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. 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 Abraham Dircks, the Director-General of Fortifications and Buildings in Surinam from 1766 to 1772. A plan to improve Purmerend by his son Jacob Gerrit Dircks has been dotted in here. An identical plan by Dircks jr. is kept in the Netherlands National Archives under number VEL2045B.

North is below.

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