HMS Dolphin, Naval shore establishment in Gosport, Great Britain.
HMS Dolphin is a naval shore establishment at Fort Blockhouse in Gosport, on the southern coast of England, made up of barracks, administrative buildings, and training facilities built around submarine operations. The site sits at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour, where the water meets the entrance to one of Britain's main naval ports.
The Royal Navy took over Fort Blockhouse in 1904 and gradually turned it into the home of the British Submarine Service. In 1999, it lost its role as a permanent submarine base, though parts of the site remained in military use.
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum sits on the grounds and gives visitors a close look at life aboard a submarine, with real vessels they can walk through. The most visited is HMS Alliance, a submarine from the mid-20th century that remains open to the public.
The site is not open to the general public, as parts of it remain an active military area. Visitors can access the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, which has its own entrance and is open to all.
The site once had a tall tank filled with water where submarine crews practiced escaping from a sunken vessel, simulating real emergencies. It operated until 2020, making it one of the longest-running facilities of its kind anywhere in the world.
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