marines. Other refugees were first brought to Bermuda in May 1813, where they were employed in the construction of the new Dockyard onIreland Island in the company of hired artisans, both free and enslaved, and finally toNova Scotia andNew Brunswick for resettlement. In August, 1814, British forces sailed from the Dockyard to carry out theChesapeake campaign, including an attack onWashington, D. C., resulting in theRaid on Alexandria, theBattle of Bladensburg, theBurning of Washington, and an attempted assault onBaltimore, Maryland, in theBattle of Baltimore.^[12] When the forces returned to Bermuda, they brought with them two sets of portraits ofKing George III, and his wife,Queen Charlotte, taken from a public building in Washington; these portraits hang, today, in theHouse of Assembly of theBermudian Parliament and the Cabinet Building, both in theCity of Hamilton.^[13]

After the War the men of theCorps of Colonial Marines were brought to Bermuda to man the garrison and to continue the construction of the Dockyard. With the reduction in naval budgets that came with peace, the Admiralty refused to be responsible for them any further. The men rejected a government order for them to be transferred to theWest India Regiment, but accepted in the end the government's alternative offer of settlement inTrinidad as free independent farmers. Their last day of pay at Bermuda was 15 July 1816, when they were taken, together with their families, to Trinidad where they were formally disbanded on 20 August and taken to their new settlements to occupy grants of land. The consequent depletion of the construction workforce was partially made good in 1823 by the first importation of British convicts.

Bermudian privateers also played a notable part in the war, capturing 298 American vessels.

After the War, the Navy concentrated on the building of the Dockyard, while the Army began its own buildup of fortifications, coastal artillery, and infantry garrisons to defend the Naval Base, as the British Government began to view Bermuda more as a base than as a colony.

The convicts brought in from theUnited Kingdom to serve as manual labourers included many Irishmen, including participants in the ill-fatedYoung Irelander Rebellion of 1848 and Nationalist journalist and politicianJohn Mitchel.^[14][15][16] Conditions for the convicts were harsh, and discipline was draconian. In April 1830, convict James Ryan was shot and killed during rioting of convicts on Ireland Island. Another five convicts were given death sentences for their parts in the riots, with those of the youngest three being commuted to transportation for life. In 1849, convict James Cronin, on the hulkMedway at Ireland Island, was placed in solitary confinement from the 25th to the 29th for fighting. On release, and being returned to work, he refused to be cross-ironed. He ran onto the breakwater, brandishing a poker threateningly. For this, he was ordered to receive punishment (presumably flogging) on Tuesday, 3 July 1849, with the other convicts aboard the hulk assembled behind a rail to witness. When ordered to strip, he hesitated. Thomas Cronin, his older brother, addressed him and, while brandishing a knife, rushed forward to the separating rail. He called out to the other prisoners in Gaelic and many joined him in attempting to free the prisoner and attack the officers. The officers opened fire. Two men were killed and twelve wounded. Punishment of James Cronin was then carried out. Three hundred men of the42nd Regiment of Foot, in barracks on Ireland Island, responded to the scene under arms.^[17]

In addition to Mitchel, notable convicts sent to Bermuda included Irish painterWilliam Burke Kirwan.

In 1851 Master stone carverCharles Thomas Thomas travelled to North America. He was appointed foreman of works with the Works Department of the Royal Navy, responsible for development of the strategic Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda. By the time the first phase of development was complete, in the 1860s, the convict establishment was no longer seen as politically expedient. The last convicts were withdrawn in 1863, returned to Britain on the Bermudian merchant clipper,Cedrine (which was wrecked on theIsle of Wight, on its maiden voyage, costing Captain Thomas Melville Dill, grandfather of theparliamentarian andAttorney General ofthe same name, his Master's certificate).

The primary limitation of Bermuda as a Dockyard was the porosity of its limestone sandstone, which prevented construction of a proper drydock. From 1869, this problem was remedied with afloating dry dock. This, and its successors, was a large hull, with a U-shaped cross-section. It could be partly submerged by filling ballast tanks with water, so that a ship might be brought in and braced into position. The tanks were then emptied to lift the ship out of the water for repairs below its waterline.

