OLD DEVONPORT
. UK |
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© Brian
Moseley, Plymouth Webpage created: February 02, 2016 Webpage updated: April 15, 2020 |
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THE ROYAL NAVY IN OLD DEVONPORT ROYAL NAVAL BARRACKS
The Royal Naval Barracks,
Devonport. The seed of the Royal Naval Barracks at Devonport was sown in 1860, when the 104-gun first-rate warship, HMS "Royal Adelaide", became the depot ship at the Plymouth Dockyard, where she had been launched in 1828. Twenty years later men employed by Mr John Pethick, the Plymouth contractor, started to remove hillocks and prepare the ground for a new shore barracks. The contract for the erection of the first buildings, worth £250,000, was let to Mr John Matcham but he sustained fatal injuries while inspecting the works on October 12th 1882 and was replaced by Mr Alfred R Debnam. The buildings were completed in 1886 but because some senior Naval men thought that providing such a fine set of buildings for the ordinary sailors was a waste of money, it was left unoccupied until Tuesday June 4th 1889, when almost 500 men transferred from the depot ship HMS "Royal Adelaide".
A wooden paddle
steamer named HMS "Vivid" became the flagship at Devonport in 1889 and also
acted as a tender to the depot ship, HMS "Royal Adelaide". In 1890 the
"Vivid" became the nominal depot ship for all sailors not serving aboard a
ship at Devonport as required by the Naval Discipline Act. Thus
HMS
"Vivid" became the name of the Royal Naval Barracks. That was until Monday July 31st
1933 when the custom of holding a "Drake Dinner" was
started in the wardroom and someone suggested that a more
appropriate name for the base would be
HMS "Drake". The Admiralty
approved the suggested and as from Monday January 1st 1934
HMS "Vivid"
became
HMS "Drake". New cap ribbons were issued on Friday January
19th. |
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