Gun to pop up in fighting colours

By Philip English

As a piece of artillery, North Head's disappearing gun is a Victorian oddity but, as one of only a few left in the world, its worth is being recognised with fresh coats of paint.

The Department of Conservation is rust-proofing and restoring the 1886 gun to its original dark bronze-green colour as part of continuing work on the historic reserve, one of Auckland's most popular free visitor destinations.

The eight-inch gun was bought from Britain by the New Zealand Government and installed on the summit of North Head in 1889 in response to fears of a Russian invasion.

Department archaeologist Dave Veart said that in the 1880s the manufacturer, Armstrong, built six-inch, eight-inch and 10-inch disappearing guns to defend outposts of the British Empire.

But the British Government approved only the six-inch and 10-inch guns.

"The eights were a bit of an orphan and I have a suspicion the New Zealand Government may have picked them up cheap because they don't exist anywhere else in the world.

"It seems to be a continuing thread in the history of New Zealand's defence purchases," Mr Veart joked.

The gun barrel weighs 13 tonnes. After firing a 210-pound shell at a ship, the recoil action forced the gun underground where it was reloaded out of sight and aimed.

Stored energy in a pressure vessel was used to pop the gun up again for another shot.

"It was a wonderful Victorian solution to a non-problem," said Mr Veart.

"What they discovered was that ships found it very difficult to hit guns on land anyway.

"They made this very complicated piece of machinery that made it fire slowly ...
"The gun was limited by the very clever mechanism that made it disappear."

Mr Veart said the handful of remaining eight-inch disappearing guns left in the world were all in New Zealand.

At the turn of the century there were three on North Head and one on Mt Victoria.

The Mt Victoria gun is still on the mountain while another of the three on North Head was cut up by a scrap metal merchant. It still exists - in two pieces.

"The third is the disappeared disappearing gun. The story is it's buried in the side of the hill somewhere."

Mr Veart said the gun was part of the story of North Head.

"It helps us understand where we are and how we got there. It tells a few stories."

While it was unlikely ever to be fired again, there was a dream that it might be restored to full disappearing order again.

That, however, could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Before painting began, the gun was still sporting the battleship grey dating back to its removal from the summit in 1953 when it was made into a memorial to members of the 9th Heavy Coastal Artillery Regiment and garrison artillery killed on overseas duty.

Over the next few weeks, four coats of the original colour will be applied and, by the end of the project, other gun parts will be restored and its emplacement whitewashed.