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Fort Charlotte is a
fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...
built on Harrigan's Hill (above Macnamara),
Tortola Tortola () is the largest and most populated island of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in ...
,
British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...
. The fort was named after
Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until her death in 1818. The Acts of Un ...
.


History

The fort was built by the British
Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...
in 1794 at an elevation of approximately 947 feet over
Road Town Road Town, located on Tortola, is the capital and largest town of the British Virgin Islands. It is situated on the horseshoe-shaped Road Harbour in the centre of the island's south coast. The population was about 15,000 in 2018. The name is d ...
, and was erected on top of an earlier wooden stockade believed to have been originally built by the
privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
Joost van Dyk Joost van Dyk (sometimes spelled Joost van Dyke) was a Dutch privateer (and, reportedly, sometime pirate) who was one of the earliest European settlers in the British Virgin Islands in the seventeenth century, and established the first permanent ...
to act as a lookout post. The fort was not a walled fort in the traditional sense, but an earthen one; however, its elevation meant that there was absolutely no prospect of being fired upon by the
cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...
of incoming ships. The only way in which the Fort could have been taken, had it ever fallen, would have been for troops to climb the hill while under heavy musket and cannon fire. Fort Charlotte formed part of a triangular defensive formation around Road Harbour. On the south west side of the harbour lay
Fort Burt Fort Burt is a colonial fort that was erected on the southwest edge of Road Town, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands above Road Reef Marina. The site is now a hotel and restaurant of the same name, and little of the original structure remai ...
while Fort George was situated on the west with
Road Town Fort Road Town Fort is a colonial fort which was erected on Russell Hill in Road Town, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands above the town's main wharf. In historical records it is sometimes referred to as Fort Road Town. The fort subsequently fel ...
located in between. Towering above was Fort Charlotte, with the range and guns to fire on any ship entering the harbour without any fear of return fire. Accordingly, any ship seeking to attack the town would have to withstand fire from both Fort Charlotte and either Fort Burt or Fort George, but would have to actually land and climb Harrigan's Hill (with weaponry) to a height of nearly 900 feet before they could actually return fire on the garrison. Road Town became the Territory's capital instead of much better anchorages at Soper's Hole, Hodge's Creek and Spanish Town on
Virgin Gorda Virgin Gorda () is the third-largest island (after Tortola and Anegada) and second-most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Geography Located at about 18 degrees, 30 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area o ...
(each of which at some point in the Territory's history acted as the centre of administration for the islands) largely because of its instrinsic defensiveness in a highly turbulent era. Tortola had been sacked by Spanish
pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
s in 1685 and Tortola was actually occupied by pirates for several days in 1686, but was never attacked again subsequent to the construction of Fort Charlotte. Tortola was never again attacked during the turbulent colonial era, and it is reasonable to surmise that the combination of the relatively low economic value of the Territory, and the relatively formidable defences, simply meant that it was an equally unattractive target for competing colonial powers on the one hand and privateers and pirates on the other.


Present day

The fort is now a barely recognisable ruin. All that remains are a few crumbling walls, a cistern and an underground magazine. The area of the Fort is heavily overgrown, and for safety reasons the government has sealed off the cistern to avoid the possibility of tourists falling in. The hike to Fort Charlotte (there is no road) is considerably less arduous since the government cut a road from the top of Macnamara to the ridge, but it is still a good climb, and a
machete A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...
to clear the bush that frequently overgrows the donkey track leading to the fort is usually a necessity during the wet season. Like many historical buildings in the British Virgin Islands, Fort Charlotte sits on private land with (at present) no public right of way to the Fort; however, local landowners have (to date) been reasonably relaxed about the occasional tourists and students hiking across their land to find the remains of the Fort. The government has signaled its intent to make Fort Charlotte more accessible, but no action has yet been taken.


See also

*
History of the British Virgin Islands The history of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods: * Pre-Columbian Amerindian settlement, up to an uncertain date * Nascent European settlement, from approximately 1612 until 1672 * Brit ...


External links


The BVI's formidable forts
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