Some 25% of the original oak frame of HMS Namur, a 3rd Rate Ship of the Line, found beneath the floorboards of the present restaurant and now forming the centre piece of new galleries of the Age of Sail.
HMS Namur was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 3 March 1756.
Namur served in several major sea battles, was modified to a 74-gun ship with a strengthened bow in 1805, and was placed on harbour service in 1807. She remained in this role until 1833, when she was finally broken up.
Shipbuilding – especially warship construction at Chatham and Sheerness influenced the development of North Kent and Medway for over 350 years. The Navy’s ships operating from the county’s Royal Dockyard’s, ports and anchorages played a major role in expanding the British Empire during the Age of Sail and have left a historical and technological legacy that continues to today.
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