Old Images of Shoeburyness, Essex

Historic Book

Extract from: Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts

Published in 1896

Pages 235 – 236

SHOEBURYNESS .

A FEW years ago we gave in the pages of this
Journal ( No. 380 , April 11 , 1891 ) some
account of Woolwich arsenal , the birthplace
of Woolrich Infants , as the
manufactured
great guns theres
are sometimes fancifully called
and a little later ( No. 452 , August 27 , 1892 )
we described the small – arms factory at Enfield .

It may not be now uninteresting to our readers
if we say something about the portion of the
county of Essex in which experiments are
carried out with the guns , large and small ,
manufactured at these two places , and briefly
mention some of the experiments themselves ,
and their results .

A ness may be best described as a blunt-
shaped , low – lying tongue of land running out
into the sea , hardly a point , much less a
promontory or headland .

The entrance to the
estuary of the Thames is guarded by two such
natural features , exactly opposite to one another .

That to the north is known as Shoeburyness ,
and that to the south is called Sheerness .

Between the two the great river finds its way
to the German Ocean , amidst , especially on the
northern side , shoals and sandbanks Sheerness
is a protected arsenal and dockyard which
guards the mouth of the Medway , and has been
selected for this purpose on account of the
excellent anchorage which the mouth of that
river affords for large ships of war .

Shoebury
ess , on the other hand , has become a military
station , not because of any advantages
afforded by its position on the sea , but because
it consists of a large tract of dreary marshes ,
flanked to the south and east by the far
stretching Maplin sands , which are almost
entirely uncovered at low – water .

These sands
form the attraction from a scientific point of
view , and why so , we shall see later on .

The
place is said to take its name from the words
Sceo and Byrig , which signify – the Byrig , or
settlement , in the shaw or wood .

Here Hast
inge , the viking , constructed one of his sea
coast fortifications or camps , the lines of which
may still be traced .

Of other ancient history
of Shoeburyness there is none .

The first connection of Shoeburyness with
modern military matters appears to have been
made so lately as the time of the Crimean war ,
when the flat , rough marshland was used
as a camping ground for men and horses with
the view of accustoming both to the hard work
which lay before them in the east .

This tract
of country has thus become the property of the
War Department , and that administrative body
soon found another use for it , in which the
half –
submerged sands were to bear an important part .

The idea conceived that targets was
might be erected on these sands , and that the

projectiles which were fired at them might be
recovered at low water . Hence the first con
nection of Shoeburyness with the artillery of
the present day .

A safe range can be found
across the sands to almost any distance , and
these marshes have therefore become the stage
on which our great guns , such as Armstrongs
and Whitworths , have made , so to speak , their
first debut .

To reach Shoeburyness we take the railway
which runs along the south coast of Essex and
the northern bank of the Thames .

As we near
the mouth of the estuary we pass Southend ,
beloved of trippers , with its pier stretching
out in its length of over a mile , and then
cross the base of the ness itself , until we
reach the sea again .

On the south – eastern face
of the ness we are at our journey’s end , and
the railway also , so far as the general public is
concerned , has come to a full stop .

We walk
through the little town or village , and on the
further side find what we may call the original
settlement of gunnery experiments , now for the
most part a group of barracks and quarters
such as we might find at any military station .

A few differences we notice , however , for as we
pass through the barrack – yard we observe that
one building is labelled Lecture – room , and
other evidences there are here and there that
the artillerymen who are quartered here are
not altogether engaged in their ordinary duties .

We shall probably not linger long at the
barracks , but we shall not fail to observe that
the officers ‘ quarters and mess – room occupy an
extremely pleasant position on a wooded bank
above the sea , and that at high – water the
waves come rippling up to the very trees them
selves .

Further on are the houses appropriated
to married officers , all alike situated on the
pleasant sea – bank .

We note many rowing and
sailing boats lying off the mess – buildings . Alas !
these craft sometimes prove a source of fatality
to some of the young officers who , however well
instructed they may be in their professional
duties , yet know nothing of practical scaman
ship .

Parties of young men in the prime of
life , and just entering one of the finest branches
of the British service , have gone off in high
spirits for an afternoon’s sail , and , caught by
tide , or current , or squall , have never returned .

More fortunate are those who have been able
to make their way from a capsized boat to the
Nore lightship , and there , perhaps , have remained
a day or two until the gale had abated and
they could be taken off .

But it is time we should leave the officers
quarters , and walk round the outside of the
domain .

We see in front of us huge wooden
erections standing on the edge of the shore .

These are conning towers from which , when
practice is going on , a view is obtained of the
direction of the shot .

Beneath them are the
batteries from which the guns are fired , and
here go on the courses of instruction in
practical artillery work , which are necessary for
newly – joined officers .

But we have by no means seen the most
important part of Shoeburyness when we have
visited the barracks and the batteries .

We
notice that a line of rails winds its way in and
out amongst guns and storehouses , and if we

have timed our visit right , we shall find a little
miniature train just about to start for what is
called The New Range . Taking our places in
this train , we shall be carried first through the
village and past the terminus of the public line ,
and then by a private railway which winds
along amongst the corn – fields , until we reach
a retired spot on the sea – shore hemmed in by
lofty trees .

In this private place are carried
on all the experiments for which Shoeburyness
is famous , and here both guns and explosives
are tested to their utmost capability .

It is not altogether an unpicturesque spot at which we have arrived. Grouped together in
the shaw to which we have referred , there are certain nice old farmhouses and other
buildings which have been taken possession of
by the military .

The space in front would no
doubt be an admirable rabbit – warren , only the
whole ground is now covered by guns of various
sizes , targets , shields , breast – works , and models
of portions of iron – clad and other vessels .

Amongst these run lines of rails by which
guns and materials can be moved to any part
of the ground ; and in places there are over
head travelling cranes by which heavy cannon
may be hoisted on to or off from their carriages ,
or into trucks , as need may require ; and we
again see lofty couning – towers , though target
practice at a distance is not carried on here to
the same extent as it is in that portion of the
establishment which we first visited . The work
at The New Range is connected rather with
experiments as to the force of explosives and
the penetrating power of projectiles , than with
accuracy of aim and the direction of the shot .
We onght first to say a few words about modern
explosives . Old – fashioned gunpowder , or black
powder , as it is now usually called , is composed
of saltpetre , charcoal , and sulphur , mixed together
in the proportion usually of seventy – five , fifteen ,
and ten parts respectively . But explosives of the
present day are composed of other substances .
Cordite ( Journal , No. 605 , August 3 , 1895 ) , of
which we now hear so much , is made of
nitro – glycerine , gun – cotton , and mineral jelly
in the proportion of fifty – seven , thirty – eight ,
and five parts It is also steeped in a
preparation of acetone . Gun – cotton itself is
dipped in a mixture of three parts of sulphuric
to one of nitric acid . The force of conlite over
gunpowder may be judged from the following
facts . A cartridge containing seventy grains of
black powder fired in the ordinary rifle of the
army will give what is called a muzzle velocity
of one thousand three hundred and fifty feet a
secon – i , while thirty grains only of cordite will
give a velocity of two thousand feet . In larger
arms , a little less than a pound of condite fired
in a twelve – pounder gun will give more velocity
than four pounds of black powder fired in the
same weapon . It need hardly be said that in
the experiments at Shoeburyness it is the new
fashioned explosive which is chiefly used .