Themes

Article Highlights

• Introduction

• The keel laying ceremony

• Launching a submarine

• The commissioning service

• Location of the ceremonies

Where are the ceremonies held?

The famous Barrow shipbuilding firm Vickers and Armstrong Ltd has been responsible for building many of the Royal Navy's submarines. As a consequence this has been the location for many of the launching and commissioning ceremonies. Britain's first nuclear submarine HMS Dreadnought and first Polaris-armed ballistic nuclear submarine HMS Resolution were both built, launched and commissioned at Barrow.

Launch of the submarine HMS Dreadnought on the 21st October 1960 at Vickers shipbuilding yard (RNSM)