GIBRALTAR AND ITS DE FENCES.

Lake County Press, Issue 978, 5 September 1901, Page 2

GIBRALTAR AND ITS DE FENCES.

Major-General A. B. Tulloch, writing in the ' Journal of the Royal United Service Institution' on Gibraltar, says that this grand old rock, which has stood fourteen sieges and been in the possession of Great Britain for nearly 200 years, has lately become of even greater value to England than it was when it underwent its last siege of nearly four years, the closing scene of which was the repulse of forty-seven of the enemy's line of battleships, the destruction of ten of their specially-constructed floating batteries, and the silencing of the besiegers' heavy guns on the land side; and this by a garrison on the verge of starvation, and with but ninety-six guns available for defence. Owing to political changes and the increased size of the fleet, another naval base besides Malta is absolutely necessary for us in the Mediterranean, and the possession of Gibraltar at the mouth of the strait, and midway between England and Malta, answers the requirement exactly. The onlv drawback, however, is that, owing to the increased and increasing range of modern guns, the whole of the horseshoeshaped bay, of which the rock forms one side, and which is only five or six miles across, may be covered by the fire of guns from the Spanish mainland. Ships lying alongside the breakwater and moles would be safe enough, and the docks would not come to much harm, were it not that a range of high ground on the north side of the bay, of which the highest point, I,oooft, known as the Queen of Spain's Chair, five and a-half miles distant from the docks, looks into the whole of the new works; while the east and west spurs of the range coming down to the sea would give possibly slightly closer gun positions. It will at once be asked : How was it that the west, or Spanish, side of the rock was chosen for the dock, and not the east, which has only the open sea in front of it? Unfortunately that side also is open to and within range of the eastern spurs of the ridge of hills already mentioned; there is no foreshore there suitable for reclamation on which to build machine shops, slips, and such like; the rock on that side comes steeply down to the water's edge, and the whole of the works and breakwater would have to be built out in deep water; and last, but not least, eastern gales, having the whole sweep of the Mediterranean, send in a very heavy sea on that side, from which the western bav with its extensive anchorage, is free. With the engineering talent and appliances of the present day, the works now under construction might have been made on the east side of the rock: but the additional expense would have been immense; and, balancing the respective advantages and disadvantages of both sides, an inspection of the sites at once shows that the naval and military authorities were right in making the new harbor and docks on the west.

Of the present defences of Gibraltar it will not do to say more than can be seen by anyone walking along the public road and in the beautiful, well-cared-for Alameda Gardens. As the heavily-plated casemate batteries along the line wall and in the gardens could not be used with the ships in tne new harbor right in front of them, the 18 and 58-ton M.L. guns have been removed and sent Home, or otherwise disposed of. The new batteries are all halfway up the rock, and even on the top of it; they are armed with the newest type of heavy breechloaders and very heavy howitzers, making; the old rock more unassailable than everPossibly the armament may be increased by guns in cupolas on the round extremities of the moles and breakwater. The old galleries on the north and north-west front are ready-made casemates for howitzers, to keep down fire from sheltered guns on the high ground already mentioned, which enfilades the sea front. Ships of the Devastation class, with an unlimited supply of ammunition close at hand, might also assist in tliis by going round to the east of the rock and taking the high ground in flank. When the tremendous fire which could be brought to bear from new pattern guns and howitzers in the upper galleries. 600 ft and 700 ft above the ground, and along the crest line. I,oooft to 1,500 ft high, of the north front, one and a-half miles in advance of the dockyard, is considered, the danger which at first sight seems to menace the new harbor from the heights of the Queen of Spain's Chair practically disappears.