Tag Archives: gun

Fort Rodd Hill

As the gateway to the west coast of Canada, the area around Victoria has a military history.  One location that is now no longer in service is Fort Rodd Hill.  It sits overlooking the entrance to the harbor with the navy base sitting a short distance across the water.  It is like many of the forts you find on the west coast with gun emplacements, bunkers, accommodation and spotting locations for the gunners.  The biggest threat you now face is the large number of geese that seem intent in getting in your way and also contaminating where you are walking!

The location is well maintained and, since it was a weekday when we re there, not terribly busy.  With the sun shining, it was a nice stroll to explore the facilities.  The walls were pretty substantial, and it might have been fun to get a drone up to look down on everything but a) I don’t have one and b) that close to the navy base probably means they aren’t allowed anyway.

Fort Worden

After walking around the town in Port Townsend, we drove a short distance to check out Fort Worden.  This base is now turned over to the community and the base buildings are used for a variety of enterprises.  The whole area is a state park so we renewed our annual pass (it hadn’t been needed when we were going nowhere!) and talk a walk up to the old gun emplacements.

One of the things I like about these old installations in the state parks is that they are almost unchanged other than the guns having been removed.  There is no fencing and so you can wander around and climb the ladders up on top if you chose (and you can fall off the edge if you aren’t careful!).  It looks much like it would have a century ago.  The only thing now is that a lot of trees have grown up where once there would have been open views.

We wandered along the rows of concrete works and read about the different batteries and who they were named after.  There were large iron rings set in the walls which caught our eye and these were used for mounting block and tackle to allow the guns to be hauled in to place.  On a sunny day the whole place felt very relaxing to walk around but I imagine the concrete structures were a lot less pleasant on a damp and cold winter’s morning.  Some interesting history to check out.

Battery Gun

The battery at Fort Casey showed up in this previous post.  At the time I showed the general layout but I didn’t show the details of some of the machinery.  One of the guns that was still in place was in good condition and the markings from its manufacture were still clearly seen.  The location of the manufacturer and the date when it was made are there to see while the rifling of the barrel shows up well.  Given the age of the gun, it is in excellent condition.

Fort Casey Emplacements

I posted about the lighthouse at Fort Casey here but the fort is obviously a lot more than just a lighthouse.  It was built to defend Puget Sound and this meant some big gun emplacements.  Much like similar emplacements along the west coast, most of the hardware is now long gone but some has been kept in place to show how things once were.  The emplacements themselves are pretty substantial and are well maintained by the park team.  With the guns gone, you see just how big the space taken up by the guns was.

Meanwhile, a couple of installations are still equipped.  One has a gun elevated to the firing position while the other has the mechanism retracted.  The complexity of the gearing to raise, lower, elevate and rotate the guns is old school engineering at its best.

Behind the guns are some of the spotting towers.  From here the crews would have identified targets and called in the sighting requirements to the gun crews for them to engage.  They are painted green to blend in with the background since they would have been a primary target for any invaders.  As it happened, no-one came so these forts never engaged any enemies.

Battery Chamberlain

AE7I0023.jpgOur visit to Baker Beach included something I hadn’t realized was there. The coast around the entrance to the Golden Gate is dotted with old gun batteries and it turns out that Baker Beach is another location. This gun emplacement is called Battery Chamberlain. While the concrete installations are still pretty much intact, the majority of the battery is long gone. However, one of the gun positions has been preserved and the gun is installed.

AE7I0030.jpgI took a quick look around while one of the guys who looks after things was working on the gun mechanism. He was changing the elevation of the gun and working on the mechanism that aligns the gun. I was able to peer down the barrel and take a look at the rifling. Apparently they run tours periodically but I just took a quick mooch around before heading on my way.

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Fortifications

wpid8254-AU0E8699-Edit.jpgThe Marin Headlands provide a great place to enjoy some lovely coastal scenery.  They were also a militarily significant location for many years.  Protection of the entrance to San Francisco Bay meant that a string of forts were built along the coast here.  The high ground provided an excellent base for large guns to take on an attacking fleet.  Some of these forts were operational while other emplacements were built just in time to be considered obsolete and they were never finished.  Now you can walk through the gun emplacements and imagine what they would have been like when operational.

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