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Fort George is a square fort built on the crest of Mount Hill (or ''Riche's Mount'') to the west of St. George's Town, near to, but outside of the boundaries of the original main
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
camp in the
Imperial fortress Imperial fortress was the designation given in the British Empire to four colonies that were located in strategic positions from each of which Royal Navy squadrons could control the surrounding regions and, between them, much of the planet. His ...
colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
of
Bermuda ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , ...
,
St. George's Garrison ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...
.


History

Fort George was one of a number of new forts (most built on the sites of earlier forts) housing coastal artillery built in the early and mid-Nineteenth Century within or satellite to St. George's Garrison. The heaviest concentration of
coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form o ...
batteries and fortifications in Bermuda had, and would continue to be, at the East End of the archipelago of Bermuda, where St. George's Harbour and Castle Harbour (with its own history of fortification) were the only harbours easily accessible from the open Atlantic due to the reefline surrounding Bermuda. After the American War of Independence, Bermuda had been selected as the only remaining British territory between
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...
and the
British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Gre ...
, being also in a position (640 miles off
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...
) from which to dominate the
Atlantic seaboard The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the co ...
of the new
United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...
. The
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
spent a dozen years surveying the reef, identifying a channel (originally called ''Hurd's Channel'' after then-Lieutenant Thomas Hannaford Hurd, the officer who had located it, but now referred to as ''The Narrows'') suitable for ships-of-the-line to enter the Northern Lagoon, the
Great Sound The Great Sound is large ocean inlet (a sound) located in Bermuda. It may be the submerged remains of a Pre- Holocene volcanic caldera. Other geologists dispute the origin of the Bermuda Pedestal as a volcanic hotspot. Geography The Great So ...
, and
Hamilton Harbour Hamilton Harbour, formerly known as Burlington Bay, lies on the western tip of Lake Ontario, bounded on the northwest by the City of Burlington, on the south by the City of Hamilton, and on the east by Hamilton Beach (south of the Burlington Ba ...
before establishing a base at Bermuda in 1795. Although the Admiralty began buying and leasing land at Bermuda's West End, on the Great Sound, for the eventual construction of the
Royal Naval Dockyard Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial c ...
, the lack of development and infrastructure there meant the Navy used St. George's as its base pending the construction of the dockyard on Ireland Island. Hurd's Channel led from Five Fathom Hole, the opening in the reefline through which vessels previously had already passed into the original main eastern channel (between Paget Island and Governor's Island, both of which held fortified coastal batteries from the early Seventeenth Centuries) into St. George's Harbour, around St. Catherine's Point at the north-eastern end of St. George's Island. A succession of forts named Fort St. Catherine's have existed on this point since 1612, and the fifth and last of these was built in the Nineteenth Century. On ''Retreat Hill'' to its rear, Fort Victoria and Fort Albert were built in the 1840s. Between them, the three guarded Hurd's Channel and the Northern Lagoon from navigation by an enemy. To the rear of these three forts, a pair of identical forts were built in the 1650s on hilltops on either side of St. George's Town: Fort George was built at Mount Hill, on the western side of the town (the site of a succession of earlier defence works, beginning with a watchtower in 1612, rebuilt with the addition of a signal gun in 1619, to which the name ''Riche's Mount'' (or ''Rich's Mount'') was originally applied). The first proper fort was built on the site in the 1790s, but this was replaced with the current fort; the Western Redoubt (originally intended to be named ‘’Fort William’’) was built on another hilltop on the northern side of the town, between ''Government Hill'' (from which
Government House Government House is the name of many of the official residences of governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors in the Commonwealth and the remaining colonies of the British Empire. The name is also used in some other countries. Gover ...
had moved to Mount Langton in
Pembroke Parish Pembroke Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named after English aristocrat William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (1580–1630). It occupies most of the short peninsula which juts from the central north coast of Bermuda's main ...
with the move of the
Parliament of Bermuda The Parliament of Bermuda is the bicameral legislature in the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. The two houses are: * The House of Assembly which has 36 members, elected for a five-year term in single seat constituencies. * The Senate whic ...
and the colonial capital from St. George's Town to the then Town of Hamilton in 1815) and ''Barrack Hill'', the site of the ''Royal Barracks'' of St. George's Garrison. Fort George and the Western Redoubt both overlook the harbour to the south, and to a greater or lesser degree the Northern Lagoon to the north of the island (the area of enclosed water immediately to the north of St. George's Island is called ''Murray's Anchorage'', and had been the anchorage for the naval squadron of the North America Station when the naval base was at St. George's). The two forts therefore could operate also against enemy vessels entering the Northern Lagoon, but were primarily intended to fire on an enemy that entered the harbour and to provide rear defence to the forts on Retreat Hill and St. Catherine's Point. Fort George was completed and armed, and later re-armed with more modern weapons, while Fort William was completed but never armed as it was deemed by then to be excess to need. Instead, named the ''Western Redoubt'', it was converted into a magazine, which would have been subsidiary to the Ordnance depot on Ordnance Island. Fort George was not one of those re-armed with modern muzzle loading rifles at the end of the Nineteenth Century. During the First World War, the it was used by the Pilot Service and the Royal Naval Examination Service, who operated a steamer from the harbour to meet arriving ships at Five Fathom Hole for inspection, before piloting them to harbour. Most of the coastal artillery batteries in Bermuda, excepting
St. David's Battery St. David's Battery, also known during wartime as the "Examination battery, Examination Battery", was a Artillery battery#Fixed battery, fixed Artillery battery, battery of Rifled breech loader, rifled breech-loader (RBL) artillery guns, built and ...
, were either obsolete or reduced to a care and maintenance state that was not ''ready for war'' during post-
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
cutbacks to the British Army. In 1957, a later phase of cutbacks resulted in the closure of the Bermuda Garrison, with all regular units and detachments, including the Command staff, withdrawn, leaving only the part-time
Bermuda Militia Artillery The Bermuda Militia Artillery was a unit of part-time soldiers organised in 1895 as a reserve for the Royal Garrison Artillery detachment of the Regular Army garrison in Bermuda. Militia Artillery units of the United Kingdom and Colonies were i ...
and Bermuda Rifles. The dockyard was re-rated as a base, losing its ability to repair or refit its vessels, and this was to close in 1995. All Admiralty and War Office, including St. George's Garrison, land was transferred to the colonial government in 1958. Today, all of the East End fortifications and batteries are parts of the
UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
the Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications), though not all are open to the public.


