Vol. 65, No. 4 winter 2020 312


6. T e dockyard basin and the Dunkirk rope factory in 1709: this is the long building shown on the right of the painting. © Musée des beaux arts de Dunkerque, via AAMM.


374 meters (1,230 feet) long, the rope factory was surmounted by a mansard-style roof whose slate tiles gave the building a majestic character. T e building included three pavilions; the southern at diff erent times housed a sail loſt or a hemp store, the northern stored tar, and the central led to a cable store attached to the building. Begun at the beginning of 1666, the Rochefort rope factory was completed three years later. In 1733 the hemp store then had a capacity of 1.8 million pounds while, at times when heavily refi tting the fl eet, production could reach 160,000 pounds of rope per month.


Enhancing Louis XIV’s dockyards


T e second wave of dockyard improvements took place from 1678, aſt er when the Peace of Nijmegen was concluded that ended hostilities with the Dutch. In the meantime Colbert had drawn lessons from


the “functional and architectural experiences” to which Rochefort’s creation had given rise. T e many exchanges he had with the superintendents of other ports about the layout and relative arrangement of the stores and workshops of the dockyards demonstrate his desire for rationality, as simultaneously they reduced his creativity. In October 1674, he had Louis XIV sign a regulation whose title “On the construction of


the buildings necessary for the


dockyards” constituted a real program for their design. (ANM B² 25) In terms of architectural quality, Colbert advocated sobriety: “T e buildings of the naval dockyards will be built with all the necessary solidity and precautions. T e best materials will be used in this construction. T e architecture must be simple and derive its magnifi cence and beauty from the layout, extent and solidity without the use of other adornments.”


It was Vauban who intervened in Dunkirk and Toulon


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