The Board of Admiralty was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. Its purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requirements of the Royal Navy; at that point administrative control of the navy was still the responsibility of the Navy Board, established in 1546. This system remained in place until 1832, when the Board of Admiralty became the sole authority charged with both administrative and operational control of the navy when the Navy Board was abolished. The Board of Admiralty existed until 1964 when the office of First Lord of the Admiralty was finally abolished and the functions of the Lords Commissioners were transferred to the new Admiralty Board and the tri-service Defence Council of the United Kingdom as part of the Ministry of Defence.

1495-current [2013], naval dockyard, English; British 1495 - Henry VII orders a dry dock built at Portsmouth. 1509 - Mary Rose completed. 1496 - first dry dock used. 1623 - harbour considered inappropriate for shipping use due to suspicions of an infestation of the ‘worm’ (Teredo navalis). 1649 - first received a Resident Commissioner (William Willoughby). 1654 - ropery added. 1656 - under Cromwell, a double dock was built. 1658 - new dry dock completed. 1662 - Ordnance Wharf established on the Portsea side. 1665 - dockyard Commissioner house built. 1685 - new mast house. 1689 - parliament ordered one new dry dock and two new wet docks (or non-tidal basins) to be built. 1707 - dockyard chapel constructed. 1708 - the porters’ lodge was built next to the main gate. 1711 - construction began on a brick wall to encompass the entire dockyard. 1732 - Royal Naval Academy was built at a cost of £5772 as an experiment in the early education of naval officers. 1760 - lightning set fire to and destroyed the rope house. 1763 - new north storehouse built. 1770 - a second great fire destroys wooden buildings of the dockyard. 1771 - new ropery constructed. 1775 - shipwrights downed tools refusing to work under piece rates. 1776 - a massive fire burns through the shipyard buildings, started deliberately by American sympathiser James Aitken. New Middle (No 10) storehouse built. 1777 - the notorious Jack the Painter attempted to fire the dockyard but succeeded in burning only the rope house for the second time. 1782 - new south storehouse built. 1785 - original dockyard chapel destroyed and St Anne’s constructed. 1786 - South Office Block constructed. 1787 - new accommodation completed for various shipyard staff. 1791 - North Office Block constructed. 1795 - General Bentham, as Inspector-General of navy works, revived an earlier idea to use Boulton and Watt’s steam-driven fire engine for emptying the reservoir. 1796 - shipwrights set up a mill. 1798 - an iron-framed pay office constructed. 1799 - steam-powered machinery introduced. 1803 - a new copper furnace erected. 1835 - the Hermes launched, the first steamer built at the yard. 1843 - a new fire station was constructed. 1846 - No 3 Ship Shop built. 1848 - the “Leander”, the last sailing ship built at the dock, launched The Great Steam Basin opened by Queen Victoria. 1864 - the iron-clads Royal Alfred and Royal Sovereign launched. 1867 - following the advent of iron-clad ships, extensive rebuilding was started at the dockyard. 1868 - the great rope house disestablished and converted to storage. 1876 - extensive building work completed. 1895 - the Majestic launched. 1896 - dry dock No 14 completed. 1897 - the Canopus launched. 1899 - the London launched. 1905 - HMS Dreadnought, a revolutionary big-gun ship, and the first major ship to be fitted with steam turbines, was completed and launched by King Edward VII. 1907 - Bellerphon launched. 1908 - St Vincent launched. 1909 - Neptune launched. 1910 - Orion launched. 1911 - King George V launched. 1912 - Iron Duke launched. 1913 - the super-Dreadnought, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was launched as the first oil-fired battleship. 1914 - dry dock No 14 extended to accommodate larger ships. 1915 - the Royal Sovereign, last of the Portsmouth dreadnoughts launched. 1941 - clock tower on No 10 storehouse destroyed. 1951 - the frigate Leopard launched. 1959 - the frigate Rhyl launched. 1960 - the frigate Nubian launched. 1967 - HMS Andromeda, the last ship completed at Portsmouth, launched. 1981- following a defence review by the Secretary of State for Defence, Portsmouth was reduced to a Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation (FMRO). 1998 - the running of Portsmouth Dockyard was awarded to a contractor, Fleet Support Limited.