Write on reality by Rachael Rawlings: Abandoned army

Maunsell Sea Forts

In the pursuit of the strange and the antiquated, the Maunsell Army Forts are a pretty good example of something that was once useful and is now just odd. The forts are located near England, approximately ten miles into the Thames Estuary. They were built in the early 1940’s in order to protect the Estuary during the World War II. Three of the towers were built by the army in the Estuary and were heavily armored. They were also equipped to shoot down enemy aircraft and bombs from the sky. They were place in Great Nore, Red Sands, and Shivering Sands.

By the 1950’s, the towers were no longer in use and abandoned in 1958. Earlier in 1953, one of the towers had been damaged when hit by a ship, making it unusable. It was dismantled in 1960. In 1963, another tower was struck by a ship, and it fell into the waters.

The remaining towers stayed in place, used temporarily by private radio stations until the 1960’s. They continued on in silence after these last inhabitants left.
In 2005, a lone artist spent six weeks in one of the towers (Shivering Sands). Pictures and books record his thoughts.

Which made me think. Could I do something like that? Even with a group of people, could I go out in the watery blankness and stay, trapped in place by the sea around me?
It sounds like the perfect set up for a scary movie. The thoughtful artist goes out to the rusting ruins to search his soul. He is alone on the suspended metal beasts. The air is full of sea breezes and whispers. The wartime soul of the place comes alive in his mind. The men, soldiers that had inhabited the place, perhaps haunt the place, come out to keep him company.
It’s a spooky thought. I can’t help but think how isolated that I would feel, how trapped.