When the second phase of development began at the end of the 19th century, there was still a shortage of Bermudians willing to work as common labourers, and the Admiralty resorted to importing labour from British West Indian islands (which were suffering economic hardship due to the loss of the sugar industry, following American victory in theSpanish–American War). This began a century of sustained immigration into Bermuda from the West Indies which has had profound social and political effects.

The Dockyard served as the base for a succession of Royal Naval organisations, including the North America and West Indies Squadron. A fleet ofC-classcruisers and smaller vessels was based there in the 1930s. In both World Wars, Bermuda served as a staging area for trans-Atlantic convoys.

During theFirst World War, the Dockyard and its vessels, intended to dominate the American coastline and the West Indies, found themselves absorbed with the role of protectingAllied merchant shipping the length and breadth of the Atlantic.

The vessels of the North America and West Indies Squadrons were employed to track down German surface raiders, and in escorting the convoys that were assembled at Bermuda before crossing the Atlantic. As would be the case in the Second World War, the primary threat to trans-Atlantic Allied shipping was the menace of German submarines. Ships from the dockyard also took part in theBattle of the Falkland Islands.

During the Second World War, again, the naval base in Bermuda organised trans-Atlantic Convoys. Ships would arrive at Bermuda singly, whereCharles Fairey's convertedyacht,HMS Evadne, patrolled beyond the reefline, and the converted tugboat,HMS Castle Harbour, and laterHMS Sumar, crewed by local ratings, patrolled nearer to shore and transported the pilots (who steered the visiting ships through the treacherous reefs that protected the harbours and anchorages) and the naval examination officer tasked with inspecting arriving vessels. Most convoys from Bermuda (coded BHX), once assembled, joined at sea with convoys originating at Halifax, Nova Scotia (codedHX), before crossing the Atlantic.

TheFleet Air Arm'sRoyal Naval Air Station Bermuda on Boaz Island (before the Second World War, it had been located in the North Yard of the dockyard), nominally an aircraft repair and replacement facility without its own aircrews, provided air patrols during the early years of the war, usingSupermarine Walrus flying boats flown by naval pilots from ships at the dockyard, or pilots from theRoyal Air Force and theBermuda Flying School onDarrell's Island. Once the US Navy began flying air patrols from Darrell's Island in 1941, however, the Fleet Air Arm's patrols ceased. With Bermuda becoming the working-up area for Allied destroyers newly commissioned on the Atlantic seaboard of North America (specifically, those of the US Navy, and lend-lease destroyers from the United States for the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy), the Fleet Air Arm formed773 Fleet Requirements Unit at Bermuda on the 3 June 1940, equipped withBlackburn Roc target tugs, which towed targets for anti-aircraft gunnery practice by Allied vessels working-up at Bermuda, as well as for a United States Navy anti-aircraft gunnery training centre that operated on shore atWarwick Parish for the duration of the war. The target tugs operated at first from Boaz Island as floatplanes, and from 1943 also from the runway at the United States Army'sKindley Field.^[18]

Although Bermuda was a naval base, her warships were normally spread far-and-wide across the Atlantic, unable to protect the base or the colony. Early in the war German battleships, operating as commerce raiders, created some concern of Bermuda's vulnerability to naval bombardment (especially whenConvoy HX 84 – which included ships from Bermuda – was attacked by theGerman cruiser Admiral Scheer in November 1940),^[19] but the island was never attacked, and the threat of German surface vessels and their aircraft quickly faded.

Bermuda was to provide the namesakes for three other Royal Naval vessels, other than HMS Castle Harbour, during the War, specifically the cruiserHMS Bermuda, the destroyerHMSHamilton,^[20] andHMSQueen of Bermuda, a prewar luxury liner taken up from trade and commissioned as anarmed merchant cruiser.

