Floating Fortress

[EvanL]

Its not really floating.
Apparently its called Ft. Drum and its in Manilla Bay in the Phillipines. Suffered alot of damage in DubyaDubya Deux.
http://www.warofourfathers.com/war/810x540/027philippines_810x540o.jpg

[Vance]

Cool.

[soma]

Doesn't really seem like a fortress. Two guns?

[Marmot1]

woot cool do you have more photos of this???!!!

[flickme]

Id hate to be the guy manning that thing.

[MVSpartan117]

Any massive concrete structure with at least one gun is a fortress to me :)


Were there several or just the one, perhaps a coastal defence system?

[cut]

ever heard of sealand? smallest state in the world?


http://www.sealandgov.com/history.html

http://www.fruitsofthesea.demon.co.uk/sealand/images/fortress.jpg

http://www.fruitsofthesea.demon.co.uk/sealand/images/sealnd10.jpg


Prince Roy and Princess Joan shortly after taking possession of Sealand in the late-1960s


sealand stamps!

http://www.fruitsofthesea.demon.co.uk/sealand/images/sealnd13.jpg


its now used as a safe haven for internet servers


HavenCo has been providing services since May 2000 and is fully operational, offering the world's most secure managed servers in the world's only true free market environment, the Principality of Sealand. Our testing period is now over, and we can offer services to all businesses which comply with our Acceptable Use Policy. Setup takes approximately 3-5 days, and dedicated servers in managed colocation, with ample bandwidth, are competitively priced with other secure centers around the world.
http://www.havenco.com/

[EvanL]

has anybody else heard of that island somewhere off the coast of the UK where its its own country? And it has practically no law. And all they do is party?
Is this just me getting fooled by my friends or is this a real place?

[cut]

has anybody else heard of that island somewhere off the coast of the UK where its its own country? And it has practically no law. And all they do is party?
Is this just me getting fooled by my friends or is this a real place?

i just posted a load of stuff on it scroll up

[EvanL]

has anybody else heard of that island somewhere off the coast of the UK where its its own country? And it has practically no law. And all they do is party?
Is this just me getting fooled by my friends or is this a real place?

i just posted a load of stuff on it scroll up
No but this is like a party island.

[ChuckThunder]

Its not really floating.
Apparently its called Ft. Drum and its in Manilla Bay in the Phillipines. Suffered alot of damage in DubyaDubya Deux.
http://www.warofourfathers.com/war/810x540/027philippines_810x540o.jpg

Yes, it was nailed by the Pacific Fleet until its guns stopped firing then Navy/USMC demo guys got onto it and threw tons of explosives and fuel down its entrances, left, and watched it go KA-BOOM!

[Innoxx]

has anybody else heard of that island somewhere off the coast of the UK where its its own country? And it has practically no law. And all they do is party?
Is this just me getting fooled by my friends or is this a real place?

It's called Ireland.

[EvanL]

has anybody else heard of that island somewhere off the coast of the UK where its its own country? And it has practically no law. And all they do is party?
Is this just me getting fooled by my friends or is this a real place?

It's called Ireland.Ahhhhhh the Emerald Isle. Such a beautiful place.

[cut]

has anybody else heard of that island somewhere off the coast of the UK where its its own country? And it has practically no law. And all they do is party?
Is this just me getting fooled by my friends or is this a real place?

i just posted a load of stuff on it scroll up
No but this is like a party island.

the only other Island which is also a country ( but no indepemdent) is the Isle of Man.

the manx flag is cool

http://www.1uptravel.com/flags/images/im-smflag.gif


manx cats are cool aswell

http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~hcorbett/cats/manx.gif

[Ratamacue]

We did a case study on Sealand in AP Geography discussing whether it should be considered a state or not. All signs pretty much point to yes even though it's a friggin' joke. Apparently their main business is providing internet webspace to people with "not so legal" dealings or business.

[FallenAngel]

The Soveriegn Military Order of Malta is another small country....approx. two city blocks in Italy somewhere (Rome?).

[stimpy]

The Soveriegn Military Order of Malta is another small country....approx. two city blocks in Italy somewhere (Rome?).


Malta is a Southern European island in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily (Italy).

I think you are thinking of the Vatican City which is a soverigen state in an enclave of Rome (Italy), and which is about 0.7 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC.

FYI, we do unfortunately have laws in Ireland :| , but we also like to party ;)

[striker]

@ fallen Angel and Stimpy
The Sovereign Order of Malta is a sovereign state. It dates back to the crusades and has been based on Malta until Napoleon kicked them of.
Malta was not given back to the Order at the Council of Vienna, since then the Orders Headquater is in the Vatican. Although they dont' own a country anymore, they are considered a sovereign state. They own land in several countries, but that is not considered a territory. Yet they are a state without a square meter of land and their envoys carry diplomatic passports.
Their Grandmaster is treated like a Head of State when visiting a foreign country. Full military honors are rendered
The order always had to treat and care the wounded and sick since its inception in Jerusalem, one could call them the first Doctors without Borders.

[ivandebono]

Hey, you're talking about my country!

The Order of St. John has its headquarters in Viva Condotti in Rome, NOT in the Vatican City. And Malta was to be given back to the Order after the Treaty of Amiens (1802 I think). But the British refused at the last moment, and stayed on the Island. In the Treaty of Vienna the Brits decided to take Malta as a colony, in spite of the fact that the Maltese people had asked for a protectorate status. Then we got too expensive to keep and the Brits let us have our independence in 1964. But we're still the most insignificant country on the face of the earth.

