Museum opens at historic dockyard

The HMS Gannet is moored near the new museum.

A 19th Century dockyard building has been reopened as a maritime and military museum.

Number 3 Covered Slip at Chatham Dockyard in Kent was built to house ships but now military vehicles, old lifeboats and tanks have gone on show.

Among the vehicles is a rail carriage Lord Kitchener travelled in during his campaigns in Sudan, and the XE8, an early submarine.

The HMS Gannet, in which Kitchener sailed to Sudan, is on display nearby.

'Biggest ambition'

Bill Ferris, chief executive of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, said: "The really interesting thing about Number 3 Covered Slip is that it's essentially a ship built upside down.

"It was almost redundant by the time it was finished in 1838 because we were beginning the move to metal construction.

"I've been here for seven and a half years and in all that time my biggest ambition has been to get it open as a museum."

The Royal Engineers Museum has also donated exhibits to Number 3 Covered Slip.