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Dover: Lock and Key of the Kingdom
Admiralty Pier Turret
During the 1870s the Admiralty had been developing a new naval
gun with armour piercing capabilities, the design of which was
finally perfected in 1876. A Rifled Muzzle Loader or R.M.L. it
weighed 81 tons, was 26 feet 9 inches long and fired a 1,700
pound shell just under 7 miles. Each gun cost £10,000 and each
round of ammunition over £26.
It was first regarded as purely a naval weapon, but in 1877 the
Admiralty decided that something larger than the existing guns
was needed to protect Dover, and the idea of a turret containing
two of these weapons at the end of the Admiralty Pier was born.
The pier head was modified, at a cost of £60,000, to house the
magazine with an engine room below and the turret above.
The turret, 37 feet in diameter and weighing, with the guns in
their mountings, 895 tons, cost £90,000. The engine room in the
heart of the pier head and below the high water mark, housed
two steam engines to rotate the turret, one to work the
ammunition hoists, loading gear and to run the guns in and out,
one to operate a dynamo giving 33 volts for lighting and a steam
pump to provide water under pressure for hosing out the guns
between rounds.
The guns were brought from Woolwich to Dover by ship and were
installed in the turret using block and tackle. The muscle power
was provided by no less than 1,000 men of the Dover garrison
stretching the length of the pier.
In 1883 the guns were tested amid local fears of damage to the
cliffs and windows and roof tiles in the town. Crowds gathered on
the Sea Front to watch the effects of the firing but the only
damage was to the lighthouse at the end of the Admiralty Pier
where three small panes of glass were broken. More tests were
carried out early in 1886 and the turret handed over on 21st
April.
There is no record of the guns having ever been fired again and
in 1902 the Dover Turret was declared obsolete. In 1898 it had
been suggested that the turret guns should be replaced with 9.2
inch breech loaders but this was never done. The guns were run
in for the last time greased and depressed to the loading position
and left. The steam engines and ammunition hoists have been
removed as has the gear for running the guns in and out but the
guns themselves still remain inside the turret.
gun with armour piercing capabilities, the design of which was
finally perfected in 1876. A Rifled Muzzle Loader or R.M.L. it
weighed 81 tons, was 26 feet 9 inches long and fired a 1,700
pound shell just under 7 miles. Each gun cost £10,000 and each
round of ammunition over £26.
It was first regarded as purely a naval weapon, but in 1877 the
Admiralty decided that something larger than the existing guns
was needed to protect Dover, and the idea of a turret containing
two of these weapons at the end of the Admiralty Pier was born.
The pier head was modified, at a cost of £60,000, to house the
magazine with an engine room below and the turret above.
The turret, 37 feet in diameter and weighing, with the guns in
their mountings, 895 tons, cost £90,000. The engine room in the
heart of the pier head and below the high water mark, housed
two steam engines to rotate the turret, one to work the
ammunition hoists, loading gear and to run the guns in and out,
one to operate a dynamo giving 33 volts for lighting and a steam
pump to provide water under pressure for hosing out the guns
between rounds.
The guns were brought from Woolwich to Dover by ship and were
installed in the turret using block and tackle. The muscle power
was provided by no less than 1,000 men of the Dover garrison
stretching the length of the pier.
In 1883 the guns were tested amid local fears of damage to the
cliffs and windows and roof tiles in the town. Crowds gathered on
the Sea Front to watch the effects of the firing but the only
damage was to the lighthouse at the end of the Admiralty Pier
where three small panes of glass were broken. More tests were
carried out early in 1886 and the turret handed over on 21st
April.
There is no record of the guns having ever been fired again and
in 1902 the Dover Turret was declared obsolete. In 1898 it had
been suggested that the turret guns should be replaced with 9.2
inch breech loaders but this was never done. The guns were run
in for the last time greased and depressed to the loading position
and left. The steam engines and ammunition hoists have been
removed as has the gear for running the guns in and out but the
guns themselves still remain inside the turret.
