594 
.REPORTS 
ON 
♦ 
MOUNTING- OF HEAVY ORDNANCE 
AT MALTA. 
No. 2488. 
Dep.-Com.-Gen. Ordnance, 
In accordance with your orders, dated 28th ult., on War Office letter 
dated 21st ult. No. , I beg leave to report that five 88-ton guns have 
up to the present time been received -at this station, and have been delivered 
over to the Royal Artillery, as follows, viz, 
Two at head of Calcarra Creek for Fort St. Rocco. 
One at Ricasoli landing place for Fort Ricasoli. 
Two at Jew’s Sallyport (one for Fort St. Elmo, one for St. Lazarus* 
Bastion, East Valletta). 
The carriages and platforms for these guns have also been given over to 
the artillery. 
On arrival, the 88-ton guns were necessarily landed in the Dockyard, 
where is the only crane in the island capable of raising them. This is a 
crane worked by steam power—original^, I believe, equal to lifting 60 tons, 
but now limited to 40 tons. 
From the Dockyard each 38-ton gun was brought to its destination on 
two iron flat-bottomed pontoons, borrowed from the Dockyard. These were 
firmly secured together, side by side, with chains, so as to form, as it were, 
one craft. 
Across the decks, two baulks of timber, at proper distance apart, were fixed, 
so as to project some 6 ft. on the side the gun was to be landed, to serve as 
launching ways and to distribute the weight. 
The special sleigh manufactured for moving these guns was placed on the 
baulks, in the centre of the decks, and a gun was lowered on to the sleigh 
and carefully secured with chains and wedges. 
On reaching the point where the gun was to be landed—where arrange¬ 
ments had previously been made with a working party of Royal Artillery, 
with the requisite skidding, tackle, winches, &c., &c,—rollers were placed 
beneath the sleigh, when the guns were, in each instance, got ashore without 
difficulty. 
H. TAYLOR, 
D.-Com y . 
Ordinance Ofeice, 
Malta, 3rd December, 1877* 
