In 1903 the Admiralty decided to establish a naval base and dockyard at Rosyth, taking advantage of deep tidal water there, the dockyard was finished in 1916, when the pre-Dreadnought HMS Zealandia entered dry dock there.

During the Cold War, Rosyth was used to refit conventional and Polaris nuclear-armed submarines as well as other warships. In 1997 Rosyth became the first privatised naval dockyard in Britain, and is now the site where the Royal Navy’s two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are being assembled.

 In this book, published in the dockyard’s centennial year, Walter Burt takes us through the history of Rosyth dockyard and naval base.