Nautical Research Journal 309
3. T e Toulon rope factory under construction in 1689. © SHD Ms 144.
feet) by the superintendent of Seuil in 1668.
T e Toulon dockyard was sandwiched between the dock, the town and the Henri IV ramparts. T e rope factory was an open space encroaching on the shipyard.
In Le Havre, the Navy’s installations were more
modest: for the most part, in the vicinity of the Bassin Royal. T e urban density inside the fortifi ed enclosure limited the possibilities of setting up a rope factory, the need for which was quickly identifi ed. Aſt er Clerville’s visit to the site, Superintendent Brodart encouraged the construction of a royal rope factory along the western curtain wall of the city wall.
Construction began at the end of 1671. T e structure was commissioned in early 1673, when fi ſt y-two spinners and fi ſt y layers were busy. (Peter 1995) Wedged between the rampart walk and the rampart, the rope factory had its length limited to the north by the moat of the bastion of Sainte Adresse. Its fl oor, built on a wooden frame, was 189 toises (1,320 feet) long for spinning and laying. Its roof, lit by seventeen skylights, allowed twenty-four spinners to work. In its southern part, the base of the rope factory, built of stones and bricks, housed seven stores. In the same area, behind the Saint André bastion, was a courtyard in front of the rope factory and bordered by stores for tar and rope yarn.
Dunkirk was visited by Louis XIV in 1662 and in- spected by Clerville in 1664. T e project to create there a naval dockyard from scratch soon began. A
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