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Appendix No. 4.
ADEN.
Bell's Battery. 350 feet above the sea.
High Munsoorie.
3 80-pr. M.L.R. guns. 596 feet above the sea.
El Hosh.
1 80-pr. M.L.R. guns. 325 feet above the sea.
Garrison-
Men.
enemy, if he succeeded in forcing the southern lines, or the isthmus and Front Bay defences from advancing on the main position at Steamer Point.
Little requires to be done to them. The scarps, particularly between the Main Pass Gate and the sally-port near Durrub El Hosh should be made inaccessible, and a small cut made in front of the sally-port. It would be well also to form loop-holes in the eastern wall covering the steps of communication to Bell's battery.
This battery is open to musketry fire from a kuoll on the right-hand side of the road leading to the crater from the Main Gate, on which some houses have been built. Access to this knoll should be made impossible by scarping the cliff.
On the Steamer Point side of the Main Gate a new roadway has been made, and two rocky ridges have been left, from 200 to 400 yards in front, behind which a musketry fire would render the lower battery on that side of the gateway untenable; they should be removed.
As regards the armament of this portion of the defences:-
At High Munsoorie, from which a distant fire can be obtained to seaward in front of Seera Island, and also a plunging fire into Front Bay, it is proposed to substitute heavier ordnance for the 32-pounder smooth-bore guns now mounted there, and, for the reasons stated by the Committee, as 80-pounder muzzle-loading rifled converted guns are in India and not required there, guns of this nature would appear to be preferable.
An 80-pounder muzzle-loading rifled gun should also be placed at El Hosh to fire along the isthmus.
Artillery
Bell's Battery.
4 61-pr.M.L.R. guns.
Cost--
Works Armament
Total
Garrison-
Artillery Infantry
..
..
Total
Main Pass Gate.
5 8-in. S.B. guns.
Cost-
Work
Armament on the spot.
£
20
At Bell's Battery, from which a fire can be directed to the eastward, flanking the Munsoorie Range, and commanding the road from the crater to the main pass, and also to the westward, along the shores of the Bay towards "Little Pass," it is recommended that, 500 instead of only one medium gun, as mentioned in the War Office Memorandum, four 2,200
64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns should be placed there, two firing in each direction.
I agree with Sir W. Jervois in considering that a defensible gateway should be con- structed on the eastern side of the main pass. The best position for this can only be 20 decided upon after an accurate contoured survey of the ground has been made, but it would appear to be near and above, a cut in the rock on the right-hand side going towards the crater, and about 80 yards in front of the archway over the cutting.
2,700
Men.
50
70
Two 8-inch smooth-bore guns should be mounted here, and two 8-inch smooth-bore guns substituted for the 24-pounder guns on the western side; and, in addition, another 8-inch smooth-bore guns should be placed on the right of the western battery to flank the 2,500 scarped ridge between the Main Pass and the Tower Gate, and sweep the road from the
isthmus at the foot of it.
£
Total
·
2,500
Garrison---
Men.
Artillery
30
Infantry
100
Total
130
Crater Defences. Summary.
For the Crater Defences are proposed :—
Ras El Erigh
Mount Seera Battery
23
Tower
Holeut Bay Flanking Battery
Durrub El Hosh
Marshag
High Munsoorie
Bell's Battery
Main Gate
Total
ARMAMENT.
10-inch M.L.R.
9-inch M.L.R.
8-inch 80-pr.
S.B.
64-pr. Machine M.L.R. M.L.R. Guns.
+
2
2
3
::
5
3
5
7
or
8
0
or
It would not be necessary to provide a full complement of artillery to man all these guns, as many of them could not come into action until the defenders had been compelled to retire from the isthmus and from the crater.
The following may be put down as the number required:-
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