Prince of Wales Lines

They disagreed vehemently over where the new lines were sited and how they were constructed, among other things, with Tyrawley arguing for earthworks and Skinner championing solid stone revetments.

Laid out en cremaillère (in a stepwise fashion), the lines were broken at intervals by embrasures for batteries housing guns mounted in pairs.

[1] The idea was that a defending force would occupy the trenches in the event of an enemy landing and drive off the invaders with volleys of canister or grape shot from 8-inch howitzers.

[4] Skinner's concerns that the earthworks would not withstand the weather seemed at first to be misplaced, as three days of torrential rain in March 1757 caused little damage to the lines.

However, in subsequent years the lines were washed away by further bad weather, though Tyrawley claimed that this could have been prevented if the earthworks had been coated with tapia, a kind of mortar made from sand and lime.