Naval shipbuilding at Portsmouth recommenced under the English Commonwealth, the first ship being the eponymous Fourth-rate frigate "Portsmouth" launched in 1650. (Portsmouth had been a parliamentarian town during the civil war). A resident Commissioner was first appointed in 1649 (fifteen years later the Commissioner was provided with a house, and extensive gardens, at the centre of the yard). A new double dry dock (i.e. double the standard length so as to accommodate two ships at once) was built by the Commonwealth government in 1656, on what was then the tip of land at the north-west corner of the yard. It was joined by a single dry dock, just to the south; the yard's one shipbuilding slip (completed in 1651) stood between the two docks. These would all have been built of timber, rather than stone.