31st March: The Guns

The guns have been blogged in previous years. What’s different this year is that the Spanish Government is doing them up with a euro grant, so we paid the site another visit to see how wisely they are spending our money. The photo below shows how smart the biggest of the guns looks, newly painted, having been plastered with graffiti previously.

As a recap, the artillery complex was built in 1929/30 to guard the entrance to Cartagena harbour. It was closed in 1993. The guns and mechanisms were supplied by Vickers UK; much of the supporting machinery, i.e. compressors and the like, by other British companies.

The name on the machine says Reavell & Co Engineers, Ipswich, England. It’s interesting to compare a photo from the time of the original installation showing the same equipment.

How to deal with items of historic value is a debatable issue: should they be “done up” to original condition as far as is possible, carefully preserved in their current state, or simply be left to naturally decay (but not hastened by vandalism etc.). The next photo shows a bit of everything! These silhouettes can be seen in the range-spotting tower and are of British naval warship classes. Those on the left have been completely repainted but on the right hand side only the front half of each ship has been touched up. The much paler faded original silhouette is clearly seen completing the outline. The graffiti, from 1993 to date, is still everywhere but will presumably be whitened out at some stage.
I would prefer the original faded silhouettes to be left: that is the item of historical significance, not the overpainting. Also, any restoration work should be carried out meticulously, and this wasn’t. However, no problem getting rid of the graffiti.