Wet shooting cotton shed

Complex consisting of a SHED for the storage of wet shooting cotton and an accompanying fence, built between 1865-1870 within the fortress and naval port in Hellevoetsluis. The cast-iron fence marks a small square water place on the north side, where there used to be a pump. The shed is situated opposite the powder house dating from 1665 in bastion V. This building was also equipped with a fence between 1865-1870.

The shed was built at the same time as the carriage shed, which is about a hundred meters away, in a very sober Eclectic style, in which Neo-Classical style elements predominate. As a result of new construction, the visual relationship between these two warehouses has been somewhat disturbed.

Definition

Opposite the former powder house from 1665 in Bastion V, opposite the former powder house from 1665, there is a brick shed with an accompanying cast-iron fence. The fencing is at a very short distance from the building and closes off an L-shaped site. The opening in the fence is right in front of the entrance to the shed.

Source: monumenten.nl

It was not until 1893 that a second warehouse was built on Bastion V. It was intended for the storage of a new generation of explosives: the powerful shooting cotton. This was developed in 1884 and had cellulose as its raw material. It was largely obtained from cotton and converted into nitrocellulose or shooting cotton after treatment with saltpetre and sulphuric acid. The explosive obtained as a result turned out to be a revolution in warfare. It was more than three times as powerful as traditional gunpowder, so that a much longer range was possible. The shooting cotton also lacked the annoying gunpowder fumes and smoke gases that lingered around a cannon after gunpowder had been fired, so that shooting could be done for a longer period of time.

Between 1890 and 1891, the Department of the Navy and the Ministry of War negotiated the storage of the stocks of shooting cotton that both the army and the navy used for their torpedo services. Torpedoes were sea mines, which were used in times of war to protect inlets and harbors against enemy ships. The Ministry of War allowed the Navy's shooting cotton (about 1400 kg) to be temporarily housed in the bombproof guardhouse in Bastion VIII. However, this was found to be too small and unsuitable a building, so a new warehouse was built in Bastion V. This was completed in 1893 and served until around 1933.

Source: decruyttoren.nl