Jumper's Bastion

Jumper's Bastion may refer to one of two adjacent bastions in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. They were both created in 1785 on the sites of previous constructions and named for a British Captain who was one on the first on shore during the Capture of Gibraltar in 1704.

History
The bastions (north and south) are now located along the Line Wall Curtain. They take their name from a Captain William Jumper who was one of the first officers to land ashore and capture the existing Spanish bastion on this site during the Capture of Gibraltar in August 1704.

George Hills reports that the name of the first two captain's to come ashore were called Juniper (sic) and Hicks. They were sent by Captain Edward Whitaker when he saw that the Spanish guns covering the New Mole had been put out of action.

North Jumper's Bastion
The Spanish called the northern bastion Santa Cruz Bastion, it was designed by the Florentine military architect, Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino in 1575. The eight-gun battery was captured by the British in 1704 and rebuilt in 1785.

In 1841 General John Thomas Jones considered the North Jumper's Bastion to be far too small to be effective and he successfully proposed enlarging it to the present demi-bastion with a long flank facing south and armed with guns in casemates and on the ramparts. The face and the northern flank were to be held from musketry embrasures. By 1859 the batteries mounted six guns.

The south flank parapet of the bastion were pierced with embrasures for six guns in 1859. Below them were six casemated bombproof barracks. Between them they could accommodate over two hundred men.

South Jumper's Bastion
The southern bastion was also rebuilt in 1785 on the site of an old sea gate, it has a flat face parallel to the line wall and might thus be called a small flat bastion. It was designed to be held by musketry fire only. Accommodation is more modest that the northern bastion but it is on two levels and on two sides only.