Verbruggen’s Masterpieces

If Gibraltar can be said to have military treasures, then these little howitzers must be pretty high on the list. The four superb examples of the artillery-founders art, are not to be found tucked away in a sleepy corner but are on public display at the Alameda, for all of us to enjoy.

                                                                                                                              

These weapons are both beautiful and deadly. They are identifiable as howitzers (from the German haubitze meaning an explosive shell) by their trunnions, which are mounted in the axis of the piece rather than below it. The two sizes displayed here, 8 inch and 10 inch, indicate their bore in inches which is usual for siege howitzers, whilst field howitzers are referred to by the weight of their shells.

 

Although only several calibres long, each piece could discharge an eight or ten inch common or shrapnel shell or case shot or canister, which would deliver terrific execution. They were also portable - perhaps transportable would be more accurate for a gun weighing in at a ton and a quarter - and quite economic to operate; so what more could an 18th century gun captain have asked for? 

 If he had asked for the best that money could buy, then these are what he would have been offered. In 1780 the Royal Brass Foundry, Woolwich, was considered to be the best in the world and one of the reasons for that was the father and son team Jan and Pieter Verbruggen. 

 Jan Verbruggen was born in 1712 at Enkhuizen, West Friesland. After initially training as an artist and architect, family influence landed him a job with the Admiralty’s local bell and cannon factory. Cannon founding skill was a closely guarded secret amongst the family guilds and it seems to have been shared with Jan though no record of an apprenticeship has surfaced. Clearly a skilled technician, Jan had been appointed Master Founder by 1746.

 In 1755, Jan, with another founder Johan Jacob Siegler designed and built a horizontal boring and finishing machine. Pieter graduated from university and joined his father and in 1758 the Verbruggens and their machine were installed at the heavy ordnance factory in The Hague, with Jan as Master Founder. However, problems with castings led to arguments between Verbruggen and the Inspector General, De Creuznach, in particular with regard to the efficiency of De Creuznach’s furnace.  Whilst the Inspector General was off sick, Verbruggen rebuilt and reorganized the foundry, an act which enraged De Creuznach and was the beginning of a feud. From that date De Creuznach rejected every cannon founded by Verbruggen, claiming major defects and malfunctions. Verbruggen took the fight to court but it was not resolved and the controversy lingered for ten years.  

In 1769, tension was increasing between Britain and Spain over the Falkland Islands. The British Ambassador to The Hague, Sir Joseph Yorke, persuaded Verbruggen to come to the Royal Brass Foundry to work for the Board of Ordnance. Within a year the Verbruggens had sailed for England and their connection with Woolwich had begun.

 Jan and Pieter Verbruggen were employed as Master Founders from 1770–86 and were held in high regard. When they arrived they found that sixty years of constant production and no maintenance had left Woolwich in a very poor condition. Renovations took almost four years, at the end of which guns of an unsurpassed quality were being produced. In 1775, the American War erupted leading to an enormous increase in activity, which the newly refurbished foundry handled with ease.  In England, the Verbruggens had proved that their cannon were of the highest quality, a proof confirmed by the fact that their cannon were used in the American War - by both sides.

             

Jan Verbruggen died in 1781 and Pieter in 1786, both were master craftsmen and efficient administrators of a vital strategic resource. Their work helped ensure the security of this fortress and both were - unknowing - benefactors to Gibraltar’s present day heritage.

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                      First published in Gibraltar Magazine 2004 revisited 2024.   Paul Hodkinson.