Design and armament

The fort is square shaped, and the gunfloor originally had emplacements for four guns, one on each side behind an earthwork glacis. Inside of these was a higher
keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in ...
, separated from the gunfloor by a dry moat, with a drawbridge. The original armament was four 64-Pounders on the gun floor, and four 24-Pounders atop the keep. In the 1680s, this was replaced with two RML 11 inch 25 ton gun (one facing the harbour and the other towards Murray's Anchorage) and two RML 64-pounder 58 cwt guns facing east and west, of which only the first pair remain, both on their original mounts. A Signal Station was also placed at the fort, with
Semaphore Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when ar ...
signal mast. Others were placed at Mount Wyndham (Admiralty House), Mount Langton (Government House), Gibb's Hill Lighthouse, and the Royal Naval Dockyard. These provided a visual telegraph linking the various naval and military facilities and Government House until the introduction of an electric telegraph network in the 1860s, and were also used to communicate to vessels in visual range on the water. The signal mast no longer survives, though the one at Gibb's Hill Lighthouse does. The civil government built a wireless and radar station on top of the keep, utilised by Bermuda Harbour Radio and the Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre.


References

{{reflist Installations of the British Army Fortifications in Bermuda Batteries in Bermuda World War II sites in Bermuda World Heritage Sites in Bermuda St. George's Parish, Bermuda