Fort Rinella
Encyclopedia
Fort Rinella is a Victorian
fortification
on the island of Malta
. It is also referred to as the Rinella Battery
in some maps and publications.
built the fort between 1878 and 1886, which stands above the shore east of the mouth of Grand Harbour
, between Fort Ricassoli and Fort St Rocco.
The fort was built to contain a single RML 17.72 inch gun: a rifled
muzzle loading
gun weighing 100 tons made by the Elswick Ordnance Company, which is still in place. The fort was originally one of a pair, however the paired Cambridge Battery near Tigne
, west of Grand Harbour
, no longer exists. The British
installed a second pair of guns to defend Gibraltar
, mounting one each in Victoria Battery (1879) and Napier of Magdala Battery
(1883), which did not have Rinella's self defence capabilities. Today, only two of these guns survive, the one at Fort Rinella and the one at Napier of Magdala Battery.
The British felt the need for such large guns as a response to the Italians having, in 1873, built the battleships Duilio
and Dandalo
with 22 inches of steel armour and four similarly large 100-ton Armstrong guns per vessel. By arming both Gibraltar and Malta, the British were seeking to ensure the vital route to India
through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal
, which had opened to traffic in 1869.
The fort is modest in size as it was designed to operate and protect the single large gun, with its associated gun crew, magazines
, bunkers, support machinery and the detachment of troops stationed within the fort to defend the installation.
The fort was designed to engage enemy warships at ranges up to 7,000 yards. The low profile of the fort and the deeply buried machinery rooms and magazines were intended to enable it to survive counterfire
from capital
warships.
The fort has no secondary armament; its fortifications, simply ditches, caponier
s, a counter-scarp gallery and firing points
, were intended mostly for small arms
fire and grenades.
The massive gun is far too heavy to be laid
by hand, and the fort therefore contained a steam powered
hydraulic
system that traversed, elevated
and depressed the gun, operated a pair of hydraulic powered loading and washing systems, and powered the shell
lifts that moved the 2,000 pound shells and 450 pound blackpowder charges from the magazines into the loading chambers.
In the image above, one of the pair of iron casemates that protected the hydraulic loading and cleaning mechanism can be seen behind the gun.
The gun was intended to operate at a rate of fire of a single shell every six minutes. The firing cycle was for the gun to be traversed and depressed until it aligned with one of loading casemates, with the barrel pushing aside an iron plate that normally closed the aperture in the casemate. The gun was then flushed with water to cool it, clean any debris and deposit from the barrel, and douse any remaining embers from the previous cartridge
. The ramming mechanism then inserted and tamped a silk cartridge containing the propellant
charge, which was followed by one of the range of shells the gun was adapted to fire. The loaded gun was then traversed and elevated using the hydraulic system, and fired by an electrical firing mechanism. The gun then slewed to the other casemate to repeat the loading process, while the first casemate was recharged from the deeper magazine.
The two separate loading casemates, each fed by an independent magazine, and the provision of man-powered backup pumps for the hydraulic system, such that a team of 40 men could maintain the hydraulic pressure to operate the gun, would have allowed the fort to continue firing even if substantially damaged.
Originally the inner faces of the emplacement were revetted with masonry. Subsequent review of the fort's defences after its completion identified this as a weakness, and the stone revetting was removed from most of the emplacement and replaced with plain earthworks
, presumably to better absorb the energy of incoming shellfire. The revetting was retained around the loading casemates, as one can see in the image above.
The 100 ton guns were in active service for only 20 years, with all being withdrawn from active service by 1906, without ever firing a shot in anger
. Because a single shell cost as much as the daily wage of 2600 soldiers, the gun was only fired four times a year ( 1 every 3 months) for practice.
After the Armstrong gun was retired from service, Fort Rinella was used as an observation post for the guns of Ricasoli Fort, and unfortunately at some point the now obsolete steam engine and hydraulic system were removed. During World War II
, the Navy used the Fort to store supplies, and it received seven bomb hits. The fort was ideal because from a plane's view it blends into the fields as it was covered in moss and grass. The Navy gave up the site in 1956.
, though the steam engine and hydraulic machinery have not yet been replaced. Once a year, on the 5th of May, a crew of volunteers fires the gun (using only black powder) to keep it active, and also to attract more visitors.
Throughout the year, at 13.00pm, re-enactors dressed as 19th Century British soldiers provide a tour of the fort that combines lecture, demonstration and live re-enactment. This includes the firing, without shot, of a Victorian-era muzzle-loading fieldpiece.
