My First Post

Published by: Nicky B. on February 19, 2018

This town is situated by the river Medway, and is joined to Rochester, to which it is a suburb. It was built by King Charles the Second after the Dutch war; but the dock was begun by Queen Elizabeth, and has been so much improved, that it is now the first arsenal in the world. The houses of the various officers are well built, and some of them even stately. The dock-yard, including the ordnance wharf, is about a mile in length, and some of the store rooms are near 700 feet long. Although the stores of the navy are so immense in these magazines, every thing is arranged in the greatest order. Here are upwards of 20 smiths’ forges constantly at work, and some of the anchors that are made weigh near five tons. The new rope-house is 1140 feet in length, in which cables are made 120 fathoms long, and 22 inches round. In the yard are four docks for repairing, and six slips for building, new ships. The ordnance wharf, which adjoins hereto, was the original dock, where the guns belonging to each ship are now arranged in tiers, with the names of the vessels they belonged to marked above them.

In 1558 the Chest of Chatham was instituted by the seamen in the service of Queen Elizabeth, each paying a portion of his pay for the relief of the sufferers in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. There is also here an hospital for the relief of aged mariners or shipwrights.

At the entrance of the town stands the victualling office, whence his Majesty’s ships at Chatham and Sheerness are supplied with provisions. Near it stands the chapel of ease to the parish church, it is a circular building, the walls of which are three feet thick, and appears of great antiquity, probably of Norman origin by the architecture. This chapel is 74 feet long and 20 wide, the west end and steeple having been added in 1743.