Historical Buildings / Historical Sites


HISTORIC FORTS OF NASSAU
Commonwealth of The Bahamas

Fort Charlotte / Fort Montagu / Fort Fincastle / Fort Winton / Potter's Cay Battery / Hog Island (Paradise Island) / Old Fort

Forts Of Nassau
Commonwealth of The Bahamas

The first man to contemplate the construction of a fort in The Bahamas was Christopher Columbus. After landing on the Island of San Salvador and discovering the New World, the intrepid navigator wrote to the King and Queen of Spain, expressing his admiration for the beauty of the Islands and emphasizing the need to secure them for Spain.

"I wished," he reported, "to give a complete account to Your Highness, and also to find when a fort might be built."

The Spaniards, however, made no attempt to fortify The Bahamas. On the contrary, a few years after their discovery by Columbus all the aboriginal inhabitants were transported to work the mines in Hispaniola (now known as the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The islands, abandoned, gradually fell under the control of Spain's greatest maritime rival, Britain. Privateers terrorized the Spanish Main and were quick to appreciate the importance of the Islands as a base from which to attack homeward bound Spanish galleons which were accustomed to "rendezvous at the noted port of Havana before their return to Europe."

Several forts, including a stockade one in 1687, were built at New Providence, which had become the headquarters of numerous privateers. The temptation to engage in piracy was strong - even the Governors of the Settlement, it is alleged, were obliged to co-operate or leave The Bahamas. The Spaniards frequently attacked their tormentors, sometimes aided by French ships, and in 1684 they attacked New Providence and completely demolished the settlement. The Governor was murdered, and most of the inhabitants fled.

In 1684 Charles 11 personally intervened to secure the enactment of a law for the punishment of pirates, but men undaunted by Spanish warships refused to be intimidated and in 1688 the refugees returned from Jamaica and established a community on more decorous lines. However, piracy continued to be one of the principal industries.

An Act was passed in 1695 for the erection of the present town and a fort, called Nassau after King William III.
Fort Nassau
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Fort Nassau was built two years later on the site now occupied by a western portion of the British Colonial HIlton Hotel, and 22 cannon mounted. The large well under the Hotel was in the fort's southwest bastion. This fort was partially leveled by the Spaniards in 1700. In 1702 Governor Elias Haskett was imprisoned in the stronghold, following his deposition.

A combined Spanish and French force completely surprised New Providence in 1703 - 1704. They found the Deputy Governor feasting, the fort neglected and without a garrison. The town was sacked and burned, the fort destroyed and its guns spiked, and the inhabitants expelled.

With civil and military control removed, piracy flourished. Unlike the former privateers the pirates attacked ships of all nations, including their own. At the request of merchants in London and Bristol, George I sent Captain Woodes Rogers with 100 men to govern, and fortify New Providence. He arrived with his fleet on the evening of August 1, 1718.

Governor Rogers appears to have taken a great interest in the reconstruction of Fort Nassau, which on his arrival he found in sad disrepair with only one small nine-pounder cannon mounted. But it was not until 1741 that a serious effort was made to recondition the fort. In 1740 Peter Henry Bruce, an engineer of international reputation, was charged with renovating it at a salary of 20 shillings a day. He arrived in 1741.

The cost of repairing Fort Nassau, and building and completing Fort Montagu, was small. Bruce explained: "war was declared and we were threatened with an invasion, and being then exposed to the insults of an enemy the inhabitants very frankly provided materials for their own security." Fort Montagu was designed to guard the eastern entrance to the harbour.

The renovations to Fort Nassau, and a new sea battery, were completed in December, 1744. The fort was now armed with 54 cannon and 26 brass mortars.

By 1767 Fort Nassau had again been allowed to deteriorate, and in consequence of representations made to the Secretary of State it was repaired in 1769. In 1776, during the war between Great Britain and the American Colonies, a fleet of eight vessels was sent by the Colonies to capture the munitions believed stored at Nassau. This force, under Commodore Ezek Hopkins, landed a detachment on the foreshore of the eastern end of New Providence and marched on Nassau.

Forts Montagu and Nassau surrendered without resistance, and the new Grand Union Flag, designed with the Union Jack and the first quarter and thirteen red and white stripes to represent the independent States was hoisted over Fort Nassau. However, most of the munitions had been shipped to Boston the day before the arrival of the American Naval Force. The invaders departed shortly after, taking with them I00 guns and the Governor as a hostage.

Fort Nassau was captured by the Spaniards for the last time in 1782 when Don Juan de Cagigal, Governor General of Cuba, and the Havanna, attacked New Providence with 5,000 men. The Spaniards retained nominal possession of The Bahamas until the conclusion of the war between Spain and Great Britain in 1783.

