Italy began construction of the two s, each protected by 22-inches of steel armour and armed with four Armstrong 100-ton guns. These could threatened the sea lines of communication of the British Empire through the Mediterranean Sea; the Suez Canal provided a route to India after opening in 1869. In response, Britain constructed four batteries in the Mediterranean, each armed with a 100-ton gun: the Rinella and Cambridge Batteries at Malta, and the Victoria and Napier of Magdala Batteries at Gibraltar. Rinella was built between 1878 and 1886 above the shore east of the entrance to the Grand Harbour, between Fort Ricasoli and Fort St. Rocco. The Cambridge Battery was built near Tigné Point west of the harbour entrance. The 100-ton gun arrived in Malta from Woolwich on 10 September 1882. It remained at the dockyards for some months before being ferried to Rinella Bay. Over the next three months one hundred men from the Royal Artillery manhandled it to the battery. The gun entered service in January 1884. Practice firing was limited to one short every three months due to cost; each shell cost as much as the daily wage of 2600 soldiers. The gun fired for the last time on 5 May 1905 before being withdrawn from active service in 1906. It never saw action in 20 years of service. After the 100-ton gun Following the retirement of the 100-ton gun, Rinella became an observation post for Fort Ricasoli. Sometime after the obsolete steam engine and hydraulic system were removed. Rinella was used as a Royal Navy supply depot during the Second World War. The battery's covering of moss and grass acted as camouflage; from the air it blended into the surrounding fields. Nonetheless, it received seven bomb hits. The navy abandoned the site in 1965. In the 1970s, the battery was used as a location in the films Zeppelin (1971), Young Winston (1972) and Shout at the Devil (1976). Museum The Rinella Battery was taken over by the Malta Heritage Trust () in 1991. After restored work it opened to the public as an open-air museum in 1996. The restored gun was fired for the first time in a hundred years on 21 November 2005 by Peter Caruana, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, who is of Maltese descent. The gun is fired once a year with a blank black powder charge. The operating machinery was not been