Roughs Tower was occupied in February and August 1965 by Jack Moore and his daughter Jane, squatting on behalf of the pirate station Wonderful Radio London. The Maunsell Forts were decommissioned in the 1950s. The facility was occupied by 150–300 Royal Navy personnel throughout World War II the last full-time personnel left in 1956. This is approximately 7 nautical miles (13 km) from the coast of Suffolk, outside the then 3 nmi (6 km) claim of the United Kingdom and, therefore, in international waters at the time. The fort was towed to a position above the Rough Sands sandbar, where its base was deliberately flooded to sink it on its final resting place. It consisted of a floating pontoon base with a superstructure of two hollow towers joined by a deck upon which other structures could be added. In 1943, during World War II, Roughs Tower was constructed by the United Kingdom as one of the Maunsell Forts, primarily to defend the vital shipping lanes in nearby estuaries against German mine-laying aircraft.
