The 100 Ton Gun is situated at Napier of Magdala Battery.

With the advent of the ironclad ship guns starting to get bigger, it got to a head when the Italian government ordered 12 massive 100 ton guns for its three new battleships of the Dulio class. The order was reduced to 8 as they had overestimated the cost of building three ships and only two were eventually built, the DULIO and the DANDOLO. Britain in the meantime, had already been thinking of arming itself with similar guns, so that it could fight back with the same calibre.

The original plan was for eight guns to be made, but reduced the order when they found out that the Italians reduced theirs. Therefore two were sent to Malta and two to Gibraltar. Another factor which was to influence Britain to arm itself with these monster guns was that the already famous german gun manufacturer KRUPP was making simlar guns for the Turks. The balance of power had to be maintained. The gun was manufactured by Sir W C Armstrong at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1870.

Another factor which was to influence Britain to arm itself with these monster guns was that the already famous german gun manufacturer KRUPP was making simlar guns for the Turks. The balance of power had to be maintained.The gun was manufactured by Sir W C Armstrong at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1870.

In December 1882 the Gibraltar chronicle records the arrival of the Steamship Stanley, 5 days out from Falmouth with the barrel of the 100 ton gun on board.

A Royal engineer officer, Captain English, was at the new mole to meet the Stanley with a giant set of sheer-legs made of iron and propositioned to lift the gun off the ship. The gun was lifted from his trunnions to stop the tilt caused by the heavy breach, a one and a half ton plug was fitted in the muzzle. The gun was winched out of the ship by 60 men using a capstan. As it rose, so did the ship, which made it impossible to transfer the gun to the waiting barge. Captain English, under pressure, ordered 100 tons of sand, rocks, water, soldiers, in fact anything he could lay his hands on, into the stanley, which eventually sank clear of the gun. The gun was then moved by carriage and platform to its present location.

The gun fired four types of shell. First, there was the common shell. It weighed about 900 kgs, about the same as half a platoon. It could penetrate 50cm of iron and could go through a battle ship from top to bottom. Leaving the muzzle at 470m per second, it had a maximum range of 13 kilometres.

The other rounds that were available were the armour piercing one called a Palliser Round, the Shrapnel shot and the case shot. The case shot was a blunt headed round which contained nearly 2000 8oz lead balls. These enormous projectiles were powered by massive charges of 450lbs of the finest powder; black prism powder wrapped in silk cloth to make four cartridges. The explosive force of this charge was enough, for example, to blow the gun 50 feet into the air.

The battery is horse-shoe shaped with the horns running on either side, pointing towards the rock. Running down to the dockyard was a light railway, used to bring the ammunition to the battery. Underground of the battery lies the ammunition preparation rooms, or laboratories, the steam engine to power the gun and the loading system. As they were dealing with gunpowder elaborate precautions were taken not to mix powder with naked light. The gunners wore special anti-spark suits and passageways were divided along the middle by glass partitions.

The steam engine was used to power a piston which pushed water around a complicated set of pipes to move the gun and its loading equipment. It took 3 hours to get up to steam. It was a long time to get into action, but it was excused in those days as ships in the straits would take three hours to get to Gibraltar.

Twenty three gunners were required to man the gun. Orders were relayed by a system of voice pipes. The ammunition and charges were raised on steam hoists to the small room behind the hatches. A nozzle filled the barrel with water and the gun was then depressed to empty it and swung down so that the muzzle was opposite the hatch and resting on the cradle. A forty foot powered rammer then pushed the cartridge and shell into the barrel. The gun was then swung up to the given bearing and elevation. The rate of fire was supposed to be one round every four minutes, but they had it down to one round every minute and a half.