Fort Rodd Hill, Victoria, Canada
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PersonsMD
N 48° 25.959 W 123° 27.001
10U E 466712 N 5364486
Fort Rodd Hill is a coast artillery fort built in the late 1890s to defend Victoria and the Esquimalt Naval Base.
Waymark Code: WM7C4X
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 10/03/2009
Views: 6
The Fort includes three gun batteries, underground magazines, command posts, guardhouses, barracks and searchlight emplacements.
Rodd Hill was named for John Rashleigh Rodd, 1st Lieutenant on the HMS Fisgard.
Britain's Royal Navy began using Esquimalt harbor in the 1840s, at first merely for anchorage, watering and for lumber; but the establishment of three hospital huts during the Crimean War of 1854-56 marked the start of what is still an active naval base.
In 1862, the Royal Navy's Pacific Squadron was relocated to Esquimalt harbour from Valparaiso, Chile (where it had utilised floating storeships rather than built facilities ashore). This increased presence, eventually including storehouses and workshops ashore, would require some form of coastal defence to deter naval attack by any potential enemy. This need was reinforced by the influx of American gold miners during the Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858, and by the armed standoff of U.S. and British forces during the San Juan Islands Pig War of 1859 and continuing tensions associated with that dispute until its resolution in 1871.[1]
It was not until after the Colony of Vancouver Island had joined the mainland of British Columbia in 1866, and then Canada in 1870, that the first fixed coastal defences were emplaced to protect the naval base. During the Great Eastern Crisis in 1877-78, increased tension between Britain and Russia over the latter's declaration of war on Turkey focused attention on the lack of defences for Britain's only naval station on the western seaboards of both North and South America. Volunteers for artillery training were mustered in Victoria on the 18th of May, while Lt-Col De La Chevois Irwin, Inspector-General of Artillery at Kingston, Ontario, was sent (by train, across the U.S.A.) to organize the defences.
Five batteries of guns (mainly 64-pr naval rifled muzzle loader) were constructed quickly, using earthen ramparts shored with timber. The largest guns of these defences were three 7-inch RML guns at Macaulay Point (covering the entrance of both Victoria and Esquimalt harbours), and one 8-inch RML on Brothers Island (at the mouth of Esquimalt harbor).
The Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Squadron, Admiral de Horsey, inspected the new batteries and declared them inadequate; the local artillery militia could only muster enough gunners to serve half the guns and as local citizens, it was felt that they might be inclined to give preference to guns defending Victoria rather than the naval base. De Horsey recommended that a permanent garrison of 100 Royal Marine Artillery, modern guns, and a submarine minefield be established as permanent defences.
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