Portsmouth Naval Prison - Kittery, Maine
N 43° 04.290 W 070° 43.778
19T E 359182 N 4770206
This building was the primary prison for the Navy and Marine Corps, as well as housing many German U-Boat crews after capture, until it closed in 1974.
Waymark Code: WM4X7B
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 10/08/2008
Views: 36
The 20th century arrived with a bang. Henderson's Point blew up on July 22, 1905 in what was then the largest dynamite explosion of all time. The explosion and dredging made the harbor viable for a whole new breed of underwater warships. That same year Portsmouth became a synonym for "peace" when the long tragic conflict between Russia and Japan ended here. Today the Navy Yard, the Rockingham and Wentworth-by-the-Sea hotels are important historic sites for visiting Japanese tourists interested in the Treaty of Portsmouth.
A few years later, with the completion of the enormous military jail at PNS, Portsmouth also became a synonym for "prison." Housing a maximum of 3,000 military prisoners in WWII, the deactivated building still hunkers at the end of the island like a fantasy castle. The Jack Nicholson film "Last Detail" is the story of one convicted man on a journey toward "the worst place on earth."
Portsmouth Naval Prison
Future Use
The pictures and coords are from a safe place across the Piscataqua River in Newcastle. The Navy yard is not open to the public at this time.