Map of the defences around the estuary of the Berbice River

Title Leupe: Plaan van een gedeelte van het Zee-Raack in Rio de Berbice, mitsgaders het Crabben Eyland en den mond van Rio Canje, toonende medeens an de defensie door het Canon van 't nieuwe aangelegde fort St. Andries.

Around 1742, all the consecutive plans for a fort or redoubt on Crab Island or on the eastern point of the bank of the river-mouth had been finally rejected. This rejection led to emergency measures taken in 1745-1746 to defend access to the colony.

A temporary solution was found through placing a modest battery with ten guns on the eastern bank exactly opposite Crab Island which, at the instigation of the then governor, Johan Andries Lossner (also: Lössner, 1740-1749), was given the name Fort Sint Andries. This site map belongs to a series made the land surveyor and engineer Philippus Marcus Osterlin (see VEL1614-6) which expose the weaknesses of the Sint Andries Fort and present project proposals for its further fortification.

The first problem with the existing situation, as Osterlin shows in this map, was the far too minimal firing power and range of the battery, while there were also big gaps in the defensive coverage of the passage between Crab Island and the shoreline. Furthermore, on the landward side the small fort was barely fortified; it merely had a double earthen wall with narrow moats unprotected by bastions and artillery. In practice, once ashore it would have been relatively easy for a European adversary to overthrow the less than thirty-man-strong garrison should they have stormed the fort from that side.

North is right

Scale-bar of 600 Rhineland rods = [approximately 1 : 8,240].