Mansella Sea Forts
At the height of World War II, the port of London was the busiest in the world. The German Navy considered the Thames to be an important route and in every possible way tried to inflict damage on the British with the help of a new secret weapons - magnetic contactless mines. Mines detonated under the pressure of some large metal object, for example, a ship. Because of them, hundreds of ships sank, and the anti-Hitler coalition needed to find a solution. Knowing that the mines were laid at sea using airplanes, Guy Mansell (1884-1961), a British engineer, created a coastal defense plan. After some changes, his plan was approved. So the sea forts of Marcella were born.
1. The design was simple: the concrete structure was a pontoon barge, on which stood two cylindrical towers with machine guns. They were collected in a dry dock and delivered to the site.
2. Then the cylinders were towed into place and lowered to the bottom, and a platform was placed on top.
3. Each forte fit around 120 people, mostly they were located on 7 floors in cylindrical concrete towers with a diameter of 7,3 m.
4. Forts ruled the Navy, and called them each separately: Tower of Bandits, Tower of the Sunken Head, Sandy Tongue and Knock-John.
5. They were all placed between 6 and 12 miles (9,6 - 19 km) from the coast between February and June of the year 1942.
6. Mansell also created forts for air defense. These were larger installations consisting of 7 interconnected steel platforms (naval army towers), five anti-aircraft guns standing in a semicircle around the control center and living quarters. And the seventh tower, the furthest away, served as a searchlight mast.
7. Three forts were placed in the Mersey, three on the Thames between May and December 1943.
8. Four hollow reinforced concrete "feet" of a meter in diameter supported the steel hull 11 x 11 m, consisting of two floors, and military equipment was installed on the upper deck. Each fort contained a 265 man.
9. After the war, the forts were decommissioned at the end of the 1950s and used for a variety of purposes. In the middle of the 60s, a radio station was located in some forts. In 1964, Radio Sutch was broadcasting from one of the forts. It was later renamed Radio City and expanded to all five towers that were interconnected.
10. In 1967, former British major Paddy Roy Bates took over one of the forts, saying it was an independent state. Bates repulsed this fort from a group of radio pirates and founded the Principality of Sealand in it. He even created the constitution of his own state and invented national symbols.
11. Having grown old, Bates moved to the mainland - to Essex and died safely in 2012 at the age of 91.
12. Although the Principality of Sealand was not recognized by any of the existing states, it was often called micronation. And although Roy Bates stated that this is a de facto state, no one except him recognized it.
13. Further, a group of enthusiasts who wanted to restore the fort to its original condition became interested in Fort Redsend. After the underwater research, the work reached the moment when the G1 access system was installed on the tower, which allowed project members to climb the tower to start the restoration.
14. Now undergoing a new study of surface structures. He is being led by Taylor Woodrow. And as soon as the research is completed, a museum will be made from this place, which will be a kind of monument to Guy Mansell, who used the design of army forts to design future oil rigs in the North Sea in the 1950s.
1. The design was simple: the concrete structure was a pontoon barge, on which stood two cylindrical towers with machine guns. They were collected in a dry dock and delivered to the site.
2. Then the cylinders were towed into place and lowered to the bottom, and a platform was placed on top.
3. Each forte fit around 120 people, mostly they were located on 7 floors in cylindrical concrete towers with a diameter of 7,3 m.
4. Forts ruled the Navy, and called them each separately: Tower of Bandits, Tower of the Sunken Head, Sandy Tongue and Knock-John.
5. They were all placed between 6 and 12 miles (9,6 - 19 km) from the coast between February and June of the year 1942.
6. Mansell also created forts for air defense. These were larger installations consisting of 7 interconnected steel platforms (naval army towers), five anti-aircraft guns standing in a semicircle around the control center and living quarters. And the seventh tower, the furthest away, served as a searchlight mast.
7. Three forts were placed in the Mersey, three on the Thames between May and December 1943.
8. Four hollow reinforced concrete "feet" of a meter in diameter supported the steel hull 11 x 11 m, consisting of two floors, and military equipment was installed on the upper deck. Each fort contained a 265 man.
9. After the war, the forts were decommissioned at the end of the 1950s and used for a variety of purposes. In the middle of the 60s, a radio station was located in some forts. In 1964, Radio Sutch was broadcasting from one of the forts. It was later renamed Radio City and expanded to all five towers that were interconnected.
10. In 1967, former British major Paddy Roy Bates took over one of the forts, saying it was an independent state. Bates repulsed this fort from a group of radio pirates and founded the Principality of Sealand in it. He even created the constitution of his own state and invented national symbols.
11. Having grown old, Bates moved to the mainland - to Essex and died safely in 2012 at the age of 91.
12. Although the Principality of Sealand was not recognized by any of the existing states, it was often called micronation. And although Roy Bates stated that this is a de facto state, no one except him recognized it.
13. Further, a group of enthusiasts who wanted to restore the fort to its original condition became interested in Fort Redsend. After the underwater research, the work reached the moment when the G1 access system was installed on the tower, which allowed project members to climb the tower to start the restoration.
14. Now undergoing a new study of surface structures. He is being led by Taylor Woodrow. And as soon as the research is completed, a museum will be made from this place, which will be a kind of monument to Guy Mansell, who used the design of army forts to design future oil rigs in the North Sea in the 1950s.
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