The next morning, Portsmouth felt different.
It wasn't louder. It wasn't busier. The dockyard had always been loud, always busy — filled with hammering, sawing, shouting, and the creak of timber.
But overnight, something had shifted.
Men did not walk, they marched.
They didn't talk — they discussed.
They didn't build ships.
They began an era.
Phillip arrived at Dry Dock No. 4 — the largest in the naval shipyard — just as the sun had barely crested over the harbor walls. The air smelled of salt, smoke, and the cold tang of raw steel.
Steel.
For the first time in this shipyard, wood was not the central material. Piles of iron plates, heavy steel beams, and metal fasteners had been brought in from nearby foundries. Two massive industrial furnaces were already being installed on the far side, under heavy guard.
Dry Dock No. 4 had always been used to build wooden hulls. But today, it had a new role.
Today, it would become the birthplace of Britain's first ironclad.
