The Solent Forts website tells the incredible story of their construction, miles away from shore. Lord Palmerston, then British prime minister, ordered the construction of five forts in the Solent, the strait between the city of Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Portsmouth was a critical naval and shipbuilding hub, he reasoned, and needed the protection. In any case, Napoleon III, the second emperor of France, was building up his navy as fast as he could. All the more reason to keep Portsmouth safe, he said.
It was an unpopular move. The opposition in Parliament called the proposed forts "Palmerston's Follies," according to the Royal Navy Museum. Palmerston died in office in 1865 (per Britannica), but two years later British Navy barges began hauling out granite blocks to begin the construction of four forts: No Man's, Horse Sand, Spitbank (seen above), and St. Helens. Divers helped lower the huge foundation blocks to the seabed. By the time they were completed, in 1880, Napoleon III had long been deposed.
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