Sea Forts are real!

[kerick]

Found this on a thread at Starship Modeler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Redsandsforts.jpg
How weird is this? It really looks like some kind of sci fi creation. What would these look like if these had survived to the present day?

[PR19_Kit]

What would these look like if these had survived to the present day?

They did, or ones just like them did.

I used to take the ferry from Sheerness to Vlissingen in Holland and we went very close to those forts on every sailing, or at least a set of forts that looked pretty much the same.

[Weaver]

This one still exists too, and is now an independent micro-state:

http://www.sealandgov.org/

[Nick]

Kerick,
You can take a boat out to see them from Gravesend or Southend. Some of my mates did this and when they got there the tour guide realised he'd left the keys on the dock    They had to go back another day!

There's even an exhibition about them at London Docklands Museum right now http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Docklands/Whats-on/Exhibitions-Displays/Estuary.htm

If they still had relevant use today they'd be like oil platforms with Patriot, Rapier and Stinger missiles plus a serious radar head. Expect to see a large heli pad and a dock for supply ships.

[kerick]

Its an interesting concept. Verticle launch systems holding a mix of missles. Some harpoons and CIWS for self defence. Definately docks and chopper pads, maybe even a hanger for protection from violent North Sea weather. something bigger than these WW2 forts but smaller than a full oil platform.
In the pictures it showed what appeared to be a gun barrel pointing out of each fort. I think these were beams sticking out holding pulleys and such for winching supplies from boats.

[PR19_Kit]

There are four or five much more permanent looking sea forts in the Solent too, guarding the approaches to Portsmouth and Southampton.  (I went past them today en route back from France...) I think the Solent ones were build to disuade Napolean attacking the Solent ports but could be wrong. They had big guns installed at some time or another.

[Rheged]

There are two types of Second World War sea forts in the Thames Estuary, see below:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunsell_Forts

and this  South Coast bunch, the ones to which Kit refers:-


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmerston_Forts,_Portsmouth


There was something similar planned for the Mersey Estuary.........see below


http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=1167


I hope this data adds to the free flow of ideas

[Martin H]

I think the Solent ones were build to disuade Napolean attacking the Solent ports but could be wrong. They had big guns installed at some time or another.

Thats about right Kit.
I remember visiting one in the mid 1980's. I was down there on a schools trip staying on board HMS Trincomalee (now berthed & restored at Hartlepool). It was a private home that was being rebuilt/restored to be a tourist attraction. No idea if it lasted long as such.

[Rheged]

There are a couple of First World War forts in the Humber too


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humber_Forts


I assume that the islands of the Firths of Clyde and Forth  provided similar facilities.

The list below (thank you wikipedia)  may serve as a basis for further research.  I'll admit that being reminded  of these constructions has started me thinking............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sea_fort

Added ten minutes or so later....How about this for an idea??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_M-N_Scheme

[PR19_Kit]

Added ten minutes or so later....How about this for an idea??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_M-N_Scheme

Well I'll be damned!  

Our ferry used the Nab Tower as a waypoint before turning west toward Portsmouth and I took a few photos of it (to be posted later today perhaps) and I tried to find a link between it and the other Solent forts on the Net but without luck, as there isn't one! It's quite a long way to the east of the Solent Forts, about due south of Chichester perhaps, and it sure looks weird sticking up out of the sea in the middle of nowhere.

[Later] Ahaha, I see it all now. The Nab Tower is a lighthouse warning of rocks that it's standing on and it really IS a waypoint marking the entrance to the deepwater channel into the Solent.

[Joe C-P]

We had them in the USofA as well. Here in New Jersey, down in Cape May, there's such a structure on the beach, or above the beach, depending on how much sand there is around it. Here's one site about it.

http://www.lostinjersey.com/military/capemaybunker.html

[crudebuteffective]

dont forget fort drum (the concrete battleship) of the philpines

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Drum_(El_Fraile_Island)‎

[kerick]

A number of gun emplacements were built around the Hawaiian Islands in early WW2.

[NARSES2]

A number of gun emplacements were built around the Hawaiian Islands in early WW2.

The one in Wakkiki that is now a museum is pre war. Interesting place and right on the beach 

[kerick]

A number of gun emplacements were built around the Hawaiian Islands in early WW2.

The one in Wakkiki that is now a museum is pre war. Interesting place and right on the beach 

You're right, they were built in the 1910's