Aha, I think I actually know this one, later.

Annette

Annette, pass me those straws, please. :)

Cynthia

Cyn, think Rapunzel :).

Annette

Hmmm Annette...right church, I not sure you're in the correct pew....

Bono, the Irish rock star actually lived in a converted one in the 80's!!

Nancy.

Nancy you mean it's not a "........ ."? Sorry Cyn if I've led you down the wrong road.

Annette

I showed it to Chuck. He looked perplexed, but came up with something that actually made me think of Jackie Kennedy in the 60s.

Cynthia

Annette - I am scratching my head. It is two words, 14 letters. I think you were half right. And Cyn, no Jackie, but those structures did take cues from these!!

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This is one, built in 1862, in Key West Florida. There are 2, though the east one was never finished. Hmmmm.....what am I thinking of?? Ciao, bellas and bello, I am finally going to make my brunch!! I'll be back to see how you are doing shortly.

Nancy.

I remember seeing a couple of these when we lived in Scotland for a summer. We stayed in Kircaldy. One was in the area of Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth from us. They called it the Tally Too'er. Can't remember the proper name, some kind of tower.

These are larger than the pillbox fortifications.

I thought of the WWII pillboxes that housed machine gunners, if I remember correctly. Nancy's clue of 14 letters rules that word out, so I'll try to mine for clues. Should we be thinking in the direction of Italian words?

TM

Once more around the block, that'll teach me to abbreviate on the last dot. Two words, 14 letters with an "S" on the end, 13 letters without? I'll get there yet, give me time LOL.

Annette

Pillbox was what Chuck thought. Hmm...Italian would be my guess, too, Hence Nancy's reference to my question yesterday perhaps, but her last clue really does lead us that way. Some sort of turret or fortification-neither of which is two words, 14 letters, or Italian.

Maybe I should wander across the street and casually ask my neighbor, who was born in Napoli, about this! Heehee.

Cynthia

Follow the coast northward, Cynthia my friend.

Nancy.

Tally Too'er indeed!!
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Forty-seven towers have survived in England, a few of which have been restored and transformed into museums (e.g., the tower at St Osyth), visitor centres, and galleries (such as Jaywick ? Tower). Some are privately owned or are private residences; the remainder are derelict. A survey of the East Coast towers in 2007 found of the 17 remaining, most were in a reasonable condition.

And yes, 13 plus and 's', Annette.

Nancy, who can't count!!

Am I allowed to look at a map? Hmmm....probably not and probably wouldn't help me anyway.

Cynthia

Not to be too much of a loser defeatist, but I'm getting a strong feeling that I will not be coming up with this one.

TM

Rome? Tuscany? Pisa? Been to those, but still no idea. Tuscany torino? ;)

I will check in tomorrow for the answer when I return home from my ivory tower-well, not exactly, but you know what I mean.

Cynthia

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On 7 February 1794, two British warships, HMS Fortitude (74 guns) and HMS Juno (32 guns), unsuccessfully attacked the tower at Mortella Point.

Vice-Admiral Lord Hood reported:

"...The Fortitude and Juno were ordered against it, without making the least impression by a continued cannonade of two hours and a half; and the former ship being very much damaged by red-hot shot, both hauled off. The walls of the Tower were of a prodigious thickness, and the parapet, where there were two eighteen-pounders, was lined with bass junk, five feet from the walls, and filled up with sand; and although it was cannonaded from the Height for two days, within 150 yards, and appeared in a very shattered state, the enemy still held out; but a few hot shot setting fire to the bass, made them call for quarter. The number of men in the Tower were 33; only two were wounded, and those mortally."
The tower eventually fell to land-based forces under Sir John Moore after two days of heavy fighting. What helped the British was that the tower's two eighteen pounders fired seaward, while only the one six pounder could fire land-ward.

Sorry, I'm going quickly, trying not to burn dinner - I hope I didn't make any spelling errors!!

Nancy.

Are they called Mortella Towers? Fits the number count.

Well, gosh darn - I got you all, cept Annette and Bobbie maybe.

