The Royal Navy's historical links with the West Country are immense. The ships that defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 sailed from the mouth of the River Plym, thus establishing the military prescence in Plymouth, The memory of Sir Francis Drake, Mayor of Plymouth as well as Great National hero is kept alive in the name, HMS DRAKE, which was recently extended to the whole of Devonport Naval Base.

In 1689 Prince William of Orange became William III and almost immediately addressed the need to construct a new dockyard. He dispatched a Naval Officer, Edmund Dummer, to investiage potential sites in the West Country; he settled upon two potential locations, one at Cattewater, Plymouth, and one further along the coast, on the Hamoaze, a section of the River Tamar. On 30 December 1690, a contract was let to Robert Waters of Portsmouth to build a dockyard in the Hamoaze area, thus forming the basis of the Plymouth Dock.

Dummer designed the first successful stepped stone dry dock in Europe at Devonport. Historically, the Navy Board's reliance upon timber resulted in high maintenance costs and a significant fire risk; Dummer's design offered a strengthened operating floor, allowed rapid erection of staging and incorporated stepped sides that made working beneath a hull much easier. Among his innovations was the application of lean manufacturing techniques, with a logical layout that maximised both land use and efficiency, a centralized storage area and a double rope-house that combined the previously separate tasks of spinning and laying, while allowing the upper floor to be used for the repair of sails.

The first ship to be built and launched in the dock yard was the "Postboy", weighing 73 tonnes. The dockyard expanded rapidly in the 18th century, now covering seventy acres and incorporating a further three docks - the Union Double, the North Dock and the New North Dock.

In 1824, Plymouth Dock was re-named as the Royal Dockyard, Devonport, after the grant of royal approval. With the coming of steam, the Keyham Steam Yard was completed in 1853. A dedicated electricty supply was added at the beginning of the twentieth century, the facility now covering 114 acres and incorporating the newly constructed Prince of Wales Turning Basin.

The Royal Dockyard saw major expansion during and following the two world wars - by 1969, the docks extended to 332 acres and thirteen docks, almost certainly the then largest naval dockyard in the world. Today, Devonport is the largest Naval Base in Western Europe and covers over 650 acres. It has fifteen dry docks, 6.5 km (4 miles) of waterfront, twenty five tidal berths and five basins. The facility, currently operated by Babcock Marine,  is the only site in the UK now equipped to conduct nuclear submarine refits, including those for the Vanguard class. There are over five thousand ship movements annually and is it estimated that the base generates some ten per cent of the economic activity of Plymouth. 

Public access is restricted to the annual two day event, "Navy Days", when visitors can tour the facility, go aboard active naval ships and watch various displays of naval prowess. Among the most popular attractions is the nuclear powered submarine HMS Courageous, used in the Falklands War. Devonport serves as headquarters for Flag Officer Sea Training, which is responsible for the training of all the ships of the Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, along with many from foreign naval services.

A maritime museum is under development at Devonport, the Plymouth Naval Base Museum.