[The marker's position is very approximate. We'll need either a detailed map of the area or a modern site visit to pin down the correct location.]
Year completed is: Accurate
Condition at last visit: Ruin
Date of last visit: Dec-1997
Ref: ROB-00291
Other:
This is one of the earliest Coastal Searchlight positions in Hong Kong. It was built about 1895 above Lei Yue Mun Strait, in the now heavily overgrown and restricted access area below the Museum of Coastal Defence. The remains of the installation were still there a century later.
It was one of several Disappearing Searchlight designs that attempted to reduce the effect of retaliatory return fire from an illuminated warship. In this case the light and operator were in a dug-in shelter whilst the mirror could be rotated into the concrete trench.
Its purpose in that position is unknown. There was, about the time it was built, a minefield across the channel, but this was to become redundant with the installation of the Brennan Torpedo nearby. The light may have been used in conjunction with either, or both. When it was withdrawn from use is unknown, but the standardised open fronted DEL Shelter started appearing in the adjacent Pak Sha Wan area from 1902.
Photos that show this Place
Comments
DEL
Rob have you any plan of the actual light? Is it the counter balance beam, as used in Rangoon (Burma) and Fort Victoria Isle of White. See image below.
Alternate design
original image
No sure if this was ever used operationally. I have found no examples. Note image is copyright of the Royal Engineers Museum.
Lyemun DEL (Disappearing)
This was not a Balance Beam type mechanism. I originally posted the Plan drawing separately to the Forum Topic but cannot find where it has gone, despite various searches of Gwulo. I have experienced trouble uploading pictures but will hopefully sort that out soon.
Rob
Plan of Lyemun DEL (Disappearing)
Last visit in 2015
Thanks for the design plan, we had visited the site in 2015. At that time, we had no idea what it was, until I see the design plan today! It was overgrowth and needed a lot of time to clean the way out.
The location is closed to Pak Sai Wan Battery.
Lye Mun Disappearing DEL
Thanks for the pictures. Being hidden has probably saved it, but certainly didn't make it easy to find.
Brilliant Pjotos
Thank you for these images. Can I use them on pinkroutes.com with credit to you.?
Lye Mun Disappearing DEL
Always welcome! Yes, you can use those photos! Thanks!
Thank you
Many thanks Derek.
A further look inside and outside the DEL bunker
Access path leading to the DEL bunker.
Inside the vaulted interior chamber looking back toward the entrance.
Vintage two-piece porcelain cleat insulators mounted along the ceiling, used for early electrical wiring.
Interior wall showing the two rows of metal anchor remains where the access ladder toward the observation shaft once stood.
Looking up into the concrete shaft that ascends toward the observation slit.
Close-up view of the narrow observation slit extended from the underground concrete tower.
Situated slightly downhill and in close proximity to the nearby 12-pounder QF Reverse Battery, perhaps this DEL bunker was built to work in direct conjunction with the battery, though this is more of a guess based on their physical proximity.