"This is, or soon will be, the Achilles, iron armour-plated ship. Twelve hundred men are working at her now; twelve hundred men working on stages over her sides, over her bows, over her stern, under her keel, between her decks, down in her hold, within her and without, crawling and creeping into the finest curves of her lines wherever it is possible for men to twist. Twelve hundred hammerers, measurers, caulkers, armourers, forgers, smiths, shipwrights, twelve hundred dingers, clashers, dongers, rattlers, clonkers, bangers, bangers, bangers!"
Charles Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveller, 1863
In 1858 the French Navy laid down the world's first ironclad battleship, La Gloire and placed orders for a further five. At a stroke the Royal Navy's wooden warships were rendered obsolete and British dominance at sea threatened. The Admiralty responded with the construction of Warrior, launched from a commercial yard on the River Thames in December 1860 and with the order for the construction of Achilles, at Chatham. The photograph to the left shows the HMS Achilles under construction in No.2 Dry Dock, 1863.
New facilities were provided for iron working machines in a range of workshops built alongside 2 Dock and with a Plate Shop at the head of 1 Dock (No 1 workbase), both of which survive today. A further surviving structure from this time is the yard's surgery (Old Surgery) built closer to the dry docks than its smaller predecessor to cope with a much increased number of injuries caused by the new machines and working practices.
