The Dover Turret received its 2 80-ton gun barrels by 1882. The massive barrels were transported from the Royal Gun Factory at Woolwich Arsenal, London by sea one at a time to Dover in the steamer ‘Stanley’. The barrels would have to be lifted over the top of the turret armour, a height of 38 feet (11.6m) above the high water level, and lowered precisely into the gun cradles. The fort, however, was at the end of the 2000 ft Admiralty pier (610m). There were no steam engines to power the move.
40-60 men operating a capstan were able to lift the barrel from the ’Stanley’ using Sheerlegs. The sheerlegs were then taken to Malta to disembark Armstrong’s 100-ton gun for Fort Rinella in 1884.
A special ‘traveller’ used hydraulic rams to lift the barrel from the pier and move it over the turret.
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References:
The Dover Turret – Admiralty Pier Fort, David Burridge1987, ISBN 0-948305-02-9
This booklet describes the history, trials and tribulations for the Dover Fort, and is an excellent read. It is the primary source used in this animation.
Drawings of the Dover Fort, corrected to March 1896. WO78 /5106 National Archives
The animation was created using Cinema 4D, Quicktime and iMovie.
Music:
Borderless- Aakash Gandhi
A Flute’s Mourning – Aakash Gandhi
Hi, I’m Rob, otherwise known as VBBSMYT.
I create the animations on my iMac using Cinema 4D, which I find very intuitive, and allows me to add smoke and flames, and then send the model to my trusty Render farm.
I make my models as accurate as possible through reference books and particularly good drawings. You may have seen my animations of early torpedoes and machine guns on YouTube. I enjoy finding out how things work and it has been fascinating to track the development from the late Victorian period up to World War 1.
