Bombay Dockyard, also known as Naval Dockyard, is an Indian shipbuilding yard at

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. The superintendent of the dockyard is a Naval Officer of the rank Rear Admiral, known as the Admiral Superintendent.

Background

Shipbuilding was an established profession throughout the Indian coastline prior to the advent of the Europeans and it contributed significantly to maritime exploration throughout

Indian maritime history Indian maritime history begins during the 3rd millennium BCE when inhabitants of the Indus Valley initiated maritime trading contact with Mesopotamia. As per Vedic records, Indian traders and merchants traded with the far east and Arabia. Du ...

. Indian rulers weakened with the advent of the European powers during the

middle ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Indian shipbuilders, however, continued to build ships capable of carrying 800 to 1000 tons. The shipbuilders built ships like HMS ''Hindostan'' and HMS ''Ceylon'', inducted into the Royal Navy. Other historical ships made by the Indian shipbuilders included HMS ''Asia'' (commanded by

Edward Codrington Sir Edward Codrington, (27 April 1770 – 28 April 1851) was a British admiral, who took part in the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Navarino. Early life and career The youngest of three brothers born to Edward Codrington the elder (1732 ...

during the Battle of Navarino in 1827), HMS ''Cornwallis'' (on board which the

Treaty of Nanking The Treaty of Nanjing was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed the Unequal Treaties. In the ...

was signed in 1842), and HMS ''Minden'' (on which Francis Scott Key wrote the poem "The Defence of Fort McHenry", later to become the lyrics to "

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...

").''Early History'' (Indian Navy)
National Informatics Center,

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

History

The Yard was established in 1735 by the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, which brought in shipwrights from their base at Surat in order to construct vessels using Malabar

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

. One of their number,

Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia (1702–1774) was a Parsi from Surat province of Gujarat in India and was a member of the Wadia family of shipwrights and naval architects, who founded Wadia Group in 1736. Lovji Wadia secured contracts with the British ...

, was (along with several generations of his descendants) a key figure in the success of the Yard, as indicated in ''

The New Cambridge History of India ''The New Cambridge History of India'' is a major multi-volume work of historical scholarship published by Cambridge University Press. It replaced '' The Cambridge History of India'' published between 1922 and 1937. The new history is being publi ...

: Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India'':Arnold, 101–102 Lowji Wadia oversaw the building of Bombay Dock, Asia's first dry dock, in 1750; it is still in use today. A contemporary British traveller, Abraham Parsons, described it as follows in 1775: In 1811 the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

took over the Yard, continuing to work with the

Wadia family The Wadia family is a Parsi family from Surat, India currently based in Mumbai, India. The family rose to wealth in the mid-1700s as ship-builders serving the British East India Company as the latter established its sway over India. During t ...

as Master Shipwrights. There was much construction on the site around this time. Duncan Dock, which was the largest dry dock outside Europe at the time, was constructed in 1807–1810, and remains in use today. The main Dockyard building, which fronts onto Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, dates from 1807, as does the administration block. The nearby Great Western Building (formerly Admiralty House) had housed the Port Admiral from around 1764–1792. Today the Yard serves as the premier repair yard of the Indian Navy. It employs 10,000 workers (mostly civilians) overseen by an

Admiral Superintendent The admiral-superintendent was the Royal Navy officer in command of a larger Naval Dockyard. Portsmouth, Devonport and Chatham all had admiral-superintendents, as did some other dockyards in the United Kingdom and abroad at certain times. The adm ...

References

Notes

* Arnold, David (2004), ''The New Cambridge History of India: Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India'', Cambridge University Press, .

External links

''Bombay Dockyard / Naval Dockyard, Mumbai'', GlobalSecurity.org.
{{Coord, 18, 55, 43, N, 72, 50, 28, E, region:IN_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Maritime history of India Indian Navy Shipyards of India Buildings and structures in Mumbai

Naval Dockyard A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that u ...