National Shipyard

In the United Kingdom, the National Shipyards were proposed, and partially completed, by the coalition government led by David Lloyd George during the First World War.

Three shipyards were proposed: National Shipyard No.1 at Chepstow; National Shipyard No.2 at Beachley; and National Shipyard No.3 at Portbury. All were located within 12 miles (19 km) of each other, on the River Wye and the Severn estuary. The initiative to establish the shipyards in 1917 followed heavy losses of Allied merchant ships, principally through German U-boat attacks, but in the event only one ship was completed before the end of the war, and the exercise was heavily criticised as a waste of money.

During 1916, in the First World War, large numbers of British merchant ships, amounting to over 300,000 tons of ships each month, were being destroyed by German U-boat attacks in the Atlantic Ocean. The only counter-measure was limited and largely ineffectual aerial detection of U-boats by airships, and the Government resolved to build more cargo ships quickly so as to help maintain supply routes. In May 1917, Sir Eric Geddes was appointed as First Lord of the Admiralty, and later that year the War Cabinet, acting under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, agreed to establish several National Shipyards. These were to be built so as to construct large numbers of "standard" cargo ships as rapidly as possible. Three shipyards were proposed to be built at Chepstow, Beachley and Portbury, on the rivers Wye and Severn, with a total of 41 slipways. The intention was to develop 8 berths at Chepstow, 18 at Beachley, 8 at Portbury, and a further 7 at Chepstow through taking over the adjacent Finch's Yard.

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