GIBRALTAR. A British fortress and Crown colony at the western entrance to the Mediterranean. The best description is by Ramsay and Geikie (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., London, 1878, p. 505) :—"The Rock . . . forms a well marked promontory that trends in a direction south by west into the Mediterranean. The extreme length of the Rock from the base of the cliff at the north front to Europa Point is only a little over 24- m., and the prom ontory tapers somewhat gradually away from a breadth of 1,550 yds. between Gibraltar and Catalan Bay to a width of 55o yds. at Europa. The Rock shoots abruptly upwards from the low flat ground at the north front in a fine mural precipice, the basal portion of which is partly concealed by a sloping curtain of debris and breccia. This precipitous wall culminates . . . at the Rock Gun (1,349 ft.) from which point the dividing ridge or backbone of the promontory extends southward in a sharp jagged arch, the dominant points of which are Middle hill (1,195 ft.), Signal station (1,294 ft.), heights above Monkey's Alameda (1,396 ft.) and O'Hara's tower (1,37o ft.). At the latter the ridge is sharply truncated, and succeeded to the south by the well marked plateau of Windmill hill and Europa. From the Rock Gun to O'Hara's tower the dividing ridge presents to the east a bold escarpment, which is for the most part inaccessible, and in places almost vertical, the cliffs where they are lowest having a drop of not less than 300 or 400 ft., and of more than i,000 ft. where they approach the sea on the north. From their base the ground falls rapidly away to the coastline at angles that vary from 3o° to 40°. The opposite slopes of the dividing ridge are not so abrupt, the only really precipitous portion that faces the west being the line of cliff that overlooks Gardiner's road and Engineer's road between the Moorish wall and the Mount. A low sandy plain, that does not average more than 1 o ft. in height above the sea, connects the Rock with the mainland." The top of Windmill hill slopes from 400 to 30o ft. above sea, and so is separated by a great cliff from O'Hara's tower on the north, it ends southward in a 200 ft. cliff, below which are Europa flats that themselves end in a 5o ft. cliff plunging steeply into fairly deep water. Europa Point is 112 nautical miles from the African coast, and its lighthouse is in 5° 21' W. and 36° 6' 3o" N. The rock is built of limestone, covered on the west by shales, both of Lower Jurassic age. The limestone has many caves with accumulations of bone-breccia and there are several apparently Pleistocene or still more recent deposits.
According to M. Deperet (Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci., Paris, T. 166, 1918), "it was formerly supposed that Gibraltar was con nected with the African shore during or after the Pleistocene Ice age but the trend of opinion is now towards the view that the con nection must be Pliocene at the latest. Reference used to be made to the occurrence of Barbary apes on the Rock, but it is now thought that these were introduced by Romans or Moors; no fossil remains of them have been found in any caves or breccias. Neither the surviving nor the fossil-Pleistocene fauna suggests an African connection. The presence of the great auk in Pleistocene times at the Rock is not held to imply any great dif ference of climate, as its remains have been found in south Italy, Brittany, etc., though it became restricted in course of time to the far north. Several caves have been examined towards the south end, but special attention has been given to one at the north end overlooking the isthmus near the Devil's tower (see Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst., op. cit.), which has yielded evidence of the former presence of 25 species of mammals, including the elephant and rhinoceros; for the rest the mammalian remains are essentially European." The flora of the Rock is not over rich, because of the isolation and of the character of much of its surface. The stone pine and the wild olive appear to be old established. The fauna, apart from the barbary apes, is not of great interest. A Mousterian flint industry has been described for Gibraltar (especially the Devil's tower site) by Miss Garrod, who has also found two skulls of Mousterian type. (H. J. F.) Climate.—June, July and August are practically rainless and May and September nearly so. The rest of the year is delightful, with occasional storms. The thermometer in summer does not often reach 9o° F in the shade; from 83° to 85° may be taken to be the average maximum for July and August, and the mean annual temperature is 64° 4". The average yearly rainfall is 353 in., and the highest recorded rainfall in Gibraltar occurred in the winter of 1855-6 when it was 77-14 inches, the lowest recorded rainfall being in 1800-1 when it was 15.12 inches. The water supply for drinking and cooking purposes is almost wholly de rived from rainwater, stored chiefly in underground tanks; there are very few good wells. Large storage tanks have been con structed by the sanitary commissioners with specially prepared collecting areas high up the Rock. The collecting areas cover 382 ac., and the tanks have a capacity of over nine million gallons.
A good deal of land has been reclaimed from the sea. Much of the town, in fact the entire business quarter, is on level ground, and the narrow streets and ramps that go up the Rock only com municate with various private houses, barracks, etc. To the south of the town are the barracks for practically the entire garrison, the majority of the biggest official residences such as those of the Colonial Secretary, Attorney General, Crown Surveyor, Naval Commander-in-Chief, etc., together with cricket, football and tennis courts and many other interesting parts of Gibraltar.
In 1931 the population was 21,3 7 2 ; 17,613 civilians, 3,218 military and S41 naval.
The money, weights and measures in legal use are British. Be fore 1898 Spanish money only was in use. The great depreciation of the Spanish currency during the war with the United States led in 1898 to the reintroduction of British currency as the legal tender money of Gibraltar. Notwithstanding this change the Spanish dollar still remains in current use ; much of the retail business of the town being done with persons resident in Spain, the dollar fully holds its own.
