Plan for improving the defenses around the estuary of the Berbice River

Title Leupe: Plaan van het Nieuw angelegde fort Andries enz.

In about 1742, all the consecutive plans for a fort, or at least a redoubt, on Crab Island or on the eastern point of the bank of the river-mouth had been 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 bird’s-eye perspective belongs to a series made the land surveyor and engineer Philippus Marcus Osterlin (see 1612 and 1615-6) which expose the weaknesses of the Sint Andries Fort and present project proposals for its further fortification.

Osterlin’s alternative and cheaper plan for improvement shown here changed the design of VEL1615. The supplementary reinforcement is confined to an outer wall with a covered road around the existing Sint Andries, all without moats but with three new batteries, each equipped with three heavy-calibre guns. With this variant, the fort itself would remain virtually unchanged, unlike in the case of the other design where the landward side would have partially had to be excavated for the waterway between both sections of the new fort.

A profile is shown above.

North is right.

Scale-bars of 16 Rhineland rods = [approximately 1 : 465] / [profile] 7 Rhineland rods = [approximately 1 : 290].