The King’s Bastion was a large, classic bastion projecting boldly from the curtain wall built between the original Bomb House and Eighth Batteries (also called Three Gun) in the tradition of bastion fortification that had dominated military architecture for more than 250 years. The King’s Bastion was the most effective bastion when it came to defending the West side. Most of the other bastions at the time were straight walls, but the King’s Bastion was unique in that the walls were curved instead. This meant that the bastion was more suitable for defending Gibraltar against sea-borne attacks because instead of only being able to fire ahead as in other bastions i.e. Orange and Montague, King’s Bastion gave the advantage to shoot ahead and at different angles (pivoting attack)thus increasing the radius of fire. So, the King’s Bastion was strategic at defending Gibraltar from sea-borne attacks.
- When the North American Colonies (now USA) revolted against the British rule, France became their ally, but Spain had no desire to lose her own colonies in the New World and had many scores to settle with Britain especially over the West Indies and Gibraltar. Hostilities grew between Britain and Spain.
During the first few years after the capture of Gibraltar, the British did little more than upgrade and maintain the existing structures, but as the 18th Century progressed and it became clear that Spain wanted to regain Gibraltar, improving the defences became utmost priority. The Grand Battery was strengthened providing defences for the Landport entrance, the Watergate and the Cooperage. The inundation was enlarged and many pits were excavated in it to enable sharp shooters above King’s Lines to fire at anyone attempting to cross the causeway. The Devil’s Tongue Battery on the Old Mole provided an extension of the Landport defences. The King and Queen’s Lines along what had originally been the access path up to the Gate of Granada, and the Prince’s Line above these, were repaired and improved under William Green using white Portland limestone. Scarping made it impossible to climb the face of the Rock. The glacis was improved by the addition of places of arms to the coveredway and a ravelin-shaped Covreporte Battery protecting the entrance to the fortress, the stone bridge having been replaced by a wooden structure with drawbridge. A few years before the South Front had been strengthened with additional guns mounted on the South Bastion and Prince of Wales Lines had been constructed running from the glacis of the Front to the New Mole, an early form of retired battery. The South Front was further strengthened with redans (dove formation) and additional guns. The sea walls all the way to Europa were repaired and improved (see Appendix 1).
Additionally, during the Great Siege (1779 to 1783) many works continued to be carried out – Green’s Lodge, Royal and Rock Guard marked the north face all the way to the summit, and Orange Bastion was constructed. A cavalier was erected on top of Montagu Bastion. The galleries, that started out as a plan to place a single gun, or at least a sentry post atop a projection on the North Face known as ‘the Notch’, was also a great defensive strategy during the years of the Great Siege. The galleries became an elaborate network of tunnels mounting casemated guns along most of their lengths. The effective and efficient communication achieved by this network of tunnels made all attacks by land nearly impossible. This meant that the Rock’s vulnerable position was the sea.
As a result, during the Great Siege (1779 to 1783) the King’s Bastion proved to be highly valuable in the defence of Gibraltar by sea. The ‘Grand Attack’ of the floating batteries took place on September 13 1783. Minorca, Britain’s other colony had fallen, releasing French and Spanish troops and ships. These ships were converted into ‘floating batteries’, where gunports were cut in their thickened sides and a sloping roof was build over them so that shells would roll off, and also to withstand heavy shelling. The ships had reinforced hulls, irrigating pumps to quench any fires, and pitched roofs to protect against plunging fire from shot. These floating batteries were intended to support a land and sea attack on the Rock, and were supposed to be indestructible and incombustible. The British had been experimenting with red hot shots known as ‘roast potatoes’ and these were used against the enemy’s floating batteries as the garrison quickly learned that red-hot shots were highly effective against the floating batteries. Fortunately for the British gunners, ten floating batteries where positioned in a line half a mile from the Line Wall, enabling the gunners to fire at maximum speed. The cold shots rolled off the ships, but the red hot roast potatoes were fired and eventually nine out of the ten floating batteries were burnt, sunk or taken. The Franco-Spanish forces did not make another attack either by land or by sea after this.
The pivotal efficiency of the King’s Bastion together with the fact that the bastion had been built to be self-sufficient whilst under attack till supplies lasted (i.e the supplies would prevent the garrison from starvation and disease which could at times be worse than the actual attack), therefore proved highly valuable in the defence of Gibraltar (see Appendix 2).
“These invincible floating batteries, that could neither be burnt, sunk or taken, were burnt, sunk and taken by plain English men who stood to their guns”.
(Ford’s Handbook for Spain, 1845)
Since the end of the Great Siege no military attempt has ever been made to take the Rock of Gibraltar by land or by sea, although Spain has shown hostility on a number of occasions. Gibraltar progressed from being a pawn in the European dynastic power games during the 18th Century to becoming a strategic fortress in Britain’s growing empire, guarding the Mediterranean Sea.