With the completion of the new dockyard works the value of Gibraltar as a naval base has greatly increased. It can now undertake all the ordinary repairs and coaling of a large fleet. There is an enclosed harbour in which a fleet can safely anchor secure from the attacks of torpedo boats. A mole, at first intended for commercial purposes, closes the north end of the new harbour. The Admiralty, however, soon found that their needs had out grown the first design and the Commercial Mole was taken over for naval purposes, plans for a new commercial mole being pre pared.
The land space available for the purposes of dockyard exten sion being very limited, a space of about 64 ac. was reclaimed from the sea in front of the Alameda and the road to Rosia ; some of the land reclaimed was as much as 4o ft. under water. The large quantity of material required for this purpose was obtained by tunnelling the Rock from west to east and from quar ries above Catalan Bay village, to which access was gained through the tunnel. The graving docks occupy the dug-out site of the former New Mole Parade. There are three of these docks, 85o, and 45o ft. in length respectively. The largest dock is divisi ble by a central caisson so that four ships can be docked at one time. The docks are all 95 ft. wide at the entrance, with 35-1- f t. of water over the sills at low-water spring tides.
The enclosed harbour covers 44o ac., 2 5o of which have a minimum depth of 3o ft. at low water. It is closed on the south and south-west by the New Mole (1,400 ft.) and the New Mole extension (2, 70o ft.), together 4,10o ft.; on the west by the Detached Mole (2,7 20 ft.) and on the north 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 162o. 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 1,40o ft. in length. The New Mole, with its latest extension, has a width at top of 102 feet. It is formed of rubble stone floated into position in barges. It has a continuous wharf wall on the harbour side 3, 50o ft. long, with water alongside 3o to 35 ft. deep. On the outer side coal is usually 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 to gether on the sloping block system upon a rubble foundation of stone deposited by barges and levelled by divers for the recep tion 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 1,600 ft. long running south 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 7,000 ft. with 20 to 3o ft. of water alongside. The Devil's Tongue was an extension of the Old Mole, constructed during the great siege 1779-83 in order to bring a flanking fire to bear upon part of the Spanish lines. Vessels of any size can anchor in the bay in 3 -2 5 fathoms of water.
The signal station on the top receives and distributes the names and messages of passing ships.
Gibraltar was taken by the allied British and Dutch forces, after a three days' siege, on July 24, 1704. (See SPANISH SUCCES SION, WAR OF THE.) The capture was made, as the war was be ing fought, in the interests of Charles, archduke of Austria, but Sir George Rooke, the British admiral, on his own respon sibility caused the British flag to be hoisted, and took possession in the name of Queen Anne, whose government ratified the occupa tion. The Spaniards quickly assembled an army to recapture the place, and a new siege opened in Oct. 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. During the next 20 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 (Col. Kane), who threw reinforcements and supplies into Gibraltar at the critical moment. Gibraltar was unsuccessfully besieged by the Spaniards in 1726.
On June 7 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, prev alent (see Drinkwater, p. I 21 ), 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 expul sion, 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 (Jan. 1781) . Three more months passed in forced inaction. Then, on April 12, 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 Gen. Elliot dealt severely. This was in the last degree necessary, for the bombardment continued up to June I, after which the rate of the enemy's fire decreased to 500 rounds per day. By July 12 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 Nov. 26-27 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.
After a preliminary bombardment the famous battering ships took up their positions in broad daylight on the 13th and opened fire. The British solid shot seem to have failed absolutely to penetrate the massive wooden armour on the sides and the roofs of the battering ships, and about noon the ships had settled down to their work and were shooting coolly and accurately. But be tween I and 2 P.M. the British artillerymen began to use red-hot shot freely. All day the artillery duel went on, the shore guns, though inferior in number, steadily gaining the upper hand, and the battering ships were in great distress by nightfall. The strug gle continued in the dark, the garrison now shooting rapidly and well, and one by one the ten ships were set on fire. Before noon on the 14th the attack had come to an end by the annihilation of the battering fleet, every ship having been blown up or burnt to the water's edge. Upwards of 8,30o rounds were expended by the garrison, though less than a hundred pieces were in action. The enemy's bombardment was, however, resumed and partial engagements continued up to the third naval relief of the fortress by Lord Howe, who won a great victory at sea over the Spaniards. The long siege came to an end on Feb. 6, 1783, when the duc de Crillon informed Elliot that the preliminaries of peace had been signed. On March 31 the duke visited the fortress, and many courtesies passed between the late enemies. Captain (after wards Colonel) John Drinkwater (1762-1844), the historian of the siege, first published his work in 1785. A new edition of A History of the Siege of Gibraltar was published in 1905. The history of the four eventful years' siege is fully detailed also in the Memoir, attached to Green's Siege of Gibraltar (1784), of its gallant defender Sir George Augustus Elliot, afterwards Lord Heathfield, whose military skill and moral courage place him among the best soldiers and noblest men of his time.
Since 1783 the history of Gibraltar has been comparatively uneventful. In the beginning of 18o1 there were rumours of a Spanish and French attack, but the Spanish ships were defeated off Algeciras in June by Admiral Saumarez. During the World War Gibraltar was of great importance as a coaling station. A war memorial was unveiled there in 1923.