Appendix No. 4.
SINGAPORE.
Page 254
226
TABLE I.
Present Armament.
Proposed Armament.
Name.
7-in.
64-pr.
Armour piercing.
Armour
Rifled
Mortars.
7-in.
64-pr.
piercing. Howitzer.
Mount Siloso
3
2
2
1
Mount Palmer
3
2
3
1
Blakang Mati East
2
2
Tanjong Katong
Sea Fort
Passir Panjang
2253 no no
3
3
:::
TABLE II.
Name of Work.
Number of Guns.
Number of Men with Guns.
Number of Men for Miscellaneous
Number of Men for Reserve.
Duties.
Total Number in Battery.
Number of Artillery.
Number of Infantry.
Passir Panjang Mount Siloso
1.
Blakang Mati East
Mount Serapong.. Mount Palmer
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
•
15 5S G
40
20
30
90
30
40
20
30
90
30
9
72
36
54
102
54
25
·
48
24
36
•
108
36
Tanjong Katong Sea Fort
3
24
12
18
54
18
..
3
24
12
18
54
18
8800 00
60
60
108
25
72
36
36
Total Artillery
>>
Infantry
::
::
::
186
397
Number of mines and where stored.
The defence.
Arrangement of
electro-contact mines.
Firing station.
Position above Teregeh Point.
(Secret.)
Inclosure 3 in No. 74.
Submarine Mining Defence of Singapore.
THE number of mines at present set apart for the defence of Singapore is 16 500-lb. ground mines and 38 electro-contact mines, 7 of which can be used as mechanical mines.
These are stored, in time of peace, at Pulo Brani, where special stores and a pier have been built. The stores are in charge of 1 officer and 5 men, but this force, in time of war, would have to be largely increased. (Vide Special Report attached.*)
2. The defence, as arranged at present, consists of 8 500-lb. mines and 32 electro-contact for the eastern entrance, and 8 500-lb. and 6 electro-contact for the western entrance.
The Eastern Entrance.
3. The mine field in this entrance is placed under the heaviest fire of the batteries of Mount Palmer and Blakang Mati East, which are each 1,500 yards distant, on opposite sides of the channel.
This distance is rather beyond that laid down in Manual of Submarine Mining Defence, but cannot be avoided. The mine field, however, is well retired, so that its flanks cannot be easily attacked by small boats with grapnels and creepers. The distance across the entrance defended by mines is 1,100 yards.
4. The thirty-two electro-contact mines for the defence of this passage are arranged in groups of four, and each group of four is again grouped to a multiple junction box, and thence, by two multiple four-core armoured cables, they are led to the firing-station.
By this arrangement a saving is effected in cable, and not more than four mines come on one shutter in the test-room.
The 500-lb. ground mines are placed in two lines of four mines; all the mines in a line are fired simultaneously by an observer from the firing-station.
In this way a channel of 440 feet is left for the passage of ships desiring to enter and leave the harbour.
5. The firing station is placed behind the breakwater at Tanjong Pagar, and is proposed to be built in accordance with the accompanying drawing,† which is the same as in the approved Submarine Mining Manual, with the addition of an arrangement for firing locomotive torpedoes from a tube.
The land for the firing-station could be obtained from the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, and, should it be their intention further to extend their wharf, some arrangement might be made with them as to the building of this firing-station. The reason for which it is built should be kept as secret as possible, and it might be called an expense magazine.
6. There is another position which could be used as a firing-station, namely, the hill above Teregeh Point, 140 feet high. The disadvantages of this position, as compared with the one proposed
now, are:-
* Inclosure 4 in No. 74.
† Not printed.
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