Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna today held its annual ‘History in Action’ event at Fort Rinella, Kalkara. This consisted of several historical re-enactment displays each featuring salient aspects of 19th century military life and combat skills.

The days events came to an exciting end at 5.00pm, with what everyone had been waiting for, the spectacular firing of the 100-ton gun.

Fort Rinella is one of a series of four coastal batteries built by the British in Malta and in Gibraltar between the years 1878 and 1886. The purpose for building these forts was for each of them to house an Armstrong 100-ton gun.

The building of these forts was necessitated by Britain’s fear of losing her naval superiority in the Mediterranean to Italy, who was at the time rebuilding her navy to an unprecedented strength.

The 100-ton gun presently at Fort Rinella arrived in Malta from Woolwich on 10th September 1882. After some months the gun was ferried from the Dockyard to Rinella Bay from where it was transported to Fort Rinella.

The gun had to be manhandled all the way to the fort. The operation, which involved about 100 men from the 1st Brigade Scottish R.A. Division, lasted three months. Finally in January 1884 the gun was brought into position and was ready for use.

The gun was mounted en barbette on a wrought-iron sliding carriage. In this position the gun fired over the top of the parapet of the emplacement without the need of exposing the gun-crew to enemy fire.

Given its massive proportions the gun could not be worked manually, therefore an ingenious hydraulic system was used to traverse it and to load it. This makes Fort Rinella the first battery to have had a gun worked by mechanical means.

Fort Rinella is managed by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna – the Malta Heritage Trust.

Photograph – Ivan M. Consiglio/Malta24.

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