From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nab Tower
Nab Tower
Coordinates: 50°40.05′N 0°57.07′W / 50.6675°N 0.95117°W built and positioned in the Straits of Dover to protect al-
/ 50.6675; -0.95117 lied merchant shipping from German U-boats. Designed
by civilian Mr. G. Menzies, the towers were to be linked
together with steel nets and armed with two 4-inch guns
with the idea of closing the English Channel to enemy
ships. However by the end of the war in 1918 only one
had been completed, at a fantastic cost (at the time) of
one million pounds, and was located at Shoreham Har-
bour, awaiting deployment. While another part-built
tower would eventually be dismantled in 1924, there re-
mained the completed 92-foot-tall (28 m) metal cylinder
sitting on a raft of concrete.
In 1920 the completed tower was towed by two pad-
dle wheel tugs to the Nab rock, a rock in the deep-water
approach to the eastern Solent and previously marked by
The Nab Tower - lighthouse. a lightship. Buoyancy was provided by the honeycomb
50° 40’.05 N 00° 57’.07 W construction of the concrete base, creating 18 water-
Height above mean high water - 27 metres tight compartments. When these were flooded, the struc-
White flash every 10 seconds ture sank and settled to rest at an angle of 3 degrees
Fog signal - two blasts every 30 seconds from vertical towards the northeast - a characteristic tilt
which is obvious to this day.
The Nab Tower is a tower planned for anti-submarine It was manned as a lighthouse, and during World War
protection in the Straits of Dover in World War I. It was II it provided some defence to the Solent approach, and
sunk over the Nab rocks east of the Isle of Wight to re- shot down several aircraft. The lighthouse is still func-
place a lightship after the war, and is a well known land- tional but since 1983 it has been unmanned.
mark for sailors as it marks the deep water eastern entry In November 1999 the Nab was hit by a freighter ship,
into the Solent. the Dole-America, carrying a cargo of bananas and
Latitude 50° 40’.05 N Longitude 00° 57’.07 W pineapples. The ship was badly damaged and only avoid-
Height above mean high water 27 metres. ed sinking by being run aground. The base of the tower
White flash every 10 seconds - 11,739 Candela Incandes- suffered superficial and internal damage. Damage was re-
cent Electric Filament Lamp. paired in 2001.
Fog signal - two blasts every 30 seconds (range 2 nautical
miles).
External links
History •
•
Trinity House Nab Tower page
Page with excellent photos and memories
During the First World War the British Admiralty de- • Page with details of post collision tower repairs
signed eight towers code named M-N that were to be • Photos of ship after collision with Nab Tower
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nab_Tower&oldid=464589363"
Categories:
• Buildings and structures on the Isle of Wight
• Lighthouses in England
This page was last modified on 7 December 2011 at 16:36. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
1