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Appendix No. 4.
SINGAPORE. Blasting operations.
Construction and design. Concrete escarp.
Battery, Blakang Matz East. Site.
Disposition of arma-
ment.
Magazines of battery.
Mount Serapong Redoubt.
Mount Palmer Battery.
Disposition of arma-
ment.
Taniong Katong Battery. Armament.
Defence of the town. Value of Tanjong Katong Battery.
220
11. The tongue of land referred to above made a very inconvenient dead angle in front of this field, and blasting operations were therefore resorted to for its removal, so that, as the site stands at present, a glacis extends in front of the right 7-inch guns, having a gradient equal to their maximum depression, whilst above this glacis is another glacis swept by the 64-pounders. A narrow rocky parapet has been left unexcavated between the two glacis, as its presence with the existing design is immaterial, whilst it will prove of use if the work be hereafter extended to Rimau Point, on the flat surface made by the excavation.
12. As regards the construction and design of this battery, suffice it here to say that a thick concrete core has been constructed throughout, that suitable accommodation for ammunition and the service of the guns has been provided; means of protection against a coup de main devised; and the details of the battery generally so designed that the work already done will all prove of use when funds are available to make it of a more permanent character. The treacherous nature of the soil compelled the construction of a concrete escarp nearly throughout, so that, in conjunction with the cliff in front, the battery, even as it now stands, is far from not being a formidable object.
Eastern Defences.
13. The eastern defences consist of two batteries constructed at Blakang Mati East and Mount Palmer (with a redoubt on Mount Serapong) to defend the entrance of the new harbour, and a third battery at Tanjong Katong to aid in the defence of the roadstead and town. The submarine mining field at this entrance of the harbour consists of eight ground mines of 500 lbs. and thirty-two electro contact mines of 100 lbs.
14. This battery is constructed on a hill 140 feet high, forming a distinct feature of itself at the eastern extremity of the island. The ground available for battery purposes is the shape of a double- headed rail, with the northern member smaller than the southern, and the eastern concavity slight, in comparison to the western, thus:-
[Sketch: not printed.]
It is on the southern member, on a frontage of 160 yards, from centre to centre of the extreme guns, that the battery has been constructed, the left flank crossing the neck, and presenting, at its junction with the gorge, a long exterior slope falling to the concavity alluded to. The northern member has an additional frontage of about 100 yards, and is surrounded by a musketry parapet which, at the gorge, crosses, at a falling gradient, the western concavity of the hill to join the covered way of the work itself.
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15. The armament of this work is four 7-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns of 63 tons on naval slides running on A" sweep-plate racers, and two 64-pounders on "D" racers with high pattern carriages. The four 7-inch guns are arranged, at intervals of 80 feet apart, in two faces, having an angle at the salient of 148 degrees, whilst the 64-pounders are mounted one on either flank.
16. There is no main magazine, but the ammunition is distributed throughout the battery in large stores of suitable design in the traverses between the guns, shell and cartridge stores alternating and supplying their particular kind or ammunition to the guns on either side. The ammunition for the 64-pounders is supplied by lifts to the emplacement levels from magazines below.
17. Mount Serapong Redoubt is a small infantry work cut out of the summit of the hill to prevent its occupation by hostile riflemen. It has a command of 160 feet over Blakang Mati East, and is distant from it 800 yards.
18. Mount Palmer Battery is constructed on a hill 110 feet in height, situated near the town of Singapore, at the entrance of the New Harbour. The whole hill is of the shape of a boomerang, and it is on the southern limb of this hill (the sea front of which consists of a cliff 66 feet in height) that the battery has been constructed. The northern limb is being removed for reclamation purposes, and will leave the battery surrounded by steep scarped ground on all sides, except on the immediate front, where, however, the déblai of the works has been accumulated to form a narrow glacis swept by musketry and artillery fire. This déblai comes, for the most part, from the terreplein, which is cut out of the reverse of the hill, the parapets consisting of the solid ground itself.
19. The armaments for which emplacements had to be provided was three 7-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns of 6 tons on naval slides running on "A" sweep-plate racers, and two 64-pounders on "D racers. These 64-pounders are put one on either flank, the 7-inch guns being arranged on the arc of a circle of which the chord, from centre to centre of the 64-pounders emplacement, is 297 feet, and the versed sine 62 feet. Arrangements have also been made to mount here the three 13-inch mortars, now in the retired position of Fort Canning, situated behind the town. The whole battery is of strong design, and well provided with musketry fire.
20. This is the only battery on the eastern side of the roadstead, which it is intended to defend in connection with those constructed at Mount Palmer and Blakang Mati East. In design it is quite different from the other batteries described above, being, from its situation in a low-lying cocoa-nut plantation, of essentially an elevated type surrounded by a wet ditch. It is constructed to receive three 7-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns of 7 tons on "D" racers, firing over a parapet of 7 feet high from the emplacement level in front. It is closed on the gorge by covering traverse and brick walls of suitable trace.
II.-Considerations of the Defence
21. The purpose for which the existing works were constructed was primarily to defend the New Harbour, and secondly to defend the town itself. With the armament supplied, the latter object could be only imperfectly attained, for it will be seen from the chart attached that the town lies upon an open bay, and that any system which could at the time be constructed with the means and funds
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