The enclosed harbour covers 440 acres, 250 of which have a minimum depth of 30 ft. at low water. It is closed on the S. and S.W. by the New Mole (1400 ft.) and the New Mole extension (2700 ft.), together 4100 ft.; on the W. by the Detached Mole (2720 ft.) and on the N. by the Commercial Mole.
The New Mole, so called to distinguish it from the Old Mole and its later extension the Devil’s Tongue at the north end of the town, is said to have been begun by the Spaniards in 1620. It was successfully assaulted by landing parties from the British fleet under Sir George Rooke at the capture of Gibraltar by the British in 1704. It was extended at different times, and before the beginning of the new works was 1400 ft. in length. The New Mole, with its latest extension, has a width at top of 102 ft. It is formed of rubble stone floated into position in barges. It has a continuous wharf wall on the harbour side 3500 ft. long, with water alongside 30 to 35 ft. deep. On the outer side coal is stacked in sheds extending nearly the whole length of the mole.
The Detached Mole is a vertical wall formed of concrete blocks, each block weighing 28 tons. These blocks were built together on the sloping block system upon a rubble foundation of stone deposited by barges and levelled by divers for the reception of the concrete blocks.
The Commercial Mole is now chiefly used by the navy as a convenient wharf for destroyers. It encloses the harbour to the north and extends westward from the end of the Devil’s Tongue. At the end nearest the town are large stores; there is also a small wharf on its outer side which is used by the tenders of ocean steamers and by the small boats which ply to Algeciras.
This mole is built of rubble, and at its western end it has an arm about 1600 ft. long running S. in the direction of the Detached Mole. Parallel with and inside the western arm are five jetties. The jetties and western arm have extensive coal sheds and are faced with a concrete wharf wall of a total length of 7000 ft. with 20 to 30 ft. of water alongside. The Devil’s Tongue was an extension of the Old Mole, constructed during the great siege 1779-1783 in order to bring a flanking fire to bear upon part of the Spanish lines. It owes its name to the success with which it played its destined part.
(H. M.*)
History.—Gibraltar was known to the Greek and Roman geographers as Calpe or Alybe, the two names being probably corruptions of the same local (perhaps Phoenician) word. The eminence on the African coast near Ceuta which bears the modern English name of Apes’ Hill was then designated Abyla; and Calpe and Abyla, at least according to an ancient and widely current interpretation, formed the renowned Pillars of Hercules (Herculis columnae, Ἡρακλέους στῆλαι), which for centuries were the limits of enterprise to the seafaring peoples of the Mediterranean world. The military history of the Rock begins with its capture and fortification by Tariq in 711. In 1309 it was retaken by Alonzo Perez de Guzman for Ferdinand IV. of Castile and Leon, who, in order to attract inhabitants to the spot, offered an asylum to thieves and murderers, and promised to levy no taxes on the import or export of goods. The attack of Ismail ben Ferez in 1315 (2nd siege) was frustrated; but in 1333 Vasco Perez de Meyra, having allowed the fortifications and garrison to decay, was obliged to capitulate to Mahomet IV. (3rd siege) after a defence of five months. Alonzo’s attempts to recover possession (4th siege) were futile, though pertinacious and heroic; but after his successful attack on Algeciras in 1344 he was encouraged to try his fortune again at Gibraltar. In 1349 he invested the Rock, but the siege (5th siege) was brought to an untimely close by his death in March 1350. The next or 6th siege resulted simply in the transference of the position from the hands of the king of Morocco to those of Yussef III. of Granada (1411), and the 7th, undertaken by the Spanish count of Niebla, Enrique de Guzman, proved fatal to the besieger and his forces (1435). In 1462, however, success attended the efforts of Alonzo de Arcos (8th siege), and in August the Rock passed once more under Christian sway. The duke of Medina Sidonia, a powerful grandee who had assisted in its capture, was anxious to get possession of the fortress, and though Henry IV. at first managed to maintain the claims of the crown, the duke ultimately made good his ambition by force of arms (9th siege), and in 1469 the king was constrained to declare his son and his heirs perpetual governors of Gibraltar. In 1479 Ferdinand and Isabella made the second duke marquess of Gibraltar, and in 1492 the third duke, Don Juan, was reluctantly allowed to retain the fortress. At length in 1502 it was formally incorporated with the domains of the crown. Don Juan tried in 1506 to recover possession, and added a 10th to the list of sieges. In 1540 the garrison had to defend itself against a much more formidable attack (11th siege)—the pirates of Algiers having determined to recover the Rock for Mahomet and themselves. The conflict was severe, but resulted in the repulse of the besiegers. After this the Spaniards made great efforts to strengthen the place, and they succeeded so well that throughout Europe Gibraltar was regarded as impregnable, the engineer Daniel Speckle (1536-1589) being chiefly responsible for the design of the fortifications.
