Cambridge Battery () is a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

-era

battery Battery or batterie most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Battery indicator, a device whic ...

Sliema Sliema ( ) is a town located on the northeast coast of Malta in the Districts of Malta#Northern Harbour District, Northern Harbour District. It is a major residential and commercial area and a centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. ...

, Malta. It is commonly referred to as Fort Cambridge (), although it was never classified as a fort while in use. It originally contained an Armstrong 100-ton gun.

History

Cambridge Battery was built by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

between 1878 and 1886 above the shore west of the mouth of

Grand Harbour The Grand Harbour (; ), also known as the Port of Marsa, is a natural harbour on the island of Malta. It has been substantially modified over the years with extensive docks ( Malta Dockyard), wharves, and fortifications. Description The h ...

, between Sliema Point Battery and

Fort Tigné Fort Tigné () is a polygonal fort in Tigné Point, Sliema, Malta. It was built by the Order of Saint John between 1793 and 1795 to protect the entrance to Marsamxett Harbour. It is one of the oldest polygonal forts in the world. The fort, ex ...

. Construction started on 28 August 1878, and the gate was built in 1880. The battery was completed on 27 November 1886, and construction had cost some £18,819. Cambridge Battery 09

The battery was built to contain a single Armstrong 100-ton gun: a 450 mm rifled muzzle-loading (RML) gun made by

Elswick Ordnance Company The Elswick Ordnance Company (sometimes referred to as Elswick Ordnance Works, but usually as "EOC") was a British armaments manufacturing company of the late 19th and early 20th century History Originally created in 1859 to separate William ...

, the armaments division of the British manufacturing company

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Tyne and Wear, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomot ...

. The battery was paired with Rinella Battery near

Kalkara Kalkara () is a village in the Port Region of Malta, with a population of 3,014 as of March 2014. The name is derived from the Latin word for lime (Calce), and it is believed that there was a lime kiln present there since Roman times. Kalkara ...

, east of

. The British installed a second pair of 100-ton guns to defend

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

, mounting one each in Victoria Battery (1879) and

Napier of Magdala Battery Napier of Magdala Battery is a former coastal artillery battery on the south-western cliffs of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, overlooking the Bay of Gibraltar. It also overlooks Rosia Bay from the north, as does Parson's Lodge Ba ...

(1883), which did not have Cambridge or Rinella's self-defence capabilities. The gun at Cambridge was eventually scrapped, and today only two 100-ton guns survive, at Rinella and Napier of Magdala. The British felt the need for such large guns as a response to the Italians having, in 1873, built the ironclads ''Duilio'' and ''Enrico Dandolo'' with 22 inches of steel armour and four 100-ton Armstrong guns per vessel. By arming both Gibraltar and Malta, the British were seeking to ensure the vital route to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

through the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

, which had opened to traffic in 1869. The battery itself is modest in size as it was designed to operate and protect the single large gun, with its associated gun crew,

magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

, bunkers, support machinery and the detachment of troops stationed within the fort to defend the installation. The battery could also be supported from gun fire from the nearby

Fort Manoel Fort Manoel ( or ''Fortizza Manoel'') is a star fort on Manoel Island in Gżira, Malta. It was built in the 18th century by the Order of Saint John, during the reign of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, after whom it is named. Fort Ma ...

and

. The gun was mounted ''en

barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...

'' on a wrought-iron sliding carriage and gun fired over the top of the parapet of the emplacement. This enabled the gun-crew to handle and fire the gun without exposing themselves to enemy fire. The battery was designed to engage enemy

warships A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as ...

at ranges up to 7,000 yards. The low profile of the battery and the deeply buried machinery rooms and magazines were intended to enable it to survive counterfire from capital warships. Cambridge Battery 12

The battery has no

secondary armament Secondary armaments are smaller, faster-firing weapons that are typically effective at a shorter range than the main battery, main (heavy) weapons on military systems, including battleship- and cruiser-type warships, tanks/armored personnel c ...

; its fortifications - simply

ditches A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches a ...

caponier A caponier is a type of defensive structure in a fortification. Fire from this point could cover the ditch beyond the curtain wall (fortification), curtain wall to deter any attempt to storm the wall. The word originates from the French ', meaning ...

s, a counter-scarp gallery and

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. Large artillery emplacements, ...

- were intended mostly for

small arms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

fire and grenades. Originally the inner faces of the emplacement were

revetted A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water an ...

with masonry. Subsequent review of the battery'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. Cambridge's 100-ton gun arrived on 16 September 1882, and was mounted and ready for use on 20 February 1884. The work to make the machines serviceable was so great that until 1885 there were no firing tests. The first ammunition load comprised all the models available, included 50 AP and 50 HE. Shrapnel, once fired, was not replaced, being considered less effective. In 1887 and 1888 activity stopped due to the need to rework hydraulic systems, but nevertheless these guns were considered quite reliable. Because a single shell cost as much as the daily wage of 2,600 soldiers, practice firing was limited to one shot every 3 months. In 1889, Garden Battery was built close by to cover the area between Cambridge Battery and Fort Tigné. The 100-ton gun was in active service for 20 years, and was last fired in 1903 or 1904, before being withdrawn from active service by 1906, without ever firing a shot in anger. The gun remained at Cambridge Battery for many years. In 1956, it was cut up and sold for scrap, as part of a programme to scrap all unnecessary ordnance in Malta's fortifications (in which hundreds of guns, both ancient and modern, were destroyed). Eventually, the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel came to occupy part the site of the battery. A restaurant was built, and this was later gutted to make space for outdoor and indoor pools and other hotel facilities. Although these developments damaged the battery, a significant amount of its original structures remained.

Present day

In the 2000s, the area around the battery began to be developed by GAP Developments plc, as seafront apartments known as Fort Cambridge were built close to the battery. In 2007, the developers were given 10 years to restore the battery and turn it into a tourist attraction. Despite this, the only restoration work done to date has been the demolition of the hotel structures built on the battery, and the removal of vegetation. Amid concerns over lack of restoration, GAP Developments plc has stated that it is committed to the restoration of the battery, despite the slow pace of the works.

References

{{Batteries in Malta Polygonal forts in Malta Coastal artillery Military installations established in 1886 Sliema British fortifications in Malta Artillery battery fortifications in Malta Limestone buildings in Malta 19th-century fortifications