Fortified Places, Fort Caroline, Jacksonville Florida

 

 

the fort, as seen by Google Earth

       I have long been fascinated with the first tenuous toeholds of the Europeans landing in the New World. Much like the early explorers of space the risks were enormous, they were launching themselves into the unknown with much hope and little knowledge. Most were seeking either wealth or freedom (a few sought both), a great many paid with their lives. One example of those that sought freedom and wealth and also paid for that daring with their lives was the French Huguenot colony that founded Fort Caroline. 

        The Huguenots were a Protestant sect that was much prosecuted in France, they (well, some of them at least) offered to establish a colony in North America on behalf of France in an effort to be able to practice their religion in peace. They also went seeking to enrich themselves (the Spanish pillaging of the Aztecs had convinced a good many Europeans that gold was as common as sand in the Americas). the French king was desirous of tweaking the Spanish king's beard and of ridding himself of the heretics in his lands agreed. The Wikipedia  article tells the whole sad tale. Needless to say they didn't find freedom or wealth.

       The fort I toured is a reconstruction (the original was mostly earth and log and would not have lasted even if the site hadn't been washed away when the river changed course) built to a smaller scale, and to my mind a rather odd design. The NPS website  tells the story of the park.  

 

 

when I visited the NPS still had the Visitor Center closed due to Covid

 

I intend to return and tour it on my next visit to Florida

 

in the meantime you can look at this nice cannon

 

 

on the walk to the fort

 

how desperate do you have to be to choose this over the green fields of France?

 

but it wasn't like they had a choice once they had arrived

 

 

as was so often the case they got along well with the locals (at first)

 

 

Timicuan houses were perfectly adapted to the evironment

 

 

 

 

 

an overall view with some added details

the numbers indicate where I was standing when I took the photos

 

 

From location #1

 

while the exact dimension and plan are lost to the mists of time I feel that the contemporaneous drawings are more accurate than the current fort, they respect the geometric rules of bastions and flanking fire which were the standard of fort design at the time

 

 

 

 

the bread oven

 in the sweltering heat of Florida this must have a less than popular post!

From Location #2

 

 

 

 

 

From Location #3

 

not just a moat, it legitimately could have alligators!

 

From Location #4

  

the wooden framing appears in many illustrations of the time

 

 

they were repairing storm damage, a real concern for the original forts too, 

the Spanish forts of St. Augustine were wrecked by hurricanes as often as by the enemy

 

 

 

 

 

From Location #5

 

 

 

another, more plausible, layout for the original

 

 

 

 

Back to Location #4

Location #6

 

 

 

cannons are positioned to sweep the front of the gate from both directions

 

 

From Location #7

 

 

From Location #8

  

 

From Location #9

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Location #10

 

 

From Location #11

 

 

 

From Location #12

 

 

 

the wooden frames become even stranger on the outside, 

any reasonably agile person could climb the framework and gain entry with relative ease

 

From Location #13

 

From Location #14

 

 

 

 

 

From Location #15

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Location #16

 

  

 

 

 

From Location #17

 

 

 

 

looking into the "countryside" a formidable tangle of underbrush