11/15/2005: Maunsell sea forts

Multiple people submitted this recent find which makes me think it somehow made the rounds. From the underground Kent website, the sort of site every locale should have:

The Thames Estuary Army Forts were constructed in 1942 to a design by Guy Maunsell, following the successful construction and deployment of the Naval Sea Forts. Their purpose was to provide anti-aircraft fire within the Thames Estuary area. Each fort consisted of a group of seven towers with a walkway connecting them all to the central control tower. The fort, when viewed as a whole, comprised one Bofors tower, a control tower, four gun towers and a searchlight tower. They were arranged in a very specific way, with the control tower at the centre, the Bofors and gun towers arranged in a semi-circular fashion around it and the searchlight tower positioned further away, but still linked directly to the control tower via a walkway. All the forts followed this plan and, in order of grounding, were called the Nore Army Fort, the Red Sands Army Fort and finally the Shivering Sands Army Fort. All three forts were in place by late 1943, but Nore is no longer standing. Construction of the towers was relatively quick, and they were easily floated out to sea and grounded in water no more than 30m (100ft) deep.

Huh. I thought they were those walkers from The Empire Strikes Back.

mmm... Condos. What color are you going to paint yours?

With my luck, Homer Simpson would move in next door. All the inconvenience of a light house and neighbors too.

Hmm... Can you buy 'underwater' land?? I wanna build my own place.

(As I said when I was one of the multiple submitters)

It looks like something out of Myst.

Sealand

One of these known as Roughs Tower is host to The Principality of Sealand. It hosts a collocation service called HavenCo which boasts: "Unsurpassed physical security from the world, including government subpoenas and search and seizures of equipment and data." There is more information about the location and history here.

How did you guys find me?

Crap. Now I have to relocate all over again, and I just got my new Ikea furniture yesterday.

Anybody have a raft I can borrow?

Fascinating read. I didn't even know that these structures existed. Sadly, Google Earth does not have hi-rez views of the areas where these structures are located.

Here's some info and photos of other seaforts - not so much like an invading tripod martian! One has even been converted as living accommodation.

Another wierd fact (partially covered in the Wikepedia link, but takes some weeding out) - some of the seaforts shown in IOTD were actually taken over by pirate radio stations in the 1960's-70's when the UK didn't have an open broadcasting policy

Reminds me of Stiltsville in Key Biscayne off Miami...only less pink.

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Welcome astrodex, it's good to see the lurkers finally speaking up!

Hi, astrodex!

you're not really going to "run out" and get a cup of coffee living there, are you?

Reminds me of :

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce With my luck, Homer Simpson would move in next door. All the inconvenience of a light house and neighbors too.

awesome. it does look like a stage set from a sci-fi movie.

Hey srom, shouldn't that be New York State & Massachusetts Commonwealth?

now that's a lawn even I could maintain.