HM Fort Roughs was one of several World War II installations that were designed by Guy Maunsell and known collectively as His Majesty's Forts or as Maunsell Sea Forts; its purpose was to guard the port of Harwich, Essex, and more broadly, the Thames estuary. This 4500 ton artificial naval installation is similar in some respects to "fixed" offshore oil platforms. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately from the coast of Suffolk and from the coast of Essex. Today it is the location of the self-proclaimed and unrecognised state, the Principality of Sealand.