Spitbank Fort Sold for £1 Million

We mentioned a little while ago that Spitbank Fort in the Solent was up for auction, turns out just before the auction was held a buyer came forward and offered £1,000,000, way more than the guide price and quickly accepted by the sellers. It will be interesting to see how the fort will be used in the future. For full details see the BBC article.

Tags: Spitbank Fort

Spitbank Fort: For Sale!

You probably can’t see the For Sale sign from Southsea beach but Spitbank Fort is up for auction next month, estimated to be going for anywhere between six to seven hundred thousand pounds. Spitbank Fort was built between 1861 and 1878 and was one of a series of land and sea forts built to defend against French warships during the Napoleonic wars. During World War II it was installed with anti-aircraft guns to defend nearby Portsmouth harbour against Nazi attack. Since then it has been an on-and-off music venue and restaurant. Spitbank is one of a series of forts in the Solent, No Mans Land Fort has been converted into residential accommodation while Horse Sand Fort has remained derelict for about half a century.

Find out more information about the forts here.

Tags: Spitbank Fort

Solent AIS

What with the news of the Russian ship going missing you might be aware of AIS (Automatic Identification System). AIS is a short range coastal tracking system used on ships for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby ships and VTS stations. With AIS information such as unique identification, position, course, and speed can be easily retrieved and displayed. AIS is generally used to allow maritime authorities to track and monitor vessel movements but it is possible for anyone with the right equipment to receive the data, which is what someone on the Isle of Wight has done and with their website www.solentwaters.co.uk very cleverly incorporated the live data with Google Maps and even webcams overlooking the Solent. If you are curious as to which ships are passing Southsea now and previously this is an incredible online resource and a fascinating slice of technology and web integration.

Tags: Sea, Shipping, Solent