Rifle range

The need for a rifle range had long been recognised. It would serve at once to give recruits of the garrison of this district preliminary instruction in target shooting, to perfect the training of those who had already been enlisted, and also to train the members of any civilian rifle associations that might come to be organised here. Several attempts were made, but they proved entirely fruitless. The rugged terrain, the intensive cultivation of the land and the difficulties raised by certain influential parties were by no means minor obstacles to the realisation of this important improvement, not to mention the hindrances raised at the Ministry of War to the granting of the funds it required.

The engineer captain Carlos Roma e Maia, and later Captain Eduardo Pereira together with Lieutenant Jorge Camacho, drew up two projects for a rifle range and carried out various field surveys, but both attempts produced no appreciable results.

Around 1904 the military commander, Colonel Joaquim Maria Alves, obtained a subsidy of three contos de réis (conto: one million réis) from the District General Council (Junta Geral). Later, at that officer’s urging, the War Office ordered a study for a rifle range and appointed a special commission for the purpose, made up of the engineer colonel Abreu Nunes, Colonel Bernardino Pereira, Lieutenant-Colonel Eduardo Pereira, Captains Cândido Gomes and Ricardo de Andrade, Lieutenant Alberto Sarmento and the artillery lieutenant

António Joaquim dos Santos Pimenta. After various studies and surveys, this commission decided definitively that the rifle range should be built at the locality of Várzea in the parish (freguesia) of São Martinho (‘St Martin’). It never carried out any significant works, however, still less drew up the plans and estimates, because of the obstacles that various local interests then placed in the way of this long-desired improvement. This was in 1909. In June 1911 the Minister of War ordered an urgent study of the construction of the rifle range. A commission was then appointed, made up of Captains Cândido Gomes and Ricardo de Andrade and Lieutenant José Betencourt da Câmara, which at once set to work with the greatest zeal and energy. It chose the site of Várzea in the parish of São Martinho as suitable for the purpose and, without much delay, drew up the corresponding project, which won the approval of the higher authorities.

In October 1912 the Ministry of War authorised work to begin, and Madeira was at last to have a rifle range for the military training of its garrison.

As it was recognised that the project drawn up needed some modifications, a new commission was appointed, consisting of Major Ricardo de Andrade, Captain António Agostinho Câmara and Lieutenant Carlos Ribeiro Pestana. They prepared the final and definitive project and estimate on which the construction was based, with the costs then calculated at 18,739,000 réis.

This is the moment to highlight the fact that this improvement is due above all to the distinguished officer and fellow Madeiran Cândido Gomes. Serving at the War Office and well acquainted with the need for the rifle range, whose planning he had devoted himself to with great energy, he secured the funds needed to purchase and expropriate the land required before construction could begin. He never ceased to lend his valuable cooperation and good offices to the creation and operation of this military establishment.

Construction work began in March 1917 under the skilled direction of the infantry captain António Agostinho Câmara, and it has continued as actively as possible; it should be completed shortly.

The rifle range is 450 metres long, with targets at distances of a hundred, two hundred, three hundred and four hundred metres. It has firing lines, and fire is directed from south to north. It stands on the site chosen at the Várzea in the parish of São Martinho. Because the locality is quite densely populated, many engineering works had to be built to keep the surrounding population entirely safe from any danger that might arise during target practice. We are informed that it will be one of the best rifle ranges in the country.