Foulness Island passing of the Ministry of Defence Act 1946 and the subsequent rationalisation of five agencies in 1971, ownership of the island passed from the War Office to the Ministry of Defence. In 2003, a contract to manage the testing of munitions was awarded to the defence contractors QinetiQ, and they also control access to the island. In the 1850s, the South Essex Estuary and Reclamation Company proposed a grand scheme to reclaim around of land on the Essex coast, which would have included most of Foulness Sands and Maplin Sands. The civil engineer Sir John Rennie produced the plans, and
Battle of the Barbary Coast Battle of the Barbary Coast The Battle of the Barbary Coast was a minor naval engagement that took place off in the Barbary Coast not far from the Gibraltar Strait, on July 26, 1592 during the Anglo-Spanish War. The hard fought action by an English merchant galleon in the "Amity of London" captained by Thomas White resulted in the capture of two Spanish ships which included a galleon despite them being outnumbered four to one. The prizes were heavily laden with quicksilver and a large amount of very important Papal bulls bound for the West Indies. On July 25 the