FORT VICTORIA  

King Henry Vlll feared invasion from France and Spain and built several forts along the south coast to command harbours and landing zones. He built Yarmouth Castle, Hurst Castle and Sharpnode Blockhouse,  the first defensive position on this site, built in 1547.

By 1559 Sharpnode Blockhouse was starting to collapse. However, it wasn’t until 1588, with the threat of the Armada, that Sharpnode Blockhouse was rebuilt as Carey’s Sconce . It is thought that Carey’s Sconce had fallen into disrepair by the 1620’s.

The next time the site was chosen to be a defensive position was in 1804, when Napoleon threatened to invade Britain. Sconce Point Battery , acting in conjunction with both Yarmouth and Hurst Castles would have defended the Needles Passage. When the war ended in 1815 the battery turned into a coastguard station.

Fort Victoria was built within 18 months, partly because the 350 workmen were allowed to stay on H.M.S. Talbot, moored near the site, by the Admiralty.

Although Fort Victoria was really too low-lying for comfort, the battle between fort and ship would generally be won by fort:-

The fort is split into several casemates to prevent the destructive passage of round shot from the flank along the whole line of guns, while the brick vaulting would offer overhead protection against sea-borne mortars. To discourage enemy marines from attempting a boat attack, the seaward faces of the fort were defended by a deep, water filled ditch 20 feet wide and with stone sides. The top of the inner side was curved to prevent grappling hooks from lodging.

Fears of a lightning invasion by a French army rushed across the channel in steamships were illusory. Such laden troopships would be very vulnerable to the Royal Navy. The main role of the Needles and Spithead forts, therefore, would be to protect Portsmouth, the Navy’s main channel base, against raids by fast steam warships.

Main Armaments:-

By 1858, with the introduction of rifled guns and armoured ships, Fort Victoria and Fort Albert were obsolete. By 1861 the fort was being regarded as a barracks and military storehouse.

In 1891 the Submarine Mining Company came to Fort Victoria to lay a coastal minefield. Two types of mines were available at the time, mechanical mines  which were dangerous to friend and foe alike, and electrical mines  which were controllable from the shore. At Fort Victoria electrical contact mines were used. Each was moored by chain to a heavy weight called a sinker, so as to float just below the surface. When a vessel struck a mine a signal would be sent to an operator who would either detonate the mine, or in the case of friendly contact, cancel the detonation.

During a freak snowstorm on April 25^th 1908, the cruiser H.M.S. Gladiator was rammed off Fort Victoria by the American liner St. Paul. Twenty-seven men from H.M.S. Gladiator died, but many more would have perished without the intervention of men from Fort Victoria. H.M.S. Gladiator became a tourist attraction, before being towed to Amsterdam and scrapped.