HISTORIC FORTS REMAIN TIMELESS By Kendea Smith Photographs courtesy of Lavette Small (AMMC)
T
here are few structures throughout The Bahamas that truly tell the story of the country’s history. Luckily, New Providence has managed to maintain and hold dear a few of them—the formidable forts of Nassau. Majestic in stature and circumference, the forts first came about after Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in 1492. The European explorer, whom history deems the discoverer of the New World, was so spellbound by the Islands of The Bahamas that he wrote to the King and Queen of Spain expressing his admiration for their beauty. “I wish,” he reported, “to give a complete account to Your Highness and also to find when a fort might be built.” Despite the insistence from the curious navigator, the Spaniards made no attempts to fortify The Bahamas. Instead, the islands lay abandoned for quite some time until they came under the watchful eye of Spain’s then maritime rival—Great Britain. At that time, Britain’s privateers used The Bahamas as a base to attack Spanish ships; and in return, the Spanish retaliated by attacking the islands in an attempt to destroy the pirates who inhabited New Providence, along with all of the fragile forts that had been built. Despite this, the first application for an official fort did not come until August 23, 1672 from the Governor of The Bahamas to the Governor of Jamaica for a “King’s flag for forte”. Even so, piracy reared its ugly head. Scores of pirates repeatedly attacked New Providence and so did the Spaniards, who were aided by French ships. In 1684, the Spaniards attacked New Providence, nearly diminishing it. That same year, King Charles II of England intervened and called for pirates to be punished. An act was passed in 1695 for the establishment of the City of Nassau and two years later the first official fort of Nassau was born.
FORT NASSAU
The construction of Fort Nassau may have given some comfort to inhabitants of Nassau at the time, but this was very short-lived. The fort, with 22 cannons mounted, was built on the western side of what is now known as the British Colonial Hilton Nassau Hotel on Bay Street. A large well under the hotel was known as the southwest bastion. Between 1702 and 1704, combined French and Spanish armed forces surprised New Providence. They found the deputy governor feasting while the fort remained unguarded. The town paid the price and was burnt. As pirates once again took over Nassau, England intervened and sent the first Royal Governor,
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up and away
Woodes Rogers, to seize Nassau. After successfully doing so, Rogers took great interest in repairing the battered Fort Nassau. However, this did not occur until 1741. In 1744, the little that was left of the fort was savaged but that was not the last war it would see. By 1776, Fort Nassau, which had already begun to deteriorate, witnessed the war between American colonies and Great Britain in which the Americans won and hoisted the Grand Union Flag (America’s first national flag). Fort Nassau was once again captured for the last time in 1782 when the Governor of Cuba captured it with 5,000 men. The Spaniards regained possession until 1783 when the war between Britain and Spain finally concluded. By 1790, Fort Nassau became obsolete only to be replaced by a new fort directly to its west. Even after it was demolished in 1837, there would be no doubt in the history books that Fort Nassau set a dramatic tone for Bahamian history.