After the Second World War, with the former primary threat in the region, the United States, having been an ally in both World Wars, and a continuing ally underNATO, the naval base in Bermuda diminished rapidly in importance to the Admiralty.

TheUS Navy had operated from a base onWhite's Island (officially listed as itsBase 24), in Hamilton Harbour during the last year of the First World War, servicing submarine hunters, submarines and other vessels that travelled across the Atlantic to the European theatre of conflict in convoys of one to two dozen vessels. Many of these vessels had also made use of the Royal Navy's facilities at HM Dockyard. In addition to White's Island, the United States operated a supply station on the British Army's formerly secret munitions depot,Agar's Island. Both US facilities were closed following the cessation of hostilities.

During the Second World War, the United States had been permitted to build aUS Naval Operating Base (serving both ships and seaplanes) and aUS Army airfield in the colony under free 99-year leases. This had been agreed before Britain and France declared war on Germany and set into motion before the US had actually entered the war, but (along with the establishment of aUS Army garrison with artillery and infantry elements) had the effect of placing most of the responsibility for guarding Bermuda into American hands, thereby freeing British forces to be redeployed elsewhere.

With little remaining interest in policing the world's waterways, and with the American bases to guard Bermuda in any potential war with theWarsaw Pact or other enemies, the Royal Navy closed most of the Dockyard facilities in 1958 (a process which had begun with the removal of the large floating drydock, AFD 5, in 1951 (the smaller AFD 48 remained)), with most of the Admiralty's landholdings in Bermuda (along with all of the British Army's properties) being transferred to the local government for £750,000.

The South Yard of the Dockyard itself was retained as HM Naval Base, Bermuda, commissioned as HMSMalabar (see below). It continued to be the base of the North America and West Indies Station, with theCommander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station, at the Admiralty House, Bermuda, until 29 October 1956, when the position was abolished. To partially replace this appointment, CaptainGeorge Hunt (Royal Navy officer) aboardHMS Bigbury Bay was appointed the first Senior Naval Officer, West Indies, as a Commodore, reporting directly to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, in the UK.^[22] A diminishing number of escorts was subsequently based at Bermuda until the 1970s, although the base was no longer capable of carrying out repairs to vessels based there.

The 1951closure of the dockyard was actually a reduction of its status to a base, with the disposal of most Admiralty land holdings in Bermuda. TheSouth Yard Berthing Area continued to be maintained as a base, under the command of the Resident Naval Officer (RNO), for the squadron of the America and West Indies Station (which ceased to be a separate station with the 1956 abolishment of theCommander-in-Chief America and West Indies, though the diminishing squadron remained based in Bermuda until the 1970s) but, no longer equipped with a drydock, ships based at Bermuda needing major repairs or refit were obliged to cross the Atlantic toPortsmouth). The base was nameless until commissioned as HMSMalabar on 1 June 1965 (it was also designatedHM Naval Base Bermuda (HMNB Bermuda)), until it, too, closed in 1995, following the end of the Cold War. The closure of HMSMalabar marked the end of 200 years of permanent Royal Naval establishment in Bermuda.^[23]

Following the withdrawal of the Admiral (theCommander-in-Chief, America and West Indies) in 1956, theSenior Naval Officer West Indies (SNOWI) was also based at Bermuda, with the shore headquarters of SNOWI occupyingMoresby House (originally built in the 1899s as the residence of the civilian Officer in Charge, Works) along with the RNO, until the role was abolished in 1976. SNOWI served as Island Commander Bermuda in theNATO chain of command, reporting to Commander-in-Chief, Western Atlantic as part ofAllied Command Atlantic.^[24] After 1962, the same officer also occupied the office ofCommander British Forces Caribbean Area (CBFCA), with overall command of all British naval and military forces in the Caribbean. This office lapsed in 1969.^[25] Among other difficulties that had beset SNOWI in the role of CBFCA, Bermuda, being over 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) North of theVirgin Islands, had been found to be too remote from the West Indies to be a useful command centre for handling any contingency situation that arose there. However, after 1969, SNOWI retained responsibility for providing general military advice to Governors, Heads of Missions, and Administrators in the West Indies, with the exception of British Honduras.^[24]

