View source for Spithead

{{distinguish|text =[[Spurn|Spurn Head]] in East Yorkshire}}
{{Short description|Roadstead between Hampshire, England and the Isle of Wight}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Location map|United Kingdom
|label      =
|lat        = 50.75
|long       = -1.14
|caption    = Map showing the location of Spithead within the United Kingdom
|float      = right
|background = white
|width      = 200
}}

'''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">{{cite web | title=Royal Reviews at Spithead | website=History Today | date=1977-06-06 | url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/royal-reviews-spithead | access-date=2025-01-19}}</ref> Spithead itself is an important naval [[Anchorage (maritime)|anchorage]].<ref name="EH">{{citation | last=Satchell | first=Julie | author2=English Heritage | author3=Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund | author4=Hampshire And Wight Trust For Maritime Archaeology | title=England's Historic Seascapes: Solent and Isle of Wight | date=2007 | doi=10.5284/1000315 | page= | publisher=Archaeology Data Service }}</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">{{cite book | last=Macdonald | first=Janet W. | title=The British Navy's Victualling Board, 1793-1815 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer | publication-place=Woodbridge, Suffolk ; Rochester, NY | date=2010 | isbn=978-1-84383-553-0 | oclc=619635266 | page=84}}</ref><ref name="Dunn">{{cite book | last=Dunn | first=Steve | title=The Power and the Glory | publisher=Seaforth Publishing | date=2021-01-30 | isbn=978-1-5267-6905-3 | page=21}}</ref>

==Geography==
[[File:Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) - Spithead, Two Captured Danish Ships Entering Portsmouth Harbour - N00481 - National Gallery.jpg|thumb|''[[Two Captured Danish Ships Entering Portsmouth Harbour]]'' by [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]], 1807.]]
[[File:Spithead.jpg|thumb|Spithead, on a 1:633600 scale OS map from 1904]]
[[File:Admiralty Chart No 2050 Eastern approaches to the Solent, Published 1967.jpg|thumb|right|1967 Admiralty Chart of the area (Nab Tower to Spithead)]]
It receives its name from the Spit, a [[Spit (landform)|sandspit]] that stretches south from the Hampshire shore for {{convert|5|km|mi|abbr=on}}. Spithead is {{convert|22.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} long by about {{convert|6.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} 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">{{cite book | title=Sailing Directions (Enroute): English Channel - Publication 191 | publisher=US Government | date=2004 | isbn=9781577855644| page=39}}</ref>

As of 2004, the main channel was reported as being maintained at a dredged depth of 9.5m.<ref name="SailingDirections"/>

==History==
There are evidence of submerged prehistoric landscapes at Spithead.<ref name="EH"/>

The [[Spithead and Nore mutinies|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">{{cite book | last1=Manwaring | first1=G.E. | last2=Dobree | first2=Bonamy | title=The Floating Republic | publisher=Pen and Sword | date=2004-05-30 | isbn=978-1-4738-1931-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Easton |first=Callum |title=The 1797 Naval Mutinies and Popular Protest in Britain: Negotiation through Collective Action |publisher=Palgrave MacMillan |year=2025 |isbn=978-3-031-98839-4}}</ref>

On 19 July 1545, [[Mary Rose]] sank off Spithead.<ref name="BBCN">{{cite web | title=The wreck that revealed the Mary Rose | website=BBC News | date=2011-09-04 | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-14691988 | access-date=2025-01-19}}</ref> Spithead was the location where {{HMS|Royal George|1756|6}} sank in 1782 with the loss of more than 800 lives.<ref name="BBCN"/><ref name="k045">{{cite book | last1=Manwaring | first1=G.E. | last2=Dobree | first2=Bonamy | title=The Floating Republic | publisher=Pen and Sword | date=2004-05-30 | isbn=978-1-4738-1931-3}}</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">{{cite web | last=Foundation | first=s Register | title=The Salvage of the Royal George at Spithead | website=Heritage & Education Centre | date=2023-07-13 | url=https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/whats-on/stories/the-salvage-of-the-royal-george-at-spithead | access-date=2025-01-19}}</ref>

The [[Fleet Review]] is a British tradition that usually takes place at Spithead, where the [[British monarchy|monarch]] reviews the massed [[Royal Navy]].<ref name="HistoryToday"/> The 1937 [[Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth#The Coronation Review of the Fleet|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">{{cite book | last=Willmott | first=H. P. | title=The Last Century of Sea Power, Volume 2 | publisher=Indiana University Press | publication-place=Bloomington, IN | date=2010-03-22 | isbn=978-0-253-00409-3 | page=25}}</ref>

In July 2007, [[Alan West, Baron West of Spithead|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>{{London Gazette|issue=58391|page=10139|date=13 July 2007}}</ref>

==Infrastructure==
Spithead has been strongly defended by four [[Solent Forts]], which complement the [[Fortifications of Portsmouth]].<ref name="BBC">{{cite web | last=White | first=Marcus | title=Solent sea forts each sell for more than £1m | website=BBC News | date=2024-06-19 | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clmmj1g3n5yo | access-date=2025-01-19}}</ref> The forts were begun in 1865 under [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|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">{{cite web | last=Hamilton | first=Keith | title=Historic tower to be given a makeover | website=Daily Echo | date=2012-08-13 | url=https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9871126.historic-nab-tower-in-the-solent-to-be-given-a-makeover/ | access-date=2025-01-19}}</ref><ref name="trinityhouse">{{cite web | url =https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/nab-tower-lighthouse | title = Nab Tower Lighthouse | publisher = Trinity House | access-date = 19 January 2025 }}</ref>

In 2016, several new navigational lights on posts were installed by pile foundation into the seabed at Spithead to be used by the {{sclass|Queen Elizabeth|aircraft carrier}}s.<ref name="f416">{{cite web | last=Stickland | first=Katy | title=New navigational lights for Portsmouth Harbour | website=YBW | date=2016-08-19 | url=https://www.ybw.com/news-from-yachting-boating-world/new-navigational-lights-for-portsmouth-harbour-40826 | access-date=2025-01-19}}</ref><ref name="q464">{{cite web | title=Light Towers in The Solent near... &copy; David Dixon | website=Geograph Britain and Ireland | date=2017-06-09 | url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5421923 | access-date=2025-01-19}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
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.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Spithead}}
{{EB1911 Poster|Spithead}}
* [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/23997 Spithead Hampshire at A Vision of Britain]

{{Coord|50.75140|N|1.13667|W|region:GB_type:waterbody|display=title}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spithead}}
[[Category:The Solent]]
[[Category:Roadsteads of the United Kingdom]]