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Project plan for batteries and a Communication Path at the redoubt Leiden for defending the 'Line of Obstruction'

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Project plan for batteries and a Communication Path at the redoubt Leiden for defending the 'Line of Obstruction'

Hottinger, Johann Heinrich / Kikkert, Albert / Wichers, Jan Gerhard / Böhm, Johann Gottfried Rabanus / Friderici, Juriaan François de

Title Leupe: Plan en profil der geprojecteerde Batteryen om en by de redout Leyden, dienende tot defensie der Linie van Verstopping.

In connection to the 1786 plans for the ‘Line of Obstruction’, which should keep enemy fleets from being able to sail up the Surinam River, (see VEL2013), this supplementary design was produced for two outer batteries near the redoubt Leiden as extra protection for the proposed barrier in the Surinam River. Next to the new batteries, the plan shows the ‘Communication Path’, with a hedge of lime trees to camouflage this road linking Leiden and the outer defences. The implementation of the original design was largely followed after 1790, as can be seen on the map on VEL2065, but more modestly executed. For instance, the one battery projected at some distance on the coast was indeed built, but the second, right next to Leiden, was abandoned, as was the small ravelin planned on the landward side of the redoubt.

North is below.

Scale-bars of 110 Rhineland Rods, for the Plan = [approximately 1 : 2,200] / profiles 4 Rhineland Rods, for the profile of the batteries = [approximately 1 : 90] / [2] a Rhineland Rod for the profile of the Communication Path = [approximately 1 : 47].

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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)