FORTRESS STUDY GROUP

Casemate 76

Dennis W Quarmby.

Tangier is one of the few remaining places where batteries of Rifled Muzzle Loaders may be seen. They remain to this day essentially as their owners left them, shells still lying around and largely ignored by the local people.



Historical Background


In 1471 the Portuguese seized Tangier as part of their efforts to control the Straits of Gibraltar and the Moroccan littoral. They handed the town over to Charles II of England as part of Catherine Braganza's dowry and the English held it from 1661 to 1684 when it was taken by siege and reverted to the Moroccan Empire.
A long period of dynastic unrest followed and only gradually, by the 1820s, did the Empire emerge under the control of one powerful sultan. His support given to Algerian tribes in their resistance to the French resulted in the bombardment of Tangier in 1832 by a French naval force. The Sultan now became very aware of his own vulnerability, and sought the help of the British; the Treaty of Tangier, signed in 1856, bringing the desired diplomatic support. However, at the same time, it signaled a progressive loss of sovereignty and an increase in European influence along the coast.
In 1873 Sultan Moulay Hassan came to power; he was quite an exceptional individual who tried to modernise Morocco whilst maintaining his nation's unity and independence. For instance, he kept a balance of European influence when he modernised his army by employing a French military mission, a British chief of staff and an Italian firm to build a munitions factory. It is probable that the three batteries under discussion were built at this time, during the 1880s.



The batteries are in the old town; Bordj el-Naam built as part of the Kasbah on the cliffs overlooking the sea; Bordj el-Baroud at sea level but now separated from the sea by sea defences and a long mole where the ferries to Europe dock and lastly, Bordj el-Hajoui, also at sea level but separated from the sea by rows of sheds and port installations.


The two batteries of Bordj el-Naam and Bordj el-Hojoui each comprise two Armstrong 10-in RMLs on protected barbette mountings separated by a magazine.



Bordj el-Hajoui; A two-gun battery with a central magazine (before being tidied up). (Dennis W Quarmby).




Bordj el-Hajoui; Armstrong 10in RML No 1799 (note the two shells still lying around). (Dennis W Quarmby).

Bourdj el-Baroud, however, has one 10-in RML on a protected barbette mounting and a second one on a central pivot mounting with a 360° traversing potential, but neither of them are anywhere near a parapet over which they presumably were designed to fire. One can only assume that later building modifications have resulted in this strange layout. The guns certainly have not been moved for their racers are still in place.



Bordj el-Baroud; Armstrong 10-in RML No 1802, on a central pivot with smooth racer ring. A rear truck and wheel is missing and is replaced by a concrete block. (Dennis W Quarmby).




Bordj el-Baroud; the other Armstrong 10-in, plus 'camouflage'. (Dennis W Quarmby).

The Armstrong Protected Barbette

The Armstrong Protected Barbette was a novel attempt to solve the problem of the gunners' vulnerability to enemy fire, particularly when reloading. Ian Hogg offers the following description:

'The carriage was pivoted on a pedestal and traversed by a toothed pinion engaging in the arc (of the racer-ring. DWQ). For loading, the weapon was swung through 90° and depressed so that loading could be performed under cover of the parapet.'





Loading system and plan of Puckpool Battery, 1889. (Puckpool Battery, Anthony Cantwell & Peter Sprack).

In British service it was most noticeably used for the 100-ton guns in Malta and Gibraltar. In the UK two 10.4-in RMLs were mounted at Puckpool Battery on the Isle of Wight in 1889, of which only a single emplacement now remains; see below:



(Dennis W Quarmby).

Fort Glanville near Adelaide in South Australia mounted two Armstrong 10-in RMLs of 20 tons each, the register numbers on the guns being consecutive with those of Tangier. The fort was constructed between 1878 and 1880, the guns arrived in 1879 and were first fired in October 1880. In recent years the guns have been refurbished after exhaustive research by FSG member Franklin Garie and I owe him my personal thanks for pointing the way to the guns in Tangier.


Note: Further descriptions of the Armstrong protected barbette at Puckpool Battery may be found in the following:-

Ian Hogg; Coast Defences of England and Wales 1856-1956, David & Charles, 1974.
Anthony Cantwell and Peter Sprack; Puckpool Battery, The Redoubt Consultancy, ND.


Casemate 44 carries a report of Bordj el-Hajoui battery, visited by the 'Tangier Six' following the Gibraltar Tour in 1995. The loading system is also described. The shells are still there and the gun appears unchanged. (Ed.)