Gibraltar was taken by the allied British and Dutch forces, after a three days’ siege, on the 24th of July 1704 (see [Spanish Succession, War of the]). The capture was made, as the war was being fought, in the interests of Charles, archduke of Austria, but Sir George Rooke (q.v.), the British admiral, on his own responsibility caused the British flag to be hoisted, and took possession in name of Queen Anne, whose government ratified the occupation. A great number of the inhabitants of the town of Gibraltar abandoned their homes rather than recognize the authority of the invaders. The Spaniards quickly assembled an army to recapture the place, and a new siege opened in October 1704 by troops of France and Spain under the marquess of Villadarias. The activity of the British admiral, Sir John Leake, and of the military governor, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt (who had commanded the land forces in July), rendered the efforts of the besiegers useless. A notable incident of this siege was the gallant attempt made by 500 chosen volunteers to surprise the garrison (31st of October), an attempt which, at first successful, in the end failed disastrously. Finally, in April 1705 the French marshal de Tessé, who had replaced Villadarias, gave up the siege and retired. During the next twenty years there were endless negotiations for the peaceful surrender of the fortress, varied in 1720 by an abortive attempt at a coup de main, which was thwarted by the resourcefulness of the governor of Minorca (Colonel Kane), who threw reinforcements and supplies into Gibraltar at the critical moment. In 1726 the Spaniards again appealed to arms. But the count of las Torres, who had the chief command, succeeded no better than his predecessors. The place had been strengthened since 1705, and the defence of the garrison under Brigadier Clayton, the lieutenant-governor, Brigadier Kane of Minorca, and the governor, the earl of Portmore, who arrived with reinforcements, was so effective that the armistice of the 12th of June practically put a close to the siege, though two years elapsed before the general pacification ensued.
Neither in the War of the Austrian Succession nor in that of 1762 did Spain endeavour to besiege the rock, but the War of American Independence gave her better opportunities, and the great siege of 1779-1783 is justly regarded as one of Siege of Gibraltar (1779-1783). the most memorable sieges of history. The governor, General Sir George Augustus Elliot (afterwards Lord Heathfield), was informed from England on the 6th of July 1779 that hostilities had begun. A short naval engagement in the straits took place on the 11th, and General Elliot made every preparation for resistance. It was not, however, until the month of August that the Spaniards became threatening. The method of the besiegers appeared to be starvation, but the interval between strained relations and war had been well employed by the ships, and supplies were, for the time at any rate, sufficient. While the Spanish siege batteries were being constructed the fortress fired, and many useful artillery experiments were carried out by the garrison at this time and subsequently throughout the siege. On the 14th of November there took place a spirited naval action in which the privateer “Buck,” Captain Fagg, forced her way into harbour. This was one of many such incidents, which usually arose from the attempts made from time to time by vessels to introduce supplies from Tangier and elsewhere. December 1779, indeed, was a month of privation for the garrison, though of little actual fighting. In January 1780, on the rumour of an approaching convoy, the price of foods “fell more than two-thirds,” and Admiral Sir George Rodney won a great victory over De Langara and entered the harbour. Prince William Henry (afterwards King William IV.) served on board the British fleet as a midshipman during this expedition. Supplies and reinforcements were thrown into the fortress by Rodney, and the whole affair was managed with the greatest address both by the home government and the royal navy. “The garrison,” in spite of the scurvy, “might now be considered in a perfect state of defence,” says Drinkwater.
On the 7th of June took place an attack by Spanish fireships, which were successfully dealt with by the naval force in the bay under Captain Lesley of H.M. frigate “Enterprise.” Up to October the state of things within the fortress was much what it had been after Rodney’s success. “The enemy’s operations on the land side had been for many months so unimportant as scarcely to merit our attention” (Drinkwater). Scurvy was, however, prevalent (see Drinkwater, p. 121), and the supply question had again become acute. Though the enemy’s batteries did not open fire, the siege works steadily progressed, in spite of the fire from the fortress, and there were frequent small engagements at sea in which the English were not always successful. Further, the expulsion, with great harshness, of the English residents of Barbary territory put an end to a service of supply and information which had been of the greatest value to Elliot (January 1781). Three more months passed in forced inaction, which the garrison, stinted as it was, endured calmly. Then, on the 12th of April 1781, on the arrival of a British relieving squadron under Admiral Darby, the whole of the Spanish batteries opened fire. Stores were landed in the midst of a heavy bombardment, and much damage was done both to the fortifications and military buildings and to the town. At this time there was a good deal of indiscipline in the garrison, with which General Elliot dealt severely. This was in the last degree necessary, for the bombardment continued up to the 1st of June, after which the rate of the enemy’s fire decreased to 500 rounds per day. By the 12th of July it had almost ceased. In September the firing again became intense and the casualties increased, the working parties suffering somewhat heavily. In October there was less expenditure of ammunition, as both sides were now well covered, and in November the governor secretly prepared a great counterstroke. The sortie made on the night of the 26th-27th of November was brilliantly successful, and the Spanish siege works were mostly destroyed. At the close of the year the garrison was thus again in an excellent position.