In the 1960/70s, the Fort was used as a location in the films, Zeppelin, Shout at the Devil, and Young Winston.
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
on the island of Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. It is also referred to as the Rinella Battery
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
in some maps and publications.
History
The BritishKingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
built the fort between 1878 and 1886, which stands above the shore east of the mouth of Grand Harbour
Grand Harbour
Grand Harbour is a natural harbour on the island of Malta. It has been used as a harbour since at least Phoenician times...
, between Fort Ricassoli and Fort St Rocco.
The fort was built to contain a single RML 17.72 inch gun: a rifled
Rifling
Rifling is the process of making helical grooves in the barrel of a gun or firearm, which imparts a spin to a projectile around its long axis...
muzzle loading
Muzzleloader
A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun . This is distinct from the more popular modern designs of breech-loading firearms...
gun weighing 100 tons made by the Elswick Ordnance Company, which is still in place. The fort was originally one of a pair, however the paired Cambridge Battery near Tigne
Tigne Point
-History:During the Great Siege of 1565, the Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral Dragut ar-Rais stationed a number of cannons at Tigné Point in a siege to capture Fort St Elmo from the Knights of Malta...
, west of Grand Harbour
Grand Harbour
Grand Harbour is a natural harbour on the island of Malta. It has been used as a harbour since at least Phoenician times...
, no longer exists. The British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
installed a second pair of guns to defend Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, mounting one each in Victoria Battery (1879) and Napier of Magdala Battery
Napier of Magdala Battery
Napier of Magdala Battery is a coastal battery on the south-western cliffs of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, overlooking the Bay of Gibraltar near Rosia Bay.-History:...
(1883), which did not have Rinella's self defence capabilities. Today, only two of these guns survive, the one at Fort Rinella and the one at Napier of Magdala Battery.
The British felt the need for such large guns as a response to the Italians having, in 1873, built the battleships Duilio
Italian ironclad Caio Duilio
Caio Duilio was the lead ship in a class of two ironclad battleships built in Italy for the Regia Marina in the 1870s. A revolutionary design fitted with the largest guns available, 100-ton 450 mm calibre muzzle-loading guns, she and her sister ship were regarded as the most powerful warships...
and Dandalo
Italian ironclad Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo was an ironclad battleship built in Italy for the Regia Marina in the 1870s. Designed by Benedetto Brin, together with her sister ship , and armed with 100-ton, 450 mm muzzle-loading Armstrong guns, she was considered the most powerful battleship of the time...
with 22 inches of steel armour and four similarly large 100-ton Armstrong guns per vessel. By arming both Gibraltar and Malta, the British were seeking to ensure the vital route to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
, which had opened to traffic in 1869.
Magazine (artillery)
Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...
, bunkers, support machinery and the detachment of troops stationed within the fort to defend the installation.
The fort was designed to engage enemy warships at ranges up to 7,000 yards. The low profile of the fort and the deeply buried machinery rooms and magazines were intended to enable it to survive counterfire
Counter-battery fire
Counter-battery fire is a type of mission assigned to military artillery forces, which are given the task of locating and firing upon enemy artillery.-Background:...
from capital
Capital ship
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they generally possess the heaviest firepower and armor and are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels...
warships.
The fort has no secondary armament; its fortifications, simply ditches, caponier
Caponier
A caponier is a type of fortification structure. The word originates from the French word "caponnière" - which strictly means capon-cote i.e. chickenhouse.The fire coming from the feature A caponier is a type of fortification structure. The word originates from the French word "caponnière" -...
s, a counter-scarp gallery and firing points
Firing points
A firing point is a prepared fighting position from which infantry can defend territory with minimal exposure to return fire. Construction ranges from simple sandbag walls to sophisticated, permanent fortifications...
, were intended mostly for small arms
Small arms
Small arms is a term of art used by armed forces to denote infantry weapons an individual soldier may carry. The description is usually limited to revolvers, pistols, submachine guns, carbines, assault rifles, battle rifles, multiple barrel firearms, sniper rifles, squad automatic weapons, light...
fire and grenades.
