3-008-386 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Testing heavy guns at Shoeburyness, 1862. 'Shoeburyness is on the Essex coast, about three miles below Southend, and is an admirable situation for the vast Government establishment placed there for the purpose of testing large implements of destruction. The authorities are strict in excluding strangers, and very little that transpires here is allowed to be made public...on the south is the subject of our Illustration, the battery for testing the range and accuracy of ordnance, large and small. On the occasion represented some half dozen large guns by different inventors were severely tried, and to prevent accident from bursting, which was anticipated, the artillerymen immediately after loading took shelter below the battery, and behind the screen to the left of the guns; a flag was then hoisted as a signal to those stationed on the sands to mark the range, and the guns were fired by an electric battery. To a spectator placed behind the battery...the effect was singular. The gun exploding without visible agency - the loud detonation - the whizzing of the shot - the distant thud - men...galloping over the sands...vanishing from sight as rapidly as they appeared - gave a stem reality even to the trial of our loud-voiced peacemakers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.