TheSouth Yard Berthing Area of the Royal Naval Dockyard was commissioned on 1 June 1965, asHMS Malabar, under the command of the Resident Naval Officer (RNO), with the headquarters of both SNOWI and the RNO atMoresby House (built in the 1890s as the residence of the dockyard'sOfficer in Charge, Works).^[26] The name HMSMalabar causes considerable confusion in relation to the Bermuda naval base. At least one vessel attached to the HM Dockyard, and three separate shore establishments have used the name. The shore establishments included one at the Commissioner's House, at the north of the Keep, and, later, the Royal Naval Air Station on Boaz Island that operated during the Second World War. Both of these were establishments within the larger active naval base, and the name HMSMalabar never applied to the entirety of the HM Dockyard Bermuda.

In December, 1967, the position of RNO Bermuda was abolished, with its duties passing to SNOWI's secretary and SNOWI taking over command of HMSMalabar. As SNOWI was frequently in the West Indies, he was unable to effectively command HMSMalabar, and a lieutenant-commander was consequently appointed to the roles of commanding officer of HMSMalabar and RNO in 1971.^[24] On 1 April 1976, the post of SNOWI was abolished. The Bermuda-based Station Frigates were withdrawn and replaced with aWest Indies Guard Ship (now calledAtlantic Patrol Task (North)), a role which was rotated among the frigates of the fleet, which took turns operating extended patrols of the West Indies. The West Indies Guard Ship normally stops at Bermuda only on the way to and from taking up its station in the West Indies, and usually provides the Royal Naval detachment which takes the senior position in Bermuda's parade eachRemembrance Day (a practice that began before the closure of HMS Malabar). While still designated a base, HMSMalabar was effectively reduced to a supply station that supported Royal Naval vessels transiting through Bermuda or temporarily operating in the area, such as for the annualStanding Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT) exercises. By the 1990s, other than HMSMalabar, the Royal Naval establishment in the former North-America and West Indies Station had been reduced to the West Indies Guard Ship and a supportingRoyal Fleet Auxiliary vessel.

The former Royal Navy wireless facility atDaniel's Head was used by theRoyal Canadian Navy from 1963 asNaval Radio Station Bermuda (NRS Bermuda), re-namedCanadian Forces Station Bermuda (CFS Bermuda) in 1968. Both HMS Malabar and CFS Bermuda were closed, along with the three US Navy facilities in Bermuda, in 1995.

After the closure of most of the base as an active naval dockyard in 1957 (excluding HMSMalabar, the shore establishment which operated until 1995), the base fell into a state of disrepair. Storms and lack of maintenance caused damage to many buildings. Beginning in the 1980s increased tourism to Bermuda stimulated interest in renovating the dockyard and turning it into a tourist attraction. Currently,cruise ships regularly land at the dockyard during summer months (cruise lines call this place King's Wharf). The West End Development Corporation (WEDCO) was formed in 1982 as aquango to oversee the development of the former Admiralty lands (other than those still in use by the Royal Navy, or by HM Prisons) on Ireland, Boaz, and Watford islands.^[27] To serve these visitors, several formerwarehouses have been turned into artists shops and a pedestrian mall has opened in the clock tower building. The keep area is now the site of theNational Museum of Bermuda and the Dolphin Quest attraction. There are also several restaurants on site. Money is still being raised to repair the remaining damaged buildings and build a second dock to attract additional cruise ships. As of April 2011 the mega-cruise ship dock has been constructed.

