Reference Sources

The general history of the Submarine Mining service is largely drawn from “History of Submarine Mining in the British Army” by William Baker Brown. It is available as a print-on-demand book from Abe Books (among others.)

Brown joined the service in 1885, as an Assistant Instructor in Portsmouth. In 1892 he became Chief Instructor at Chatham, and in 1901 Inspector of Electric Lights. He was in that post when the service closed in 1905.

The photographs of mining operations came from the Fort Gilkicker (near Portsmouth) web site

The details of the various camps on Inchkeith, South Queensferry and North Queensferry from 1888 to 1905 came from the journals and photographs of Henry Cadell, copies of which were very kindly provided by his grandson, William Cadell.

Project Gutenberg’s Torpedoes and Torpedo Warfare, by C. W. Sleeman was a useful source of technical information on the operation of mines

The diagrams and explanation of electrical operation are mine, based on information from the books above, and the patent mentioned in the text.

Admiralty charts are from the National Library of Scotland on-line map section

Gordon Barclay kindly provided the War Office maps related to Carlingnose and Inchgarvie.

Other material came from Wikipedia.

Errors and omissions are all mine.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks are due to William Cadell, who kindly gave me access to his grandfather’s journals and photographs which brought this article to life.

Boyd Williamson – May 2018, edited and updated July 2021