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Plan of defence for the Mot Creek

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Plan of defence for the Mot Creek

Böhm, Johann Gottfried Rabanus

Titel Leupe: Plaan van defensie voor de Mottkreek.

This map shows what is known as the Brandwacht (‘Fire Watch’, a term generally used in the Dutch colonies at that time to indicate a first-alert post) on Mot Creek, which was built in 1685 as an observation and alarm post on the sailing route along the east coast to the mouth of the Surinam River. In the later eighteenth century, the Brandwacht consisted of a redoubt on the eastern bank of the creek, about three-quarters of a kilometre from the mouth, with a separate picket station on the sea coast. This project map covers only the northernmost part of the creek above the new plantations and shows his design for a new picket station with its line of defence at the mouth. It is not known if this small fortification was ever built in this form.

North is lower right.

Scale-bar of 15 chains of 66 Rhineland feet = [approximately 1 : 1,600].

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Sources and literature

Heijer, H. den, Grote Atlas van de West-Indische Compagnie = Comprehensive Atlas of the Dutch West India Company, II, de nieuwe WIC 1674-1791 = the new WIC 1674-1791 (2012)