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A breastwork is a temporary fortification, often an earthwork thrown up to breast height to provide protection to defenders firing over it from a standing position. A more permanent structure, normally in stone, would be described as a parapet or the battlement of a castle wall.
In warships, a breastwork is the armored superstructure in the ship that did not extend all the way out to the sides of the ship. It was generally only used in ironclad turret ships designed between 1865 and 1880.
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HMVS Cerberus is a breastwork monitor that served in the Victoria Naval Forces, the Commonwealth Naval Forces (CNF), and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between 1871 and 1924.
HMS J2 was a J-class submarine operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy.
HMS J4 was a J-class submarine operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy.
HMS J5 was a First World War J class submarine operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy.
Breastwork may mean:
Petr Velikiy was an ironclad turret ship built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the 1870s. Her engines and boilers were defective, but were not replaced until 1881. The ship made a cruise to the Mediterranean after they were installed, and before returning to the Baltic Fleet, where she remained for the rest of her career. She did not, like the rest of the Baltic Fleet, participate in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Petr Veliky was deemed obsolete by the late 1890s, but she was not ordered to be converted into a gunnery training ship until 1903.
The Cerberus-class breastwork monitor was a pair of breastwork monitors built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s.
A breastwork monitor was a modification of the monitor, a warship which was first built in the United States in 1861, designed by John Ericsson and distinguished by the first rotating gun turret, designed by Theodore Timby. The modified design known as a breastwork monitor was introduced by Sir Edward Reed, the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy between 1863 and 1870. The original monitors were very stable, and difficult to damage by gunfire, because of their very low freeboard. This, however, caused them to behave, some said, as a "half-tide rock", with the ever-present risk of being swamped in a sea should water gain access to the interior through hatches, turret bases or other openings in the deck.
HMS Abyssinia was a breastwork monitor ordered, designed and built by J & W Dudgeon specifically for the Bombay Marine for the defence of the harbour at Bombay.
HMS Glatton was a breastwork monitor which served in the Victorian Royal Navy.
The Lines of Communication were English Civil War fortifications commissioned by Parliament and built around London between 1642 and 1643 to protect the capital from attack by the Royalist armies of Charles I. In 1642 some basic fortifications were built, in the form of street barricades and small earthworks. In 1643 a major construction effort was made, to provide a comprehensive ring of fortifications around the city. Much of the work was done by volunteer labour, organized by the trained bands and the livery companies. Up to 20,000 people are thought to be involved, and the works were completed in under two months. The fortifications failed their only test when the New Model Army entered London in 1647, and they were levelled by Parliament the same year.
Christopher Nugent was an orderly sergeant serving in the United States Marine Corps who received the United States military's highest decoration for bravery, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the American Civil War.
The Cyclops-class monitor was a group of four ironclad breastwork monitors built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. They were slightly modified versions of the Cerberus-class monitors. The ships were ordered to satisfy demands for local defence during the war scare of 1870, but the pace of construction slowed tremendously as the perceived threat of war declined. The Cyclops-class monitors spent most of their careers in reserve and were finally sold off in 1903.
A couvreface in fortification architecture is a small outwork that was built in front of the actual fortress ditch before bastions or ravelins. It usually just consisted of a low rampart with a breastwork that protected its defending infantry. Another ditch in front of the work guarded it from immediate frontal assault. The function of couvrefaces was to protect the faces of the higher ravelin or bastion behind it from direct artillery fire. So that the couvreface and the works behind it could not come under simultaneous fire from an enemy battery along the line of the ramparts they were not allowed to run parallel to one another. Similar to the couvreface is the larger counterguard which, by contrast, was designed to enable the positioning of guns. Couvrefaces are found particularly in Dutch and French fortifications from the 17th to the early 19th centuries.
Fort Edward Johnson was a series of Confederate States of America (CSA) military breastworks constructed in April 1862 by the four-thousand member brigade known as the "Army of the Northwest". The Army of the Northwest was a remnant of the Confederate Army of the Northwest which had been disbanded in February 1862. The Army of the Northwest was commanded by Colonel Edward "Alleghany" Johnson and had been ordered to secure a major roadway through the Appalachian Mountains known as the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike. Johnson ordered the construction of fortifications and breastworks at a high point along the turnpike on top of Shenandoah Mountain, which is in the U.S. state of Virginia, 26 miles (42 km) west of Staunton.
Confederate Breastworks is a historic breastworks located at Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina. The earthen bunkers are located on the grounds of the Fayetteville Veterans Administration Hospital behind the main building. They were built in March 1865 as part of the fortification of Fayetteville by the Confederate army to protect the city against the oncoming forces led by General William Tecumseh Sherman.
Apilan and kotamara are two Malay nautical terms which refers to the structure on a vessel where the cannon is installed. This term is used especially on Malay ships and boats.
Stage Fort was a fort that existed from 1635 to 1898 on Stage Head in what is now Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
