Plan of Fort Beekenburg

Title Leupe: Platte form van het genoemde Blokhuis.

In 1703, to protect the coastline east of Fort Amsterdam and Willemstad, construction of fort Beekenburg, built on a rocky headland on the eastern shore of Caracas Bay, commenced, following the completion in the preceding year of the small battery of De Uitkijk (The Lookout) situated a little farther to the south. Beekenburg protected both the bay itself with its various landing places and the narrow tongue of land between Caracas Bay and the Spaanse Water (Spanish Water), along which an enemy who had come ashore further eastwards could approach Willemstad. Partly as the result of a shortage of building materials, the original construction of Beekenburg appears to have taken quite a long time, but once completed, the fort proved to be virtually unassailable. Its design consisted of a massive tower with ten gun emplacements, with a lower bastion on the seaward side with another eight cannon.

This map shows the as yet uncompleted fort with the adjacent coastline. A few planned out-buildings can be seen too. This design for the fort, sent over in 1703, shows the layout as it was indeed built. The letters (A) and (B) indicate the upper and lower circumferences of the tower, (C) is the parapet of the tower with embrasures, (D) is the central pillar, the hatches (E) and (L) are the entrances to the platform on the tower via passages which could be properly closed off (O-Q) and (I-F), (H) is the powder magazine with ventilation shaft (K), (M) is the water cistern with conduit (N) and well (P), (R) is the lower emplacement on the bastion, and (S) and (T) are respectively the parapet and the entrance from outside. The last could only be reached via a ladder, which could be raised and lowered by a projecting hoisting tackle (V).

North is upper left.

Scale-bar of 50 Amsterdam feet = [approximately 1 : 60].