[striker]

@ ivandebono
Sorry i just gave the simplified version to keep my post short. I know they are technically not in the Vatican. Point is they are a state without a territory.
How come I know? My wife happens to work at the Orders embassy here.
Are they treated like real diplomats?
Since I happen to work for the US embassy I can say that both Ambassadors have been treated with the same respect by our host government, so yes they are.

Weird fact is, if their head of State (Grandmaster) visits another country its a state visit with all honour rendered. Only the other Head of State cannot go on a return visit, since there is no State to visit.

[SOG]

has anybody else heard of that island somewhere off the coast of the UK where its its own country? And it has practically no law. And all they do is party?
Is this just me getting fooled by my friends or is this a real place?

it is a realplace, they dont party, they pull lots of business.

i watched it on some news show 48hours or some such, and appearantly for a certain amount of money a year you can claim residency thier and your country cant tax you on some things or some crap. they showed this lady who owns one house and her job was raking in the money from hundreds of people who all claimed to live at her house for tax purposes. it was wierd, i cant recall much more but it was in europe i think and had overcast weather.

aside from that all i can think of is either two brothers or business partners actually own thier own castle off england somewhere where they live. they are very rich low public profile investors.

[REMOV]

woot cool do you have more photos of this???!!!
http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Fort%20Drum%20Colorized.jpg
Colorized Photo Of Fort Drum

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/14%20Inch%20Guns%20and%20Shells.jpg
14 Inch Guns with shells lined up on deck. High Turret is Battery John M. Wilson. Low Turret is Battery William L. Marshall

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/14%20Inch%20Turrets%20From%20Mast.jpg
14" Battery's From Cage Mast. Anti-Aircraft Gun # 16 Can be seen on left side of photo

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/14%20inch%20turrets%20from%20the%20mast%202.jpg
14" Battery's From Cage Mast. Anti-Aircraft Gun # 16 is in left side of photo, markings for volley ball court can be seen on right ;)

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Datum%20Point.jpg
Datum Point. Any reference point of known or assumed coordinates from which calculation or measurements may be taken.

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/water%20Tower%20and%20Cargo%20hatch%20Viewed%20from%20The%20cage%20mast.jpg
Water Tower and Cargo Hatch as viewed ffom the Cage Mast

[REMOV]

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Fort%20Drum%201936.jpg
Fort Drum 1936

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Fort%20entrance%20as%20seen%20from%20the%20water.jpg
Entrance to Fort Drum as seen from the water

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Fort%20Drum%20fom%20the%20sea.jpg
Fort Drum from the sea

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Cine%20&%20Spif%20Bar.jpg
Cine & Spif Bar

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Deck%20AA%20and%20Fire%20Control.jpg
Anti-Aircraft Gun and Fire Control Station. Inspection of 3 Inch Anti-Aircraft gun (Middle of photo) and 9 Foot Fire Control Range Finder (Bottom of Photo)

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Cage%20Mast.jpg
"Cage Mast". The top of the Cage Mast was approximately 89 ft from the deck. The Cage Mast contained various range finders, searchlights, Azimuths instruments, signal arms and the aerial mast for the forts radio station.

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Barracks.jpg
Barracks

[REMOV]

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Two%20Men%20Siiting%20on%2014%20inch%20Rifle%20Tubes.jpg
Front view of 14" guns and Cage Mast. There are teo men sitting on the gun tubes

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Working%20On%2014%20inch%20shells.jpg
Working on 14" projectiles

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Scraping%20projectiles.jpg
Scraping projectiles

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Launch%20From%20Fort%20Hughes.jpg
Launch arriving from Fort Hughes

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Loading%20Projectiles.jpg
Lowering 14" shells into cargo hatch

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Loading%20Projectiles%202.jpg
Loading shells

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/WALDEN3.JPG
Two 6 Inch Guns at Fort Drum.

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/PIC22.JPG
Fort Drum late 1930's early 1940's. Prior to WWII. The barracks on the deck were still in place.

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Scan000375.jpg
Aerial Photo Of Fort Drum

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/images/Fort%20Drum%20Longitudinal%20Section.jpg
Fort Drum Longitudinal

More: http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/index.html

[DANJANOU]

Anyway back to the original topic. Fort Drum is part of the Corregidor defence systems. There are several smaller islands in Manila Bay near Corregidor, all of which aside from one tiny one which were fortified. The small one did have an OP on it though. Fort Drum was also referred as the floating battleship as the US Army engineers literally reshaped the island into the shape you see in the pics.

I was at corregidor last month and had a chance to see most of the defences which are still in fairly good shape and quite impressive. As soon as i get around to it Ill post some pices here.

[Marmot1]

THX remov very interesting... so it was captured by japs and then shelled again at the end of the war by US???

[DANJANOU]

Yeah both the initial Japanese attack in 1942, and the US retaking it in 1945 were pretty nasty battles.
In the second in January 1945 the Japanese garrison on Corrigedor and other small islands numbered almost 7,000. 26 surrendered of whom 6 were wounded and didn't know they were prisoners until they woke up in hospital. Kind of makes you wonder about the quality of soldier that knows he's going to die and soldiers on until the end rather than give up.

[Uncle Chô]

http://www.rjladylake.1accesshost.com/index.html
Thanks REMOV, brilliant as usual on rare finds ! woot

BTW, I 've always wondered why 90 % of veterans Web sites (from WWII to Vietnam) use those #*GN@&#! horrible cheap keyboard musics in wav. format :cantbeli:

Sometimes you can turn the sound off, sometimes not :fork:

[WolverineBlue]

Hey Biff -- fancy a game of volleyball by the 14-inchers? rofl