The first dry dock

The first known dry dock in Europe was built in 1495 in Portsmouth on the order of Henry VII. The first ship to use these new facilities was the 600-ton Sovereign, which was worked on for 8 months. Getting her out of the dock proved tricky. Twenty men worked for a month ‘breking up of the dokke hede at every tide both day and night’ presumably removing the tons of material sealing the entrance. It can be argued that the decision to choose this location for the dry dock sealed Portsmouth’s fate as Britain’s premier port.