1903 – Announcement of Rosyth Dockyard
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Increasing national importance of the Forth
The traditional British Naval bases were spread along the south coast of England from Plymouth to the Medway. They provided excellent access to the English Channel and the Atlantic coats of Europe, the historic source of sea-borne threats.
At the end of the 19th century, a new potential threat was growing from Germany’s High Seas Fleet, based in Wilhemshaven across the North Sea.
The Admiralty decided to match this threat with new naval bases along the East Coast. Scapa Flow in Orkney, Invergordon and Rosyth on mainland Scotland, and Immingham and Harwich in England.
Scapa Flow was earmarked for battle ships and Rosyth for battle cruisers.
The submarine mining operation in the Forth now had a higher priority. It would soon be defending a naval base as well as “commercially important activities” complemented by the new Carlingnose, Coastguard and Dalmeny gun batteries and searchlights.
1903 Rosyth Naval Base
A plan for the eventual Creation of Rosyth Dockyard was announced in 1903.
Government this year bought from Lord Linlithgow his estate of Rosyth @ £80 an acre including Rosyth old Castle and a long piece of foreshore for a new Naval Base on the Firth of Forth. This promises to be a place of great importance by and by, but it will be several years before much use can be made of the place.
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