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42 43 WEST END DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION merchant or fishing vessels in peacetime) into a fully professional institutionwith an officer corps and a defined career structure. TheActs of Union,which created the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707,also established the Royal Navy,which remained theworld’s largest mari- time force throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. During theAmericanWar of Independence (1775– 1783),it easilyobliterated the small Continental Navyof frigates fielded by the rebel colonists,but the entryof France,Spain,and theNetherlands into thewar against Britain produced a combination of opposing forces which deprived theNavyof its posi- tion of superiority for the first time since the 1690s. That decisive defeat forced the retreating flotilla to establish a new,operational base betweenHalifax, Nova Scotia and theWest Indies,two key remaining outposts of British rule-and Bermudawas quickly identified as themost strategic and secure location. The Royal Navypurchased some 200 acres of land on the island’s west end,and in 1809,workbegan on theNorthAmerica andWest Indies Station and the Royal Naval Dockyard.It was from there,in the summer of 1814,that a British force of 5,000 troops and Royal Marines set sail for the famous attackon Washington,D.C.and Baltimore during theWar of 1812.And it was fromone of the British ships that a prisoner,Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key,penned thewords to the Star-Spangled Banner,after seeing theAmerican flag still flying above Fort McHenry after a heavybombardment. Over the course of time,the Royal Naval Dockyard became amajor factor in Bermuda’s economyand an important center of marine technology,afford- ing generations of Bermudians first-rate training in plumbing,carpentry,and other maritime trades. During the FirstWorldWar (1914-18) and Second WorldWar (1939-1945),it was a bustling,vibrant port with floating docks where ships were repaired for combat deployment. The Royal Navy left themainDockyard in 1951, and for the next two decades,the areawas largely abandoned until theNational Museumof Bermuda opened in 1974,and its success led the government