Why government shipyards were not judged by dividends

How could a government-owned shipyard justify itself without showing a commercial profit?

It did not need shareholder profit, but it did need a steady workload that justified retaining the yard, workforce, and cost knowledge.

Government-owned yards did not need to generate dividends, but they still required enough continuous work to justify their workforce and facilities. Their value lay partly in retaining skills and providing the Admiralty with an internal benchmark against private bids.