Despite its success, Pembroke Dockyard was to fall increasingly out of favour during the latter part of the 19th Century. Two of the main reasons for this were its distance from London, and the Admiralty, and its lack of deep water fitting out facilities for the ships it built. The Drake, an armoured cruiser launched in March 1901, came in significantly in excess of budget and it was reported at the time that a good deal of the excess was accounted for by the lack of facilities for completing large ships at the Dockyard. One of the steps taken to try to address these concerns was to hurry up the finishing of work to provide a deep water fitting-out berth at Carr Jetty. However, the waters at Carr Jetty were still – the same as at Hobbs Point – tidal and even the £100,000 invested on this improvement was to provide only a temporary lifeline for the Dockyards.

Carr Jetty provided fitting out facilities within the Dockyard.