Spithead
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Spithead is an eastern area of the Solent and a roadstead for vessels off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast, with the Isle of Wight lying to the south-west. Spithead and the channel to the north is the main approach for shipping to Portsmouth Harbour and onwards to Southampton.<ref name="HistoryToday">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Spithead itself is an important naval anchorage.<ref name="EH">Template:Cite</ref> Historically, Spithead was used for assembling Royal Navy ships, including as a formation area for squadrons or fleets at anchor, as well as for the resupply of ships.<ref name="i753">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Dunn">Template:Cite book</ref>
GeographyEdit
It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire shore for Template:Convert. Spithead is Template:Convert long by about Template:Convert in average breadth. Horse and Dean Sand lie to the NE side and Ryde Sand and No Man's Land to the South side.<ref name="SailingDirections">Template:Cite book</ref>
As of 2004, the main channel was reported as being maintained at a dredged depth of 9.5m.<ref name="SailingDirections"/>
HistoryEdit
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There are evidence of submerged prehistoric landscapes at Spithead.<ref name="EH"/>
The Spithead mutiny occurred in 1797 in some of the ship of the Royal Navy Channel fleet which were at anchor at Spithead.<ref name="k045">Template:Cite book</ref>
On 19 July 1545, Mary Rose sank off Spithead.<ref name="BBCN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Spithead was the location where Template:HMS sank in 1782 with the loss of more than 800 lives.<ref name="BBCN"/><ref name="k045">Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1836, the artist Clarkson Frederick Stanfield described Spithead as "marked out by buoys at regular intervals, and is often the spot chosen for the assembling of the English fleet. The port is the general rendezvous where all ships homeward or outward bound take convoy, and frequently seven hundred merchantmen have sailed at one time from Spithead."<ref name="u492">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Fleet Review is a British tradition that usually takes place at Spithead, where the monarch reviews the massed Royal Navy.<ref name="HistoryToday"/> The 1937 Coronation Fleet Review and 1953 coronation reviews were two of the largest assembly of warships in history, described by military historian Hedley Paul Willmott as "the last parade of the Royal Navy as the world's greatest and most prodigious navy".<ref name="z707">Template:Cite book</ref>
In July 2007, Admiral Alan West, a former First Sea Lord took the name Spithead when he was appointed to the House of Lords, taking the title Baron West of Spithead.<ref name=barony>Template:London Gazette</ref>
InfrastructureEdit
Spithead has been strongly defended by four Solent Forts, which complement the Fortifications of Portsmouth.<ref name="BBC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The forts were begun in 1865 under Lord Palmerston and completed by 1880.<ref name="BBC"/>
At the eastern end of the approaches to Spithead lies Nab Tower, which is sunk in place over rocks and replaced an earlier light vessel.<ref name="f902">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="trinityhouse">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2016, several new navigational lights on posts were installed by pile foundation into the seabed at Spithead to be used by the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.<ref name="f416">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="q464">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In popular cultureEdit
In the operetta H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan, the character "Buttercup" is referred to as "The rosiest, roundest, and reddest beauty in all Spithead".
In the book series about the naval officer Horatio Hornblower by C. S. Forester, the main protagonist starts off his career by becoming seasick in calm weather on Spithead.