Fort Schanskop

About Fort Schanskop

Built at a cost of £47,500 and handed over to the government on 6 April 1897, the fort was equipped with a paraffin-powered generator, electric lighting, a searchlight, telephone and telegraph links, and water from the Fountains Valley pump station shared with Fort Klapperkop. Initially staffed by one officer and 30 men, it was armed with a 37 mm Maxim-Nordenfeldt cannon, Martini-Henry Maxim machine guns, and a 155 mm Creusot “Long Tom” gun, though by October 1899 only 17 men remained stationed there.