Map of the garrision accommodation for a planned fortress on Crab Island

Title Leupe: Plan en profil van de nieuwe geprojecteerde redoute, op het Grabbe Yland aan de mond van Rio de Berbice.

This draft is part of a plan for a fort on the Crab Island.

A plan similar to this one had already been designed to no avail by P.M. Osterlin before 1735 (see VEL1611). That did not mean, however, that the notion of placing a fort on Crab Island had been entirely abandoned. Following sustained pressure from private planters in Berbice, the directors finally turned, in 1738, to the Society of Surinam with the request that the French engineer, Pierre-Dominique Desmaretz, then responsible for the construction of Fort Nieuw Amsterdam, be sent to Berbice for some time so that he could come up with a new plan for the fortification of the island.

Desmaretz travelled there the following year and produced the plan shown here.

This is a design for the garrison accommodation, complete with profiles, front views and a floor plan.

Despite the reduction in cost compared to the previous plan, even this version was found to be too expensive and so, as before, Crab Island remained unfortified.

Scale-bar of 60 Rhineland feet = [approximately 1 : 150].