Spinnaker Tower
Tuesday, 14th February 2006 by James Turnbull
Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower is like a giant sail on the dock. It was supposed to be a millennium project but only opened last year and as you can see it is still under construction in the Google Maps photo. There's loads of photos and a live webcam on BBC Hampshire.
Just to the north is the Portsmouth docklands where Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, the HMS Victory, is docked. Although built in the 1760s it is still manned by the Royal Navy and is the world's oldest commissioned warship.
There's also the HMS Warrior ("The pride of Queen Victoria") and the HMS Ark Royal, one of the only 2 UK Aircraft Carriers still in commission.
Thanks: Tom Lithgow, Jonathan Rawle, redstar1, paul d
What the heck, have the Royal Navy budget cuts meant they can only afford half a ship?
View Placemark
But at least they could afford a nice UJ:
View Placemark
I like this website. However 99% of the entries are about England. England is nice but the world is bigger than England. Or the United Kingdom. Or whatever it’s called exactly. My point is, go abroad geezers, put som emore stuff from around the globe online.
rocky, well the authors ARE from England. Anyway, go back to the early days and you will see entries from around the USA.
Papapenguin, it looks like a really small ship. Kinda funny looking from above however.
Rocky,
Sorry if you don’t like the English sites, the most recent imagery update to Google Local added lots of previously low-res areas of the United Kingdom (mostly England) so there’s a few “big sights” that we’ve covered in the last few days. Stick around and you’ll see we do cover lots of less well known sights from around the globe. (Or, visit the Locality page to see all our sights around the world.).
Luke, Thanks but two thirds of the authors are Scottish, not English (and we are all presently located in Scotland). Scotland and England are distinct countries which are both part of the United Kingdom.
Anyone, what on earth is up with that half-boat that Papapenguin spotted? I’d like to see some ground level photos!
There are so many sights from the UK because people like me, who know of interesting things to see in this country, submit them! I’d love to see more posts of places in other countries. So if you want to see places in countries other than England, why not submit them?
The “half-boat” is the Research Vessel Triton.
It is a frigate converted to an experinemtal trimaran.
Here are some Pictures.
I think the odd shaped ship is a the new stealthy frigate and is shaped like that it avoid radar.
http://www.baesystems.com/index.htm
Rocky – i think you’ll find 99% of posts are NOT in England/ UK. Also you will see that when a post is a site in the USA the amount of comments/ replies is much more than when elsewhere – only reinforcing the idea that yanks only like to talk about themselves and have no interest in the rest of the world! (bit of British ironic sarcasm there – did you like it?)
OK, so how does that ship to the left of the HMS Victory get out of its drydock?
That ship is the HM Monitor H33. It is one of two surviving WWI river ‘monitors’ or gunboats. She’s now owned by the Royal Navy Museum and is probably not going anywhere. I imagine they plan to leave her right where she is after her current rennovation.
More pictures
The “half ship” is actually a trimaran. Check out this link: http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/trimaran/
I really hope that Nelson’s flagship Victory was not at the battle of Waterloo! Unless Wellington took a trip across the channel in it, and this piece of history was forgotton. Think you will find that it’s Trafalgar you were thinking of.
Yup, I was thinking of Trafalgar! Thanks for the correction, I’ve updated the original post.
The RN actually have three aircraft carriers currently.