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Initially, there were
two islands, Little Horsea Island and Great Horsea Island. The Navy, needing
somewhere to test and develop torpedo's purchased the islands, and joined
them together, finally a strip was excavated down the middle to produce
a torpedo range of some 800 yards in length, 80 yards wide at one end and
20 yards wide at the other.
The official opening of the range took place in 1889 and it was recognised as being the "finest torpedo experimental range in Europe". Because torpedo's were able to travel further in June 1905 work to extend the range to 1,115 yards in length was completed.
The development required much building material and equipment being shipped to Horsea Island and this was achieved by barges. At the north-west corner of Little Horsea Island a small quay was built and a hand operated crane was installed. The crane is the only piece of machinery surviving from the 1887 period and strangely enough, it was the first mechanical item erected.
In 1909 Horsea Island was the first "Marconi high-powered Admiralty
W/T station", which is the first time electric power had been available
on the Island, having been provided by a cable stretched some three and
a half miles from the generating station at Portsmouth Dockyard.
Over the years torpedo firing at Horsea gradually decreased most likely as a result of the greater distances that torpedo's could travel, much testing was conducted in Stokes bay. By 1939 routine firing of torpedo's had virtually ceased.
Since the end of the second World War, Horsea has been used in a number of ways. The Radio station was operational until about 1960. Other activities included the training of divers, fire fighters and the testing of underwater weapons. The Army tested amphibious tanks.
In 1995 Horsea Island became the home of the Defence Diving School (DDS), training divers from both the Royal Navy and the Royal Engineers. The DDS is a joint service establishment, set up from the Minewarefare and Diving Department at the School of Maritime Operations and the Royal Engineer Diving Establishment, following the closure of the HMS Nelson Gunwharf site (formally HMS Vernon) in Portsmouth.
The School's Primary purpose is to train divers for service in both the fleet and field army. The facilities at Horsea Island are excellent for the task, with a boat section at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth for diving in the dockyard and the Solent. Diving in deeper water is carried out at Portland, Wyke Regis, Plymouth and the Western Isles of Scotland.
Now the island is no longer an island, and most of the area has become covered with trees and other vegetation. Tarmac roads circumnavigate the island leading to a large car park.
Little, other than the lake itself remains to indicate that this is the
location where naval history was made.
