Fort Banks Mortar Battery

Fort Banks Mortar Battery is a historic mortar battery on Kennedy Drive in Winthrop, Massachusetts that was part of the old Fort Banks. It was originally built in 1892 and named for the Civil War general and congressman Nathaniel P. Banks It consisted of four concrete pits, arranged in a square, each of which had four 12 inch (300mm) diameter mortars which could throw an 800 pound (350 kg) shell 9 miles (14 km) to sea.^[2][3] The combination was known as an Abbott Quad. Because a mortar throws a shell in a very high arc, they could be mounted in pits, invisible to the ship which was the target, and therefore very hard for an attacker to silence. The powder charge, which was a bag loaded separately from the shell, weighed 65 pounds (30 kg).^[3]

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort Banks Mortar Battery