History of the Dockyard Area

— The area was established when Britain was defeated in the US War of Independence and left without an operational base between Halifax, Nova Scotia and the West Indies.

— To do so the Royal Navy purchased 200 acres on Ireland Island and in 1809 work began on what was then called the North America and West Indies Station.

— During this time the area employed about 1,000 Bermudians and supplied 15 percent of the Island's income.

— In the summer of 1814, 5,000 troops and Royal Marines left Dockyard to attack Washington, D. C. and Baltimore during the War of 1812.

Nearly 600 vessels were repaired in Dockyard during the First World War and the Second World War and German soldiers passed through Dockyard on their way to POW camps in Canada.

— The Royal Navy left the main Dockyard in 1951 though the base was not officially closed until 1995.

— In 1963 Casemates' soldiers' barracks was turned into a prison, which it remained until 1994.

— In 1982 the West End Development Corporation (WEDCO) act was passed and more than $60 million went towards restoring Dockyard.

— Until 2009 the Maritime Museum included: The Keep, the Queen's Exhibition Hall, Dainty Exhibit/Westminster Palace Stone, Shifting House 10 Artefact Conservation Laboratory Shifting Office, Commissioner's House, Shell House, High Cave and Magazine, Forster Cooper Building, A to G Bastions A to G and Magazines, Boatloft and Dolphin Quest.

— The National Museum will include all these buildings as well as the northwest rampart and the nine bastions, and the Casemates Barracks which is three buildings.