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protecting the Roads between east and south, the opinion of expert witnesses in 1845 being that a war fleet could not lie there in all weathers without such shelter. The inner arm is 1,700 and the outer arm 6,400 ft. long, the opening between them being 400 ft. wide ; there are forts at the extremities of both inner and outer arms. As well as these forts other defences were planned in 1860 ; the Verne Citadel, high up on the northern bluff of Portland, in a position commanding a wide sweep of water towards the Dorset coast and out to sea, and a new Nothe Fort on modern lines, were added. Below the Verne, on the east side of the hill and some 200 ft. above the sea level, are the East Weir batteries ; the position of the Verne, the Nothe, and the Weir, gives them a plunging fire while necessitating a high angle fire from the enemy's battleships, thus placing the latter under the most unfavourable conditions possible. The inner Breakwater Fort is considered a weak one, but that at the extremity of the outer arm is strong. From the Nothe at Weymouth to the extremity of the outer arm there were two miles of open water, and as the Breakwater approached completion the era of the torpedo began. As the torpedo and the torpedo boat improved in offensive capacity year by year the value of Portland, open to a more deadly form of attack than was possible in the old navy, decreased, but it was not until 1895 that additional works were commenced. The dangerous opening has been closed by the construction of two more breakwaters ; one, 1,550 yards long, from the mainland at Bincleaves, and another, 1,455 yards long, called the New Breakwater. Between the Bincleaves and the New Breakwater, and between the latter and the old outer breakwater, are two openings, each 700 ft, wide. An area, of which 1,500 acres have not less than thirty feet at low water, is now inclosed, forming, in the opinion of naval men, one of the finest artificial harbours in the world.
In 1855 Poole Harbour, as a retired spot, was the scene of an experimental trial of a submarine boat intended for use against the boom at Cronstadt. The six men who went down in her were nearly drowned and the invention was not adopted by the Admiralty.
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