Plan of the redoubt Purmerend

Title Leupe: De Redout Purmerent, soo als deselve teegenwoordig sig in staad bevind met de voorgestelde verbeteringen.

As part of the 1733 plan to improve the defenses of Surinam, Fort Nieuw Amsterdam would be supported by two auxiliary forts on the opposite banks at the mouths of the Surinam and the Commewijne. The first, the earthen redoubt Purmerend on the western bank of the Surinam, was commenced in 1748 to a design by Ensign Andries Lodewijk (Andreas Ludovicus) Calvi, who held the position of Acting-Inspector of Fortifications between 1744 and 1754. This ground plan shows Calvi’s design from 1748 or a little earlier. Batteries, quarters and other buildings are all indicated. Once in service, Purmerend proved rather ineffective in a number of points. For instance, the points of the two tenailles Calvi had constructed on the river side were too small to support the required ordnance, and the moat and counterscarp with glacis were constructed so close to the bank as to be superfluous.

This is a situation map of the redoubt in its original state, drawn around 1767 by the artillery cadet Jacob Gerrit Dircks. He was the son of the Director-General of Fortifications and Buildings in Surinam Abraham Dircks (in office between 1766 and 1772). A plan to improve Purmerend by Dircks Junior has been dotted in here; his map on VEL 2044B gives this in more detail. An identical plan by Dircks Sr is kept in the Netherlands National Archives under number VEL 2045A.

North is below.

Scale-bar of 10 Roeden = [approximately 1 : 490].