• 
  1831 painting of a three-mastedBermuda sloop of theRoyal Navy, entering aWest Indies port.
• 
  HMSNile, anchored at Grassy Bay, as seen from the Commissioner's House
• 
  Summer sleeping tents in 1856 (a measure to protect defending soldiers and marines from the occasionalYellow fever epidemics that struck the colony during the 19th Century)
• 
  HM Dockyard on Ireland in Bermuda ca, 1860.
• 
  The Grassy Bay anchorage seen from HMDBermuda in 1865
• 
  Floating dockBermuda under construction in England, before being towed to Bermuda in 1869
• 
  Floating Dock Bermuda at sea under tow to Bermuda, with HMS Terrible astern, taken from HMS Warrior, 26 July 1869
• 
  The floating dry dockBermuda arriving at Bermuda in July, 1869
• 
  HMSVixen (left) and the barque Nightwatch (right) at the Royal Navy Dockyard between 1867 and 1873
• 
  The floating dry dockBermuda at HM DockyardBermuda
• 
  HM Dockyard as seen from the Keep byAna Brassey in 1883, with two warships and thefloating drydock
• 
  floating drydock in Bermuda, 1895
• 
  HMS Psyche in the floating drydock, circa 1899-1902.
• 
  SMS Falke at the Royal Naval Dockyard in 1903
• 
  SMSFalke in the floating drydockBermuda in 1903
• 
  HMSDonegal at HM DockyardBermuda circa 1918
• 
  HMS Caradoc (D60) at the City of Hamilton circa 1928
• 
  HMSCaradoc football team on Moresby Plain (with Moresby House behind)
• 
  America and West Indies Station 1st Division (HMSDragon,HMSDanae andHMSDespatch) offAdmiralty House in 1931 as they depart the Royal Naval Dockyard to exercise on the open ocean
• 
  HMS Dauntless (D45) at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda in the 1930s
• 
  1933 HMSNorfolk summer cruise map
• 
  HMSYork in Admiralty Floating Dock No. 1 in 1934
• 
  Map of the cruises of the Bermuda-based HMSYork on the America & West Indies Station, 1936-1939
• 
  HMSExeter at the Royal Naval Dockyard with Gibb's Hill Lighthouse beyond, ca 1936
• 
  Harbour Launch (Diesel) of HMSMalabar at HMDBermuda ca 1988
• 
  The Commissioner's House and 6-inch RBL gun of the Keep.
• 
  The Commissioner's House (interior).
• 
  Dockyard and clocktower in 2006
• 
  A view of theCasemates barracks, behind the defensive wall from which it derives its name.
• 
  The Keep, as seen from theGreat Sound
• 
  Victualling yard
• 
  Ordnance yard
• 
  Church Parade of the Royal Navy and British Army at the (then under construction)Cathedral in the City of Hamilton, circa 1900
• 
  Grassy Bay, formerly the main anchorage of the North America and West Indies Squadron, with the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island in the background.
• 
  Sea Cadet Corps TSVenture, on Ireland Island, Bermuda

These lists are for senior officers within the administration of the Royal Naval Dockyard. For the senior naval officer in Bermuda, seeCommanders-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station

Up until 1831 all navy dockyards, were administered by a Resident Commissioner on behalf of theNavy Board in London. By AnOrder in Council dated 27 June 1832 the role of the Resident Commissioner was replaced by either a Captain or Commodore orAdmiral Superintendent depending on the size of the yard.^[28][29]

Post holders included:^[30]

• Captain Fitzherbert Evans, July 1811–1817^[8]
• Captain J. M. Lewis 1817–1821^[31][32]
• CaptainThomas Briggs 1823–1829^[33]
• Captain, the Hon.Thomas Ussher, 1830–1831^[34]

Post holders included:^[35]

• Commodore, SirThomas Ussher, 1832–1838^[34][36]

Note:no superintendents appointed from 1839 to 1847 just a resident store-keeper.^[37]

