Dear Dr Harris:

Thank you for showing us the Casemate Barracks in Dockyard. I really enjoyed climbing the ladder, because it was deep down in the tunnels. It was really dark and kind of scary. I was okay at the bottom! I would like to see the inside of Fort William because it looks fun inside and very dark so it could be scary. Dr. Harris, can Fort Victoria be saved? We heard that it is being destroyed.

Eyani Franklin-Smith

Rumours abound in the Bermuda atmosphere, sometimes like a spring breeze and at others at hurricane pace, so it is impossible to intimate a happening in Somerset without it being known in St. George's within the hour, the prevailing wind blowing as it does from west to east. That natural movement of air probably makes the telegraph from the easternmost parish a bit slower going westward, just as it hampered boat travel until we invented the Bermuda Rig, one of the most important technological developments ever made in the "search for speed under sail". Apparently, fishermen like the prevailing westerly, as in "wind from the west, the fish bite best".

A few weeks ago, the rumours rumbled west from St. George's, by pen and word of mouth, that what was left of Fort Victoria after the degradation of the 1960s was in the process of being demolished. From the inner reaches of what could have been the finest military museum in Bermuda, were it not for decisions made in the building of a hotel, the locals in the Old Towne could hear the rat-a-tat-tat of demolition hammers resounding across the land. As you can see from the quote by Eyani Franklin-Smith, even young students were caught up in the rumour mill created by those gunfire-like sounds.

With this article, we hope to squash such a rumour of heritage destruction, which, in Bermuda, is like trying to wrestle with a moray eel on the deck of a boat. Nonetheless, it is the job of the historian to try and get the facts correct and write them down for the record. For the record, what remains of Fort Victoria is not being demolished, but most of the history of concrete laid down in its curtilage in the 1960s is being removed.

The National Museum has been working with the Government's Ministry of Works and Engineering and with the Parks Department in the person of the then Parks Planner, Andrew Pettit, to ensure that the historic parts of the site at Fort Victoria, latterly the Club Med Hotel, are kept and incorporated into the new hotel development. So we have been keeping a watch on the demolition work with Mr. Llewellyn Butterfield of Butterfield Excavation Ltd., the contractor, to make sure that the 1960s concrete works are removed, leaving behind the significant remnants of Fort Victoria. The demolition is part of a commitment by Government to the developer, Mr. Carl Bazarian Sr., of Barzarian International Financial Associates, to remove the history of concrete and other structures imposed on Fort Victoria during the building of the hotel in the 1960s.

To go back from present rumour to past fact, Fort Victoria was constructed in the 1820s "for the further security of the high ground North East of St. George's on the which the sovereignty of the Island so greatly depends, a permanent work on Retreat Hill is essentially necessary". The fort was part of the most massive buildings projects Bermuda had ever seen and would not see again until forts were rearmed in the 1870s, and later tourism hotels were built.

St. George's had seven forts under construction in the three decades preceding the 1850s, namely Forts Victoria, Albert, St. Catherine's, Cunningham, William, Buildings Bay, George plus the Martello Tower at Ferry Reach. There was virtually no construction in the central and western districts, excepting at the Dockyard in Sandys Parish. The fortifications at Dockyard were the largest single work, but the eight forts at the eastern end of Bermuda would have provided work for all from the 1820s into the mid-1850s.

At St. George's, Fort Victoria was the largest work and was originally called the Eastern Redoubt to distinguish it from the Western Redoubt, the latter later named Fort William. A Defence Report of 1857 describes Fort Victoria as "about 2,191 yards from Fort Cunningham, and from its commanding position in every direction may be considered the citadel of St. George's with reference to either Land or Sea Attack. Its form is an irregular oblong with a ravelin to each of its two long North and South faces, it contains bombproof cover for 6 Officers and 194 men (the "Keep"); with Tanks, Powder Magazines, provisions and Artillery Stores, &c. separated by a deep ditch flanked by reverse fires from an envelope, carrying on its ramparts and ravelins (again surrounded by deep ditches, covertways, and a good glacis)", mounting 20 cannon and 2 mortars."

It was the Keep at Fort Victoria which was impacted by the hotel development of the 1960s, while the rampart for the guns survived relatively unscathed. The Keep was an hexagon building of three storeys, with water tanks below ground level under the entire building. It was surrounded by a ditch and entered through the thickness of the gun rampart and across four drawbridges. On the other side of the rampart was another ditch, also having four drawbridges. Imagine how visitors would have reacted to Fort Victoria if all the bridges had survived and were in use in modern times, with the Keep being a museum in the centre of the site!

Unfortunately, the Keep was demolished in the 1960s hotel works and was replaced by a swimming pool, shuffleboard deck and a nightclub. The ditch surrounding the Keep was covered over and concrete pillars and a retaining wall were built up against its outer wall. The present demolitions have removed the shuffleboard deck, the nightclub and most of the swimming pool. Upon removal of the pillars and retaining walls, the outer wall of the ditch of the Keep, cut into the bedrock, will again be exposed to the air after almost half a century.

It is planned to incorporate the Gun Rampart, most of the outer ditch, and the surviving South Ravelin into the new hotel, but in a sympathetic manner that will enhance both the historic structures and the new works. For such considerations, in removing the history of concrete at historic Fort Victoria, the Bermuda Government and the developer, Bazarian International, deserve a royal salute, perhaps from the guns of nearby Fort St. Catherine.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The opinions in this column are his own. Comments may be made to drharris@logic.bm or 704-5480.