Gog Pier

As guns got larger and heavier in the 1860s, they were were moved around the armoury by narrow gauge railway. From 1874 or 1875 a specialist ‘Gun Sleigh’ was developed for the larger guns, typically weighing eighty tons or more.  These guns, once made, needed to be sent for proof firing to Shoeburyness and later Grain Island Firing Point.  A special dock was built at the Woolwich Arsenal from Oregon oak wood that could specifically accommodate  two specially made barges, Gog or Maygog.  The barge was brought in at high tide and secured in position.  As the tide fell the barge settled into the wooden gridiron structure.  The gun sleigh was transported by rail to a set of flood gates on the river bank which were opened, and a winch used to control the sleigh as it was moved on rails into the barge.   Minor adjustments could be made to the trackway so that they two pieces of railway track were aligned.  The gun sleigh was then winched onto the barge through a rear opening set of doors.  With high tide the barge with the gun sleigh could float off and travel to Shoeburyness and later Grain Island Firing Point.  Build in about 1880 this specialist dock was an early example of Roll On Roll Off.

The following information was obtained from http://www.shippingandshipbuilding.uk/ concerning GOG and MAGOG.

MAGOG was built 16^th September 1876  by Surridge & Son, Limehouse, London. Dimensions, 80 ft  in length with a 27.00 ft beam and draft of 4 ft.  In 1876.   MAGOG mentioned as being used to move the 16-inch, 81-ton gun from Woolwich Arsenal to Shoeburyness for proofing.

In 1880 plans were made to lengthen the boat,  with anew bow, to unload heavy guns in Malta.  It is assumed that this expansion in size was prequel to the introduction of GOG in 1885 which was larger.  In Malta it was presumably used for the heavy 12.5-inch RML guns and possibly 100 ton guns at Cambridge Battery and Fort Rinella.

In 1886, after return from Malta, converted to storage for mines, and later used as a “powder barge”.

GOG was built 11^th November 1885 by Surridge & Son, Millwall, London. Dimensions, 105.0 ft  in length with a 30.0 ft beam and draft of 7.3 ft.  A War Department barge used to move guns over 100 tons from Woolwich to Shoeburyness.

For anyone interested it is strongly recommended that they try one of the tours run and organised by Royal Arsenal History.  Ian Bull leads both a four hour tour and a six hour tour, usually on Sundays in the Summer months.  Details can be obtained through their web site at https://www.royal-arsenal-history.com/.