• Captain Elphinstone D'Oyly D'Auvergne Aplin, 1870-1875
• CaptainLeveson Eliot Henry Somerset, 1875-1878
• Captain Henry John Carr, 1 January 1892^[35]
• CaptainJohn William Brackenbury, 7 June 1894^[35]
• Captain William Harvey Pigott, 28 January 1897 – 1 September 1899^[35]
• Captain Thomas MacGill, 28 June 1899 – 7 August 1902^[35]
• Captain Henry Leah, 28 June 1902 – 29 March 1905^[35]
• CaptainHenry H. Bruce, 1 March 1905 – 20 March 1906^[35]
• Commander Noel Grant, 20 March 1906 – 9 January 1909^[35]
• Captain Basil Hew Fanshawe, 9 January 1909 – 1 July 1911^[35]
• Commander Godfrey E. Corbett, 1 July 1911 – 15 June 1914^[35]
• Rear-AdmiralMorgan Singer, 15 December 1917^[35]
• Captain Basil Hew Fanshawe, 1 June 1919 – 16 April 1921
• Captain Cecil Horace Pilcher, 1 October 1922 – November 1924^[35]
• Captain Aubrey T. Tillard, 23 October 1924 – c. 18 November 1926^[35]
• Captain Colin A. M. Sarel, 21 October 1926 – 16 November 1928^[35]
• Captain Reginald Vesey Holt, 18 October 1928 – November 1930^[35]
• Captain Henry Bradford Maltby, 16 October 1930^[35]
• Captain Francis H. G. Walker, 23 November 1932 – 6 November 1934^[35]
• Captain Edye K. Boddam-Whetham, 6 November 1934 – 17 November 1936^[35]
• Captain Edward Conyngham Denison, 21 October 1936 – 16 December 1938^[35]

• CommodoreCharles Hugo Knox-Little, 15 January 1944 – 31 January 1944^[35]
• Commodore Charles Hugo Knox-Little, 7 August 1944 – July, 1946^[35]

Post holders included:^[38]

• CommodoreGeorge E. Hunt: April 1956-June 1958 - Senior Naval Officer, West Indies^[39]
• Commodore W. John Parker: June 1958-January 1960^[38]
• CommodoreHinton C.J. Shand: January 1960-June 1961^[38]
• CommodoreJohn E.L. Martin: June 1961-July 1963^[38]
• CommodoreEdward B. Ashmore: July 1963-December 1964^[38]
• CommodoreHubert H. Dannreuther: December 1964-August 1966^[38]
• CommodoreJohn M. Townley: August 1966-November 1968^[38]
• CommodoreMartin N. Lucey: November 1968-June 1970^[38]
• CommodoreDavid G. Roome: June 1970-March 1972^[38]
• CommodoreCameron Rusby: March 1972-May 1974, Senior Naval Officer West Indies^[38][40]
• CommodoreBryan J. Straker: May 1974-June 1976^[38]

• Barritt, Michael (2 July 2024).Nelson's Pathfinders. New Haven ; London: Yale University Press. p. 22.ISBN 978-0-300-27376-2.
• Bourne, Kenneth (1967).Britain and the Balance of Power in North America, 1815–1908. Berkeley. CA. US.: University of California Press. p. 48.ISBN 9781597400121.Resident Commissioner, Bermuda Dockyard.
• Strannack, Lt. Commander Ian (1990).The Andrew And The Onions: The Story Of The Royal Navy In Bermuda, 1795–1975. The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press.ISBN 0-921560-03-6.
• Wallace, Robert (2001). Barlow, Jeffrey G. (ed.).From Dam Neck to Okinawa: A Memoir of Antiaircraft Training in World War II (No. 5, The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series). Washington DC, US: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy. Pages 6 to 13 (Teaching at Southlands).ISBN 0-945274-44-0.

• Bermuda Online: Bermuda's Royal Navy base at Ireland Island.Archived 3 February 2013 at theWayback Machine
• Bermuda 4 U Page on HM Dockyard.

• Transport buildings and structures in Bermuda
• Military of Bermuda
• Royal Navy bases outside the United Kingdom
• World War II sites in Bermuda
• Tourist attractions in Bermuda
• Sandys Parish
• Royal Navy dockyards
• Military installations established in 1795
• Military installations closed in 1995

• CS1: long volume value
• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the Royal Naval Biography (1823)
• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the RNB (1823) with Wikisource reference
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from April 2018
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Pages using infobox mapframe without shape links in Wikidata
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Pages using the Kartographer extension