Sea Fort on the River Solent Portsmouth
Spitbank Fort is a sea fort built as a result of the 1859 Royal Commission. The fort is located in the Solent, near Portsmouth, England. Work on constructing the fort started in 1861 but was soon halted for a review into the best way to defend the Solent and approaches to Portsmouth Harbour. Work restarted in 1867 and was completed in 1878. Spitbank is smaller than the two main Solent forts, Horse Sand Fort and No Mans Land Fort. Its main purpose was as a further line of defence for ships that made it past the two main forts. It is 162 feet in diameter across at its base, with 1 floor and a basement and armour plating only on the seaward side. It was originally planned to have been armed with nine 10" eighteen ton rifled muzzle loader (RML) guns on the seaward side, and six 7" seven ton RML guns on the landward side. However, by the time of completion the plan had changed so that the seaward side received nine " thirty eight ton RML guns.
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Photo credit: © Neil Setchfield / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: britain, british, coast, coastal, defence, england, english, fort, harbour, historic, leisure, port, protect, protection, river, sailing, sails, sea, ships, solent, spitbank, structure, yacht
