The Royal Navy as can be seen from the above picture of Portsmouth Dockyard still plays an important part in Portsmouth. The dockyard and historic dockyard are next to each other allowing people who visit the historic ships to get a glimpse of the up to date naval ships. There has been a dockyard in Portsmouth since June 1495 when the first dry dock was made in Portsmouth. HMY Britannia has had its home since it was built in Portsmouth. To celebrate the 500 anniversary of the first dry dock in Portsmouth the dockyard was opened to the public to visit with opportunities to look at the repair depot, block mills, take a vintage bus ride around the dockyard, look at ships close up and many other events.

For more information about the Royal Navy it has its own web site at it contains a large amount of information from information about the history of the Royal Navy, information about their uniforms, about careers in the navy and information on the Royal Marines. This site is a good site to visit as it looks good and is easy to navigate.

The Royal Navy put on a field gun run every year on Whale Island for the public to see our entry into the Royal Tournament and many other events at the same time such as bands and aerial displays. The Navy has always been at the centre of Portsmouth life with Nelson leaving for his last journey on the Victory from Portsmouth to go to the battle of Trafelgar.

The Royal Naval Museum tells the history of the Navy from the past up to the present day. The Victory is the oldest commissioned ship around and it is situated in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.