Before news of peace had crossed the Atlantic, Andrew Deveaux, a loyalist Colonel of the South Carolina Militia, invaded New Providence to defeat the Spaniards and regain the Island for Great Britain. In a despatch describing this exploit the gallant Colonel states:

"I undertook this expedition at my own expense, and embarked my men, which did not exceed sixty-five, and sailed for Harbour Island, where I recruited for four or five days, from thence I set sail for my object, which I carried about daylight, with three of their formidable galleys on the 14th. I immediately summoned the grand fortress to surrender, which was about a mile from the fort I had taken. On the 16th I took possession of two commanding hills, and erected a battery on each of them, of 44-, 24, 12, and 9 pounders. At daylight on the 18th, my batteries being complete, the English colours were hoisted on each of them, which were within musket shot of their grand fortress. His Excellency, finding his shots and shells of no effect, thought fit to capitulate.

“My force never, at any time, consisted of more than 220 men, and not over 150 of them had muskets. I took on this occasion one fort consisting of thirteen pieces of cannon, three galleys, carrying 24 pounders, and about fifty men. His Excellency surrendered four batteries, with about severity pieces of cannon, and four large galleys (brigs and snows), which I have sent to Havannah with the troops as flags."

Colonel Deveaux's gallant expedition brought the military history of Fort Nassau to an honourable close. The Spaniards never again returned to attack the Islands. When Lord Dunmore took over the governorship of The Bahamas in 1787 he considered Commodore Hopkins' operations and 'Colonel Deveaux's attack on the fort evidence that such a site could not withstand bombardment from up-to-date artillery, especially when the siege guns could be mounted on overlooking heights. Old Fort Nassau was garrisoned as late as 1790, but it was strategically obsolete. Lord Dunmore decided, in 1787, to replace it with a new fort located on the western extremity of the ridge that commanded it.

The new fort would be the legitimate successor to the glories, disasters, and traditions of Fort Nassau, on whose battlements the drama of Bahamian history was enacted. The ancient stronghold expired as it had existed, ending its years in the time of turmoil following the French Revolution. In an atmosphere oppressed by adjacent conflict, the old fort sank sullenly into oblivion. Time, the most inexorable enemy, crumbled and decayed the works and ramparts, and the fort was demolished in 1837.

(photo will be provided soon)
Fort Charlotte
West Bay Street
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Fort Charlotte, named after the Consort of King George 111, was conceived in uncertainty. The Governor, writing to the Secretary of State on December 21, 1787, reported that he: -

“… had proposed erecting Works upon a Hill to the Westward (of Fort Nassau) which commands both this Town and the Harbour, but the accounts I have received from different quarters within these few days are such as makes me hope that by this time Peace may be established in Europe...

Two months later he wrote that having heard the Governors in the Windward Islands were fortifying and putting themselves in a state of defense, he thought it his duty to proceed with the erection of Fort Charlotte. The main portion of the fort was completed in 1789.

Fort Charlotte was dismantled in 1891, by order of the War Office, and Nassau was no longer considered fortified. The cannons were dismounted and a portion of the slides were broken off. However, during World War I a modern cannon was sent from England and mounted at the fort. It was removed after the Armistice.

Some of the guns in Fort Charlotte at present bear the date 1844, and others the date 1859. Guns having the latter date were evidently replacements.

The troops defending Nassau were frequently changed, but at the time of the completion of Fort Charlotte, the town was garrisoned by ten companies of the 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot. These troops were stationed in New Providence year round, and three of the companies were quartered in Fort Nassau. Barracks were subsequently erected for the whole garrison in Fort Nassau grounds at a cost of £,30,244.5.41/2, the expense borne by the Imperial Government.


Fort Montagu
Montagu Beach
East Bay Street
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From the representation of the Commissioners to the House of Lords dated January 14, 1734, it would seem that the building of a fort to command the eastern entrance to the harbour was begun in 1728. But it was Peter Henry Bruce who built the present Fort Montagu, named after the Duke of Montagu. Bruce was appointed Chief Engineer to fortify The Bahama Islands on July 1, 1740, and arrived in Nassau on April 21, 1741, by way of Carolina.