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Well, they are in most of the Atlantic world, and where ever the British Empire held influence. "They" are Martello Towers. The British got the name wrong, misspelling "Mortella" as "Martello" (which means "hammer" in Italian). How unlike them!! During the first half of the 19th century, the British government embarked on a large-scale programme of building Martello towers to guard the British and Irish coastlines. Around 140 were built, mostly along the south coast of England. Governments in Australia, Canada, Minorca, South Africa and Sri Lanka also constructed towers. The construction of Martello towers abroad continued until as late as the 1870s but was discontinued after it became clear that they could not
withstand the new generation of rifled artillery weapons.
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The interior of a classic British Martello tower consisted of three storeys (sometimes with an additional basement). The ground floor served as the magazine and storerooms, where ammunition, stores and provisions were kept. The garrison of 24 men and one officer lived in a casemate on the first floor, which was divided into several rooms and had fireplaces built into the walls for cooking and heating.
The officer and men lived in separate rooms of almost equal size. The roof or terreplein was surmounted with one or two cannon on a central pivot that enabled the guns to rotate up to 360 degrees. A well or cistern within the fort supplied the garrison with water. An internal drainage system linked to the roof enabled rainwater to refill the cistern.
The United States government built several Martello towers at locations along the eastern seaboard. Two are at Key West, Florida; others were built at the harbours of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Charleston, South Carolina and New York City. Two more Martello towers stood at Tybee Island, Georgia and Bayou Dupre, Louisiana.

Although the Americans copied the design from the towers the British erected in Canada, the American Martello towers differed in some significant respects from the British. The Martello tower built at Tybee Island, Georgia was constructed around 1815 utilizing wood and tabby, a common local building material at the time, instead of the brick or stone that the British towers used. Also unlike the British towers, the Tybee tower featured gun loops on the garrison floor that enabled muskets to be fired through the walls.

It was never tested in battle and by the time of the American Civil War was in a state of disrepair. Its unfamiliar design confused local writers, who often said that the Spanish had built the tower when Georgia was Spain's colony. The Key West martellos were square instead of round and had thin walls with long gun loops. In addition, the Key West Martellos were encircled by a curtain wall of heavy guns, making them, effectively, keeps instead of standalone towers.

A Martello tower figures in the arms of the 41st Infantry Regiment of the United States Army.

I've been fascinated since I saw one of the 4 constructed in Kingston, Ontario. They were built to protect the Royal Naval Yard that once stood there against American attack.

So there you go. For Annette:

For Bobbie:

Bobbie, I hope you enjoyed the Search for the Lost Chord. I was listening to more of the Moody Blues music yesterday - Blue Jays. It was a project John Lodge and Justin Hayward did when the group was on hiatus. There's no one link on youtube that I could find, but two songs to look for are Driftwood, and my fav, Saved by the Music!! I listened to some more of their music this weekend, and I think they've given me another great, and hopefully more accessible 'Question' for next weekend.

Thanks for playing, everyone. Have a great week.

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Saved by the Music

I got you all.... I think all means you and me, TM! Lol.

Going to tell Chuck. Love learning new history stuff! Thanks for the fun, Nancy.

Have a terrific week all. Hope your weather is as good as ours-nights in low 60s, high 50s and days near 80, but not higher. Prediction is for this all week. I am thrilled!

Cynthia

Thanks for the stars, not sure I deserve them as only remembered Tally Too'er though did know what towers you were asking about. Last answer was a guess from Nancy's post. Brought back good memories of those days we took the fast train to Edinburg and spent the day walking around taking in the sights and activities.

While I did not buy Mood Blues albums I was familiar with their songs. I was on a tight budget those years and bought very few albums. As I looked through them recently I thought, "Why did I buy that one?" about several. Can't believe I have Michael Jackson's Thriller!

Bobbie, I know!! I picked and chose judiciously which albums I bought - I seem to remember the princely sum of $10 for an album - lots of strawberries to pick to earn that - lol. I am enjoying having the one turntable hooked up, even though it's not perfect. Still trying to get that scent out of them, though. 8( The originals for the MB's are being remastered - Hayward is doing it himself, as the original masters had degraded, and most CD's were copies of copies. I know I listened to a lot on YouTube, but the difference when I put Days of Future Passed on the turntable, the difference was astounding!! I saw another interview from May 2011, where John Lodge talked about a 'new' collection being released this year...I should go search for it!!! Search for the Lost Chord, indeed!

Nancy.

It would be so incredible if they could get that original sound quality back! THAT I would buy for sure!

Cynthia