Sheerness

Sheerness is a town on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England. It is the largest town on the island with a population of about 20,000.

History

Sheerness was the focus of an attack by the Dutch navy in June 1667, when 72 hostile ships during the Raid on the Medway compelled the little "sandspit fort", to surrender and landed a force which for a short while occupied the town. Impressed by the civil behavior of the Dutch marines - they paid for their dinner - the town reinvited the Dutch Marine Corps for the third centennial of the raid. Pepys at Gravesend remarked in his diary "we do plainly at this time hear the guns play" and in fear departed to Brampton in Huntingdonshire.

Related Topics:
Dutch - 1667 - Raid on the Medway - Dutch Marine Corps - Gravesend - Brampton - Huntingdonshire

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Sheerness was also the site of a Royal Dockyard which, although not as large as those at Chatham and Deptford was still of some importance in Tudor and Stuart England. During the Victorian age a warship was built which still exists - HMS Gannet (an "Osprey" class Sloop) which was launched on 31 August 1878. She was capable of running under sail or steam and served the Royal Navy throughout the world, and has now been restored to her 1878 glory and is preserved in dry dock at the former Royal Dockyard at Chatham (having arrived at Chatham in 1987).

Related Topics:
Chatham - Deptford - Tudor - Stuart

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Also see Andreas Grassl.

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