Map of the defences around the estuary of the Berbice River

Title Leupe: Plaan van het nieuw angelegde fort of de geprojecteerde Batterie Andries in de geoctroyeerde Colonie de Berbice.

By 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 VEL1612 and VEL1615-6) which expose the weaknesses of the Sint Andries Fort and present project proposals for its further fortification.

One problem with the fort was that it was barely protected on the landward side; 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. In addition to giving an overview of the different sections of the Sint Andries fort, this map also reveals this weakness.

Scale bar of 100 Rhineland Feet = [approximately 1 : 145].