CHATELLERAULT, a t. of France, in the department of Vienne, situated on the river of that name, 18 m. n.n.e. of Poitiers. A handsome stono bridge, w;th a massive castellated gateway, built by Sully, at one end, connects it with a suburb on the other side of the river. C., which is an ill-built, mean-looking town, is one of the chief seats of the manufacture of cutlery in France, and since 1820 has had a national manufactory of swords and bayonets. Its river-port makes it the entrepot for the produce of an extensive district. The duke of Hamilton derives his title of duke of Chatellierault from this place. Pop. '76, 15,244.
In a military point of view, the lines of detached forts connected with C. constitute a fortification of greath strength; and the whole is regarded as a flank defense for London in the event of an invader seeking to march on the capital from the s. coast. The place is also defended by some strong forts on the Medway. In and near C. are fort Pitt, a military hospital and strong fort; barracks for infantry, marines, artillery, and engineers; a park of artillery; and magazines, store-houses, and depots on a large scale.
In a naval sense, C. is one of the principal royal ship-building establishments in the kingdom, and a visit to it never fails to impress the stranger with a sense of the naval power of England. The dock-yard is nearly 2 m. in length, containing several building
slips, and wet docks sufficiently capacious for the largest ships; and the whole is tra versed in every direction by a tramway for locomotives, with a gauge of 18 inches. One peculiar establishment in this dock-yard is a metal mill, which supplies all the royal dock-yards with copper sheets, copper bolts, and other articles in copper and mixed metal. The saw-mills at C. are so extensive that it is said that, if fully employed. they could cup up timber enough for all the dock-yards. A duplicate of Brunel's block-making machinery is kept at C., ready to supplement the operations of that at Portsmouth. The dock-yard is under the control of a captain-superintendent and other officers, whose annual salaries vary from £700 to £200 each. Under them are clerks receiving from £450 to £80 each. The actual workmen, artisans. and laborers, vary in number according to the amount of ship-building and repairing going on. In the navy estimates provision is made for about 3,500 shipwrights, calkers, joiners, sawyers, millwrights, smiths, blockmakers, sailmakers, ropemakers, riggers, laborers, etc. The total outlay on the C. establishment in 1879-80 was £6S5,253.