With characteristic energy he set to work providing material for the erection of Fort Montagu on the southeast point of the harbour about two miles from Nassau. Both Governor Tinker, with whom Bruce had come to The Bahamas, and his predecessor, Governor Fitzwilliam, had provided lime, but it was at so great a distance that Bruce made his lime on the spot. He found great inconvenience in providing stone which had to be carried from the woods on the heads of the natives as there was no such thing as a "wheel carriage" on the Island. When rumours reached him about June 8, 1741, concerning a projected Spanish expedition from Havana to make a descent on New Providence, Bruce, who had been elected a member of the House of Assembly in preference to being appointed a member of the Council, laid the defenseless state of the Island before the Assembly. The Assembly ordered all vessels and boats to carry stones for the erection of the Fort and also a number of mastic
trees for palisades.
Governor John Tinker laid the foundation stone on June 10, 1741, in the presence of the principal inhabitants, and named the fort Montagu and the sea battery, which was immediately northeast of the fort, Bladen's Battery. (Governor Tinker's son was named John Bladen).

Bruce in his memoirs deals with Fort Montagu as follows:

"Upon the 10th of June the Governor laid the foundation stones, in the presence of the principal inhabitants, and named the fort Montagu, and the sea battery Bladen's Battery. All the stone on this and the adjacent islands is of so soft a nature, when raised from the quarries, that we could cut and shape them in any form with very little labour; and after they have been some time exposed in the open air, they turn hard as flint, with this excellent property, that in firing into the walls, the hall lodges as in a mud wall, without making the least breach; this I proved by several shot from an eighteen pounder ... the mastich wood, which the inhabitants delivered for pallisades, was as hard and heavy as iron: I was obliged to form them while the wood was green, for when they are fully dry, there is no possibility of working them. The inhabitants affirmed to me that they would last above a century; they are so hard that a musket hall makes no impression on them; they assured me they were proof against swivel shot, but this I did not think proper to try.

"Fort Montagu and Bladen's Battery were finished the latter end July, 1742, and mounted eight 18, three 9, and six 6 pounders. Within the fort is a terraced cistern, containing thirty tons,of ram water and so contrived as to receive all that falls within the fort, with a drain to carry off the superflous water; there are barracks for officers and soldiers, a guard room, and powder magazine, bomb proof, to contain ninety-five barrels of powder; two of its sides are close upon the sea, and the two land sides are well secured by mastich pallisades. When the fort was finished, I invited the Governor and principal inhabitants to it, and then delivered His Excellency the keys thereof, under a discharge of all the cannon. The Governor and inhabitants were now extremely well pleased to consider themselves in a condition to repel the invasion of an enemy, as the back door through which the place often had been surprised, was now shut up."




Fort Fincastle
Off East Street
Nassau, Bahamas
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Fort Fincastle, overlooking the town from Bennet's Hill was built by Lord Dunmore, about 1793 who named it after his second title, Viscount Fincastle. In a letter to the Secretary of State of February 17, 1794, he describes it as "a battery upon a hill in this island to the Eastwards of the Government House mounting two 24 pounders, two 32 pounder Carronades, two 12 pounders, and one Howitzer, which not only covers the Battery in Hog Island (Paradise Island) but all the Town and Road to the Eastward where the enemy might probably have effected a landing."

A light used to be exhibited from this fort until the Hog Island (Paradise Island) Lighthouse was completed in 1816. The fort is now used as a signal station.
Viewed from the front, Fort Fincastle looks like an old paddle-wheel steamer approaching bow-on.

The Queen's Staircase, with 66 treads cut in the solid rock and bricked, said to be the work of slaves, leads to the back of Fort Fincastle from Elizabeth Avenue.

Fort Winton
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The remains of this small battery are still to be seen about 10 miles east of Nassau, and may well have been the "small work at the East End" of New Providence, described by Governor Dunmore in his letter to the Secretary of State.

In December, 1949 Fort Winton was reclaimed from the brush which had overgrown it. Seats were installed, and from them visitors have an excellent view of the easternmost entrance to Nassau harbour.


Potter's Cay Battery
This is the battery and blockhouse suggested by Engineer Lieutenant D'Arcy in his letter to the Secretary of State. It stands on the east end of Potter's Cay, and was repaired and renovated in December, 1949, when extensive rehabilitation of Nassau's forts and batteries was carried out by the Public Works Department.


Hog Island (Paradise Island)

There are remains of the old Hog Island Battery referred to by Lord Dunmore, and some guns scattered around, but little is left to mark the site of the battery itself at the east end of Paradise Island.


(photo not available)
Old Fort
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Formerly Charlotteville, Old Fort was at one time the property of Sir Henry Marr, and the site of an ancient sea battery.

Gun emplacements were situated on the seaward side of the house, but were placed at the entrance to the estate by a former owner, Mr. P.R. Curtis. Old Fort is now private property.


All information courtesy of the Department of Archives, Ministry of Education, Youth & Sports
Further information can be obtained from the booklet Historic Forts of Nassau


For more Bahamian Attractions
bahamas.com/photo_gallery/index.html,
Ministry of Tourism's Website