Map of the Projected Line of Blockage

Title Leupe: "Plan van een gedeelte der rivier van Surinaame waarop aengetoond word de legging der geprojecteerde linie van verstopping, alsmeede de dispositie der batterijen, canonneerchaloupen en gewaapende scheepen, dienende tot defensie van de gemelde linie (Copie)”.

This is a map on the ‘Obstruction Plan’, the closure of the estuary of the Surinam River in time of war, which was worked out in detail during and after the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, using the 1781-1782 first improvised set-up for its realization. Here, only the riverine area around Fort Nieuw Amsterdam and both redoubts are shown. An alternative is drafted out as part of the report of the tour of inspection of the Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast and West Indies from January 1786 to August 1787 by the naval frigate Hector, under the leadership of Lieutenant Johann Heinrich Hottinger of the Engineering Corps and naval Lieutenant (later Captain) Albert Kikkert. This voyage was the first of its kind undertaken after the war with England. Hottinger and Kikkert remained in Surinam between 9 November 1786 and 2 March 1787, and inspected the fortifications in the colony and produced a small number of project maps, with the assistance of the engineer Johann Gottfried Rabanus Böhm, the military commander Juriaan François de Friderici and Governor Jan Gerhard Wichers.

In view of the handwriting and its style, the map of the project reproduced here is probably not by Hottinger himself, but corresponds exactly to a second version which is also found with the original report (Netherlands National Archives, 1.01.50 inv.nr. 1287). Besides Hottinger and Kikkert, Wichers, De Friderici and Böhm have also signed their approval.

North is below.

Scale of 1 : 6500.