Building Slips
Covered Slips
Together with the dry docks, the Covered Slips formed the industrial heart of the dockyard of the Age of Sail. The first slips were built during the 17th century as shallow timber lined structures and remained in this form until the mid 18th century when some were renewed in stone.
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Navy embarked on a programme to cover the slips in an attempt to prevent ships' rotting before they were launched. Five covered slips remain at Chatham, all built within a 17 year period between 1838 and 1855, and they demonstrate the remarkable pace of technological change during those years.
No 3 Covered Slip, 1838
Scheduled Ancient Monument & Grade I
The largest timber slip cover built for the Royal Navy, at the time of its construction it was one of the world's largest timber span structures. The curved apsidal end to the slip matched the shape of a ship's bow. In 1901 an internal steel mezzanine was added when the slip was adapted for use as a boat store.
Nos 4, 5 & 6 Covered Slips 1847-48
Scheduled Ancient Monument & Grade I
A range of three identical early cast iron slip covers. With their slender cast iron frames and corrugated iron roof sheeting these roofs are important landmarks in the history of iron and steel structures, predating the great Victorian railway station trainshed roofs and signposting the way to the design of the 1851 Crystal Palace.
No 4 Covered Slip houses LIFEBOAT!, the RNLI's collection of Historic Lifeboats and is open to visitors.
No 7 Covered Slip, 1855
Scheduled Ancient Monument & Grade I
The last of the slips to be built and covered, No 7's roof is also of great technical and historic interest. Its cast and wrought iron frame is one of the earliest examples of a modern trussed roof and is also significant for its pioneering introduction of integral overhead travelling crane rails.
No 7 slip continued in shipbuilding use until 1966 with many of the yard's pre-Dreadnought battleships built on it during the latter years of the 19th century, together with most of the yard's 57 submarines constructed during the 20th century. HM submarine Ocelot, the last warship built for the Royal Navy at Chatham and now preserved at the Historic Dockyard was launched from 7 slip in 1962.