Beeverwijk, fort

On the small island of Nusa Laut stand the remains of a VOC blockhouse. In 1656 governor Arnold de Vlaming van Oudshoorn (1654-1656) named it after his home town Beverwijk. Twenty soldiers and a sergeant were posted here, who stood under the VOC command in Saparua. This blockhouse was not the first place the VOC had settled on the small island. Already under governor Herman van Speult (1618-1625) a small wooden house had been built on the south coast. For a long time local inhabitants did not resist the VOC presence. Therefore the defences were judged not to be very important and the blockhouse deteriorated. During the uprisings in 1817 however, the three soldiers stationed at fort Beverwijk were murdered and the post was shortly in control of local people. The Dutch quickly retook the post, but did not keep it up for a long time. Today the high walls of the blockhouse still stand and the form of the defence structures can still be recognised in the ruins.