in 1689 prince william of orange became william iii and almost immediately he required the building of a new royal dockyard west of portsmouth. edmund dummer, surveyor of the navy, travelled the west country searching for an area where a dockyard could be built; he sent in two estimates for sites, one in plymouth, cattewater and one further along the coast, on the hamoaze, a section of the river tamar, in the parish of stoke damerel. having dismissed the plymouth site as inadequate, he settled on the hamoaze area which soon became known as plymouth dock, later renamed devonport. on 30 december 1690, a contract was let for a dockyard to be built: the start of plymouth (later devonport) royal dockyard. having selected the location, dummer was given responsibility for designing and building the new yard.