They boast, however, that their isles have remained in obscurity, until their defences have become strong enough to defy the world.

SO said the Bermudians in 1841, according to a visiting American Secret Agent, Albert Fitz, appointed to spying duties by the Hon. Daniel Webster, Secretary of State.

Fitz submitted his report in 1842, "having been honoured with Instructions to proceed to certain of the British West India Islands, for the purpose of ascertaining the strength of the Naval and Military forces there; to examine the fortifications, take plans of them, ascertain the numbers of guns, describe the disposition of the inhabitants", etc., etc.

Fitz was the first of three known American spies in Bermuda in 1841-52, the second being Capt. Minor Knowlton and the last Lieut. Frederick Prime, later sent to Alcatraz when it was but a fort.

They have left behind an unusual record of the Bermuda forts for a time for which little survives in local and United Kingdom archives. For this reason, espionage has been very good for Bermuda's fortification heritage of the early Victorian era. They recorded what the military in the island tried to keep secret. With their espionage documents and reports, it was possible to unlock the layouts of the forts for the 1840s and 1850s.

Then as now, many Bermudians seem to side with the money. The Department of State was probably disappointed to learn that "the inhabitants are well satisfied with their Government, and the large amount of money circulated among them by the Sailors and Soldiers, tends to sustain and increase that spirit. They anticipate great spoils in case of another war with the United States".

In addition, a lot of Bermudians abhorred the United States, as slavery was still legal into the 1860s.

According to Fitz, the Bermudians thought his country desired the possession of the island, so they were "particularly jealous and distrustful of American visitors, and also of Frenchmen, whom they consider as our possible allies".

Despite this, he was able to visit all of the new fortifications, particularly Dockyard, which "promises to be one of the most impregnable fortresses in the Western hemisphere".

Captain Minor Knowlton was no stranger to Bermuda when he was sent to look at its defences by General J.G. Totten, Chief Engineer, US Army. In 1842, he had come here for his health, as he suffered from epilepsy. This did not deter him from a spying mission to Canada, where he examined Fort York at Toronto two years prior. His policy in Bermuda was "to form few acquaintances and to avoid entertainments altogether".

He gave the impression that his walkabouts, even up to the fortifications, were to improve his health. Customs officers, however, must have wondered why his luggage on departure contained "two blocks of shell limestone, each a little more than one foot cube, which I brought from Bermuda as specimens of the type of stone used in the fortifications of those islands. It is a soft kind of shell sandstone which may be advantageously shattered by hollow shot."

Upon his return in June 1849 to New York after three months in Bermuda, Knowlton wrote to Totten promising a full report, of which there is no trace. What has survived is an original plan of the Dockyard by George Taylor, Survey of Buildings to the Navy Board in London, which Knowlton must have obtained by paying someone from the dockyard.

THE last officer, gentleman and spy was Lieut. Frederick Prime, who also reported to General Totten at Washington, DC. Having graduated first in his class at West Point in 1849, he found himself at Bermuda three years later.

Prime was clearly taken by Bermuda, so much so that he returned to the subject of its invasion while on duty at Fort Alcatraz some years later. In his "Notes on an expedition against the Bermudas", he examines all of the channels, the strength of the garrison and the nature of the fortifications.

Prime defines the weakest point as Castle Harbour, which could be entered easily without coming under fire from the major forts on St. George's Island, those on Castle Island being in disrepair. Having reduced the Martello Tower at Ferry Reach, the American invaders could effectively cut off St. George's and its forts from the rest of Bermuda. By taking St. George's from the rear, the subjugation of the rest of the island would soon follow, as the enemy would control the Narrows Channel, the only sea access to the dockyard and Hamilton, a blockade from the land as it were.

THE most remarkable piece of this espionage is Prime's sketch of the major Bermuda forts in 1852, reproduced here from the National Archives in Washington, DC. These little fort maps are remarkable for their detail, considering that the forts were "visited but once and sometimes under such circumstances that nothing would be committed to paper for many hours after".

This detail is important as all of the major forts of the 1820s-1860s were heavily altered in the 1870s and some again in the 1890s.

The principal forts at Dockyard, St. Catherine, Victoria, Albert, George and Cunningham were all built as a response to the Independence of the United States. If that country had remained within the British Empire, it is likely that no forts would have been built in Bermuda after the 1760s and we would have remained "in obscurity".

The forts spied on by Fitz, Knowlton and Prime are now, with the unfortunate exception of the Dockyard, part of Bermuda's World Heritage Site. With the Dockyard, they are the largest historic buildings in the island. The American spies have made it possible to understand what they looked like when they were built, as a lot of the evidence at the forts themselves is buried under later works in concrete or was destroyed.

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Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The views expressed here are his opinion and not necessarily those of the trustees or staff of the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm, to PO Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone at 734-1298.