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Map of the planned extension of the Nassau Fort

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Map of the planned extension of the Nassau Fort

Hattinga, David Willem Carel

Title Leupe: Plan tot een concept op het fort Nassau.

Despite the renovations around 1740, Fort Nassau remained an very modest defence structure which moreover, due to the predominant use of wood and earthworks as building materials (only the internal buildings were made of stone), rapidly again fell into disrepair.

This is a design for another round of renovations and partial rebuilding of the fort. The map emphasizes the new sections which need to be constructed through an elaborate index below on the map.

This project plan for Fort Nassau was never executed.

On 8th March 1763 it was, ironically enough, partly due to Hattinga’s reports on the deplorable condition of the small fort that the then governor, Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim (1760-1764), after all conceded to the pressing pleas of the civilians and the Nieuw-Amsterdam garrison to evacuate the place and transferred the population to Fort Sint Andries.

North is lower left.

Scale-bar of 300 Rhineland feet = [approximately 1 : 475].

Please contact Nationaal Archief for reuse and copyrights.

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)

Bosman, Lex, Nieuw Amsterdam in Berbice (Guyana). De planning en bouw van een koloniale stad, 1764-1800 (1994)