TOWERING above the beach where the shipwrecked crew of the Sea Venture came ashore in 1609 lies Fort St. Catherine, completed in 1614 and named for the patron saint of wheelwrights and carpenters.The fortifications have been upgraded many times over the years since, with the last major reconstruction taking place from 1865 to 1878. The fort’s appearance today is largely the result of the work done in the 19th century and little, if any, of the original work undertaken by Bermuda’s earliest settlers survives today.

While this cliff-top fort has never seen much action, it has seen its fair of hurricanes and bad weather and over the years. And the forces of nature have taken more of a toll on the fort than its one known military engagement with a passing Spanish vessel, causing the very foundations to crumble.

If the erosion was left to continue and the damage not repaired, the base which protects it from the ocean would have been lost — and with it a large portion of the fort.

With the threat of losing one of the island’s major cultural treasures looming, the Department of Parks, in co-operation with the Ministry of Works and Engineering, called for a plan of action for preserving the dozen or so forts on National Parks land in Bermuda.

At Fort St. Catherine the most pressing need was the repair and replacement of the fort’s curtain wall, or base, damaged in Hurricane Gert in 1999.

Park Planner Drew Pettit explains that even though this hurricane was not a major storm and had little impact on the island as a whole, several factors — including the direction of the waves, the shallow shoreline in front of the fort and the storm surge — combined to cause extensive damage to the foreshore and curtain wall.

“The problem is that there is a soft seam of rock along the exterior of the fort and this was being eaten away. Some restoration work was done about 20 years ago, but with the increase in storm activity over the years since, this soft seam has continued to be eaten away,” he said.

However, this seemingly straightforward repair work proved quite a challenge for Anchor Marine Ltd. masons who braved the blistering sun, 40 knot winds and waves to painstakingly fill the holes left by the ocean.

This involved sand blasting out the crumbling stone and filling the cavities with reinforced concrete piped to them from a truck.

But how to pipe concrete to the men who are working at the north eastern base of the fort, and nowhere near a road, proved the greatest challenge.

Gravity, it seems, was not their friend. When they tried going over the wall and going along the neighbouring beach, this also proved disastrous. The pipe burst, leaking concrete onto the rocks which subsequently had to be carefully chipped off once it dried.

Once the practical issues were resolved, the face of the concrete was then blended, textured or faced with Bermuda stone where appropriate to give it as natural a look as possible.

Mr. Pettit expects the work to take between eight and 12 weeks and hopes to have most of it completed before the later part of the hurricane season when Bermuda is typically more at risk.

Fort St. Catherine is no stranger to restoration (or in some cases major re-construction) with the last major work carried out between 1865 and 1878 when 25-foot thick Victorian concrete embrasures (flared openings for guns in the wall) and new casemates were added.

The fort was also rearmed with five, 18-ton Woolwich Rifled Muzzle Loader cannons which could send a 400 pound shell half a mile to pierce 11 inches of solid iron.

However pointing to the cracked roof of the keep and gun floor, Mr. Pettit says Victorian concrete wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and has since proved to be “an issue” not just here in Bermuda, but also at forts and museums across the United Kingdom because of its limited life span. Since 1878, he pointed out, the roof at Fort St. Catherine has been patched numerous times.

Fort St. Catherine’s restoration work is not limited to the outer fortifications as plans are afoot to update the fort’s aged exhibits and make them more interactive.

These older exhibits include the powder magazine, home to a collection of antique weapons, and the old artillery store which hosts a gallery of dioramas depicting Bermuda’s history.

The magazine of the fort was also recently cleaned and repainted for the first time since the 1950s, while in the keep, which served as living quarters, information on local and overseas regiments that served in Bermuda are also on display along with a small-arms exhibit, a cooking area display, and an exhibit of replicas of Britain’s crown jewels.

Mr. Pettit believes Bermuda has the potential to be a “cultural tourism destination”, as thousands of visitors from the Eastern seaboard flock to places like Fort St. Catherine and the Maritime Museum to learn more about a country’s history, heritage and culture.

“They want to see how we built Bermuda up and defended it, mostly against them,” he adds with a laugh.

As for updating the exhibits: “We have just restored a nine-pounder field gun, there are two up at Dockyard .... we’re trying to make things interactive and lose that two-dimensional aspect.

“We have a saluting programme and when cruise ships come by we will fire ‘on’ them, and we also have an anti-aircraft coming that was used to defend us by the Americans during the Second World War.”

The 400th anniversary of Bermuda’s permanent settlement is looming in 2009 and Mr. Pettit and his staff want to be ready for what he terms “the big event”.

He says the staff at Fort St. Catherine are so dedicated to “their fort” that they often go beyond the call of duty to ensure the fort remains appealing to visitors.

“During the winter months the guides do a lot of the maintenance work, so in the off-season, when they have a lot of time on their hands, they don’t sit around doing nothing. Even though they are busy .... one is an electrician, another does carpentry and they are so dedicated to the fort that they are doing things that are outside their job description,” he says.

In the future Mr. Pettit hopes to get the public more involved in Bermuda’s forts, especially since Fort St. Catherine was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2000.

He says the the Department of Parks is working on a management plan for the fort and over time hope to get feedback from the public as to what they would like to see included in the exhibits.

While there is also hope for Bermuda’s lesser known fortifications, from Martello Tower to St. David’s Battery, which will all be restored and included in telling Bermuda’s history.

Mr. Pettit feels that each of these forts can be used to showcase the history of that particular area - something which until now has only be done at Fort St. Catherine and Dockyard.

Perhaps in this way, he says, these lifeless pillars of stone can get a second lease on life.