Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax | |
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Halifax, Nova Scotia | |
HMS Asia at the Halifax Naval Yard, 1797
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Coordinates | 44°39′23.63″N 63°34′44.69″W / 44.6565639°N 63.5790806°WCoordinates: 44°39′23.63″N 63°34′44.69″W / 44.6565639°N 63.5790806°W |
Type | Shipyard, dockyard |
Site information | |
Controlled by |
Royal Navy (1759–1905), |
Official name | Halifax Dockyard National Historic Site of Canada |
Designated | 1923 |
Site history | |
Built | 1759 |
In use | 1759 – |
Royal Navy (1759–1905),
Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries (1905–1910),
Royal Canadian Navy (1910–present)
Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax was a Royal Navy base in Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1759 to 1905. The Halifax Yard was the headquarters for the Royal Navy's North American Station for sixty years, starting with the Seven Years' War.
Halifax Harbour had served as a Royal Navy seasonal base from the founding of the city in 1749, using temporary facilities and a careening beach on Georges Island. The British purchased Gorham Point (present-day Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott) for the Naval Yard, which had been named after its previous owner ranger John Gorham. Land and buildings for a permanent Naval Yard were purchased in 1758 and the Yard was officially commissioned in 1759. The Yard served as the main base for the Royal Navy in North American during the Seven Years' War, the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars and the War of 1812.
In 1818 Halifax became the summer base for the squadron which shifted to the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda for the remainder of the year. The Halifax yard did not have a dry dock until 1887 so it was officially called the "Halifax Naval Yard" when first established, although it was popularly known as the Halifax Dockyard. The graving-dock, coaling facilities and torpedo boat slip were added between 1881 and 1897. The station closed in 1905 and sold to Canada in 1907 becoming Her Majesty's Canadian Dockyard, a function it still serves today as part of CFB Halifax.