Into the magazine

The steps down into one of many underground ammunition storage rooms. At 5am on July 6, 1900 the fort was rocked by a huge explosion causing the death of one soldier - Gunner Haines - who had fired his carbine down the shaft of a ventilator into No. 3 magazine, beneath the western gun positions. Huge damage was done - with the wall seperating the fort from the moat on the south west corner being demolished and wreckage thrown up to 200 yards. No-one knew why the gunner had blown up the fort. But it was a fatal blow as it was quickly closed down and the cannons hauled away by traction engines.