18 ton muzzle loading cannon tossed over the ramparts into the surrounding sea at Fort St Catherine, Bermuda
18 ton muzzle loading cannon tossed over the ramparts imnto the surrounding sea at Fort St Catherine, Bermuda. Fort St Catherine, in St. George's Parish, the biggest of all Bermuda's many historic forts, easily one of Bermuda's most spectacular attractions. It was one of early Bermuda's fortifications against the Spanish, French - and, much later, the Americans. The coastal and inland views from here are awesome. The fort, overlooking the beach where Bermuda's first involuntary settlers came ashore from the shipwrecked Sea Venture flagship in 1609, is nearly two miles north east of the town of St. George. It is the fort principal structure in Bermuda under the management of the Bermuda Government's Curator of Forts. It is not known after which Saint Catherine the fort was named. The fort dates back to 1614, when first built by Governor Richard Moore to defend Gates Bay where the colonists landed. Fort St. Catherine was remodeled with the enclosing of the shoreline with a huge rampart that joined the ends of the ditch. This fifth incarnation is seen in the watercolour of 1857 from the Fay and Geoffrey Elliott Collection at the Bermuda Archives. There was a massive reconstruction from 1865 to 1878. It included 25 foot thick concrete embrasures and casemates, so that the fort could be rearmed with five rifled 18 ton muzzle loading cannons. In its sixth life, the fort was rearmed for the last time in the 1870s with Rifled Muzzle Loaders, but the 18-ton guns were tossed over the ramparts in the early 1900s. They could send a 400 pound shell half a mile to pierce 11 inches of solid iron. It was a training ground for local forces and the British Army in the early 1900s.
Size: 5050px × 3360px
Location: Fort St Catherine, St George's Parish, Bermuda.
Photo credit: © John Gaffen 2 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 18, bermuda, cannon, fort, gun, historic, loading, military, muzzle, ton, tossed
