Infrastructure makes ships into a sustainable fleet

Larger warships required the Navy Board, Admiralty, and dockyards to organize construction, supplies, repairs, and rebuilding. By 1808, the Portsmouth Block Mills produced 130,000 specialized rigging blocks a year with 30 men, replacing work that had employed hundreds. Blocks are the wooden housings used in pulley systems to guide ropes, and a fully rigged ship needed hundreds of them. Different ships, rope thicknesses, and rigging duties required batches of differently sized blocks, so the machinery switched between products. That production still depended on people to inspect the work, pay workers, and arrange material supplies. Buildings and facilities were replaced or enlarged as requirements changed, leaving only part of the earlier infrastructure visible today. A fleet became sustainable when this organization could keep its ships maintained, fed, and supplied with ammunition throughout their lives.