Just saw this new feature on BBC:

http://www.bbc.com...off-britains-coast

A lot of you have probably heard of these forts, but if you haven't, they're towers that the Royal Navy sunk off the coast of England during WWII to defend against the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. I read about these things a few years ago but never saw video of them until now. This is also a pretty good blog post on them:

http://www.bldgblo...9/maunsell-towers/

Good to see some interior shots, thanks for posting.

Wasn't aware of their existence. A very cool find!

They were also used to transmit illegal radio broadcasts in the past. Very interesting place that would be amazing to explore! Gaining entry would be rather difficult, however but well worth it if you decide to make the trip.

Yeah, the history of this place is batshit insane. This guy Paddy Roy Bates, one of the pirate radio broadcasters basically kicked out the others in the 60s and set up his own country called Sealand. He even made his own national anthem, passports, currency, etc. There's a whole wikipedia article on it. From the article:

"In August 1978, Alexander Achenbach, who describes himself as the Prime Minister of Sealand, hired several German and Dutch mercenaries to spearhead an attack on Sealand while Bates and his wife were in England.[8] They stormed the platform with speedboats, jet skis and helicopters, and took Bates' son Michael hostage. Michael was able to retake Sealand and capture Achenbach and the mercenaries using weapons stashed on the platform. Achenbach, a German lawyer who held a Sealand passport, was charged with treason against Sealand[8] and was held unless he paid DM 75,000 (more than US$35,000 or £23,000).[17] The governments of the Netherlands, Austria and Germany petitioned the British government for his release, but the United Kingdom disavowed his imprisonment, citing the 1968 court decision.[3] Germany then sent a diplomat from its London embassy to Sealand to negotiate for Achenbach's release. Roy Bates relented after several weeks of negotiations and subsequently claimed that the diplomat's visit constituted de facto recognition of Sealand by Germany."

I am wondering if Wes Anderson had any of this in mind when he wrote The Life Aquatic. Totally insane.

Sealand is different. This is Sealand:

Right--the Maunsell sea forts are/were multiple installations in the North Sea. Sealand is just one of them, but not the one in the first picture.

its a pretty cool spot, basically we built updated versions based on offshore drilling rigs in the coldest days of the cold war, call "Texas Towers".






sadly one collapsed in the mid 60's and they were all shut down and destroyed.