3-065-612 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fortifications of St. Helena: Munden's Fort, 1874. 'This lonely islet of the Atlantic Ocean, which was the prison of Napoleon I., is not entirely forgotten. St. Helena is amongst the fortified places of the British empire which it has been thought necessary to arm of late years with heavy rifled ordnance in substitution for old smooth-bores. The rocky nature of the shores of this island, and the rollers which scarcely cease for a few consecutive days in the year, render the landing of such heavy masses of metal as our modern pieces of ordnance a difficult and dangerous operation to carry through in a surging sea. [Our engraving is a] view of Munden's Fort (from the east), with the small barracks attached thereto. In 1846 the rollers washed up level with the parapet of this fort...The guns lately placed in position are rifled muzzle-loading guns of 7 tons weight. The conveyance of these guns from the schooner Just, which took them from England, and the work of landing them on the rocks, was performed by the shipping firm of Erridge and Co., Government water-transport contractors for the island of St. Helena'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.