The massive gun is far too heavy to be laid
Gun laying
Gun laying is the process of aiming an artillery piece, such as a gun, howitzer or mortar on land or at sea against surface or air targets. It may be laying for direct fire, where the gun is aimed similarly to a rifle, or indirect fire, where firing data is calculated and applied to the sights...
by hand, and the fort therefore contained a steam powered
Stationary steam engine
Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars , agricultural engines used for ploughing or...
hydraulic
Hydraulic machinery
Hydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to...
system that traversed, elevated
Elevation (ballistics)
In ballistics, the elevation is the angle between the horizontal plane and the direction of the barrel of a gun, mortar or heavy artillery. Originally, elevation was a linear measure of how high the gunners had to physically lift the muzzle of a gun up from the gun carriage to hit targets at a...
and depressed the gun, operated a pair of hydraulic powered loading and washing systems, and powered the shell
Shell (projectile)
A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot . Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used...
lifts that moved the 2,000 pound shells and 450 pound blackpowder charges from the magazines into the loading chambers.
In the image above, one of the pair of iron casemates that protected the hydraulic loading and cleaning mechanism can be seen behind the gun.
The gun was intended to operate at a rate of fire of a single shell every six minutes. The firing cycle was for the gun to be traversed and depressed until it aligned with one of loading casemates, with the barrel pushing aside an iron plate that normally closed the aperture in the casemate. The gun was then flushed with water to cool it, clean any debris and deposit from the barrel, and douse any remaining embers from the previous cartridge
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
. The ramming mechanism then inserted and tamped a silk cartridge containing the propellant
Propellant
A propellant is a material that produces pressurized gas that:* can be directed through a nozzle, thereby producing thrust ;...
charge, which was followed by one of the range of shells the gun was adapted to fire. The loaded gun was then traversed and elevated using the hydraulic system, and fired by an electrical firing mechanism. The gun then slewed to the other casemate to repeat the loading process, while the first casemate was recharged from the deeper magazine.
The two separate loading casemates, each fed by an independent magazine, and the provision of man-powered backup pumps for the hydraulic system, such that a team of 40 men could maintain the hydraulic pressure to operate the gun, would have allowed the fort to continue firing even if substantially damaged.
Originally the inner faces of the emplacement were revetted with masonry. Subsequent review of the fort's defences after its completion identified this as a weakness, and the stone revetting was removed from most of the emplacement and replaced with plain earthworks
Earthworks (engineering)
Earthworks are engineering works created through the moving or processing of quantities of soil or unformed rock.- Civil engineering use :Typical earthworks include roads, railway beds, causeways, dams, levees, canals, and berms...
, presumably to better absorb the energy of incoming shellfire. The revetting was retained around the loading casemates, as one can see in the image above.
The 100 ton guns were in active service for only 20 years, with all being withdrawn from active service by 1906, without ever firing a shot in anger
Fire in anger
"Fire in anger" is a phrase used in military contexts to describe the use of a projectile weapon to deliberately cause damage or harm to an opponent, as opposed to training exercises or warning shots. For example, Napier of Magdala Battery "never fired a shot in anger"; the battery never engaged in...
. Because a single shell cost as much as the daily wage of 2600 soldiers, the gun was only fired four times a year ( 1 every 3 months) for practice.
After the Armstrong gun was retired from service, Fort Rinella was used as an observation post for the guns of Ricasoli Fort, and unfortunately at some point the now obsolete steam engine and hydraulic system were removed. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Navy used the Fort to store supplies, and it received seven bomb hits. The fort was ideal because from a plane's view it blends into the fields as it was covered in moss and grass. The Navy gave up the site in 1956.
Fort Rinella today
Since 1991, the Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna - Malta Heritage Trust has been restoring the fort and has opened it to the public as a MuseumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
, though the steam engine and hydraulic machinery have not yet been replaced. Once a year, on the 5th of May, a crew of volunteers fires the gun (using only black powder) to keep it active, and also to attract more visitors.
Throughout the year, at 13.00pm, re-enactors dressed as 19th Century British soldiers provide a tour of the fort that combines lecture, demonstration and live re-enactment. This includes the firing, without shot, of a Victorian-era muzzle-loading fieldpiece.
In the 1960/70s, the Fort was used as a location in the films, Zeppelin, Shout at the Devil, and Young Winston.
See also
- Bonavita, R. V., "The 100-ton Gun at Rinella Battery in Malta", Fort 1978 (Fortress Study GroupFortress Study GroupThe Fortress Study Group is an international organisation based in the UK, which aims to further the understanding of military fortifications, particularly those designed after the introduction of gunpowder artillery.-History:...
), (6), pp26-34
External links
- http://www.wirtartna.org/od_menu/FortRinella/tabid/257/Default.aspx
- http://www.nieveler.org/military/Rinella/rinella.htm
- http://edrichton.com/Excursions/Rinella/Rinella.htm
- http://www.palmerstonforts.org.uk/malta.php