Portland Fortifications - Jottings Issue 2004/1

Just another example of a chance meeting.  A few weeks ago I visited the Naval Cemetery at Portland looking for the grave of the cabin boy who died when the Marie Reine was wrecked.  I met a couple in the cemetery and apart from discussing many of the interesting headstones and inscriptions we drifted to the subject of Fortifications visible from the cemetery.  It turned out that they had friend who had brought a semi-detached house, just above where we were standing, about five year before and had discovered a tunnel entrance in their garden leading to a huge complex of tunnels and casements.  Having an enquiring nature (i.e. being very nosey) I made my way to the house.  I managed to strike up a conversation with the couple that own the house and was eventually shown the fortifications. 

Apparently, when they bought the house, the tunnels and casements were filled with rubble, this they had removed over the past five years.  The fortifications were built in 1874 to a very high standard, a similar construction to the Nothe Fort.  It appears that English Heritage has no interest in them and this I find very strange.  I intend to find out more about them myself and will see if it may be possible to visit again perhaps with the Portland Historian, Stuart Morris. Anyone else interested? - EMC

Phoenix Caissons in Portland Harbour - Jottings Issue 2004/5

In a previous issue we asked what the eight Phoenix Caissons built for the D-Day Mulberry Harbours were doing in Portland Harbour after D-Day.

It transpires that a number of Phoenix Caissons were towed back to England after the War and ten rather than eight, each 210 feet long and weighing 7,700 tons were delivered to Portland Harbour in 1946 to provide shelter for the construction of the new Castletown piers. On 23^rd September 1947 the Liverpool Echo reported that they were to be retained to form an Inner Harbour that would be used for berthing the latest Battle Class destroyers. Progress on this new Inner Harbour was inspected by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Cunningham, when he visited on the 14^th October 1947.

 These ten were part of the 148 that had been built on Churchill’s express command for the D-Day invasion in the Southampton and Thames areas and then towed down the south coast and sunk for concealment from the enemy. In 1944 146 Phoenix Caissons were raised from their seabed storage and towed across to form the two famous Mulberry Harbours at Arromanches for the British and American D-Day invasion forces.

 Two of them could not be refloated prior to D-Day and remain to this day off Selsey Bill as popular shallow water dive sites where the “Inner and Outer Mulberries” serve as flourishing artificial reefs.

 On the night of 31 January to 1 February 1953, a storm surge in the southern North Sea resulted in catastrophic flooding on the coasts of England and particularly in the Netherlands where it was said to have been the worst floods for 300 years. The rogue seas created about a hundred new tide ways in the dikes and approximately 2,000 people were killed.

 On 20^th May 1953 the Dorset Daily Echo reported that the British Admiralty had put eight of them at the disposal of the Dutch Authorities for dyke repairs and they were to be raised for a third time in nine years and towed to Holland to form defences against future dangers from North Sea floods. By 17^th July 1953 six had already been towed by Dutch tugs to the Dutch province of Zeeland, but one had gone aground in bad weather at the Ooster Schelde in Zealand and that the last two which were secured to mooring buoys in mid-stream were to be towed to Zealand that very day. It is understood that the eighth one that ran aground remained flooded.

 The last two of the Phoenix Caissons that we see today were retained to provide shelter for boats that were being moored on the Queen’s or “Q” Pier. Perhaps a survey of these next year would be interesting. Many thanks to Maureen Attwool for providing a majority of this information.

DJC

Echoes of D-Day on Weymouth Beach - By Jim Walmsley - Jottings Issue 2005/1

Armed with my trusty patent long handled spade specifically designed for digging underwater in waders I was methodically working my way along Weymouth Beach about 100 metres out from low-water mark opposite the Jubilee Clock in about 1100mm of water when a faint signal from my Fisher 1280 underwater detector with the 200mm coil prompted an underwater excavation. This is never an easy task and by the time I got down some 400mm into the black sand it was requiring all my skill and strength to gently extract the source of the signal. Once home it was suitably conserved and the research then started as to what, when and why. 

After the conservation and a little research it was obvious that it was an all brass "BOAT SIGNAL" lamp, as was boldly marked on the lamp body just above the lens. This well made lantern had been manufactured by "Perkins Marine Lamp and Hardware Corp.” of “Brooklyn, NY, USA" and featured a brass spring-loaded shutter, still working, actuated by a slotted knob below, which would allow an operator to send Morse Code signals by rapidly opening and closing the light source. That source is almost certain to have been their standard arrangement of a brass font and oil burner with a wick advance knob. The hinged door is unfortunately missing but this would have held a thick, heavy 75mm diameter glass bull's eye lens designed to focus the lamp's beam for maximum effectiveness and offer easy internal access The top of the lamp, also missing, would have had Perkins’ distinctive castellated top to disperse heat and give the lamp it’s original height of 215mm. The back of the lamp would have been fitted with two folding wire bail handles, again missing, for hand operation but the two slotted brackets for mounting directly to a vessel are in perfect condition with Perkins’ signature "PERKO" oval logo and the company name and address embossed in relief on the rear mounting clip.

The history of the company also proved to be quite interesting having been started sometime during the late 1800’s by Frederick Perkins making hand formed and soldered navigation lights, ventilators and chart cases fabricated from brass, copper and galvanized steel in lower Manhattan. By 1907 Perkins Marine Lamp, Inc., as it was originally known, was heavily involved in the manufacturing of a large variety of marine products and by late 1916 the company had outgrown its facilities and moved to what then were the farm lands of Brooklyn.  The company made cast bronze lights and hardware, the first in the American maritime and growing pleasure boat industry. In 1922, The ‘PERKO’ trademark was introduced and in 1932 the company name was changed to Perkins Marine Lamp and Hardware Corporation based in Brooklyn until January 1961 when it moved its entire production facility, largely by barge, over 1,000 miles south to it’s present site in Miami Florida

This Boat Signal Lamp therefore dates from between 1932 and 1960 but most probably between the arrival of the Americans in mid to late November 1943 and their exodus on D-Day to Omaha Beach to about December 1944, during which numerous American boats were to be seen in Weymouth Bay. Is the missing cap and the lens door still in the sand opposite the Jubilee Clock, the loss of the lamp being the result of an accident while ferrying American servicemen from Weymouth out to Portland, or were they perhaps lost or broken before immersion and hence the reason for the lamp being dumped in the sea?   Watch this space after next season’s searching!