Defending the Fort
The most serious attack on the Castillo took place when James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, arrived off Saint Augustine on June 13, 1740, with 7 warships and 1,400 troops. Oglethorpe’s arrival was not entirely unexpected. The English and Spaniards were rivals in Europe and continued their contest in the New World, with the Spaniards becoming increasingly restive as the English penetrated into the lands south of Charleston. By the time Oglethorpe arrived in Georgia, only about 150 miles north of the Castillo and on land the Spaniards considered their own, tensions were high. Oglethorpe wanted to guarantee that his new settlements would be secure from Spanish attack, so he decided to capture and occupy Spain’s base in Florida—before they decided to attack him. Oglethorpe had his work cut out for him, because the Castillo was superbly sited. Creeks and marshes protected it to the west and south. On the east the bay stretched to a shallow bar across the harbor entrance that kept heavy warships out of range. The only land approach was from the north. An English spy for Oglethorpe reported that the fort was well supplied and staffed. There were “22 pieces of Cannon well mounted on the Bastions from 6 pound’rs to 36.... There is a guard of a Lieutenant, a Serjeant & 2 Corporals & 30 Soldiers here who is relieved Every Day.... There is a Mote Round it of 30 foot wide & a draw Bridge of about 15 foot long, they draw every Night & Lett it down in the Morning.” With this kind of information Oglethorpe knew what he was up against and came prepared. Fortunately for the defenders, the attackers were divided. Some had landed on Vilano Point and on Anastasia Island, opposite the Castillo and were setting up batteries there. Some troops were on the mainland where they had seized vacant Fort Mose, a free black settlement just north of the Castillo. Though the total British force outnumbered the defenders, Gov. Manuel de Montiano reasoned that his forces could attack one segment before it could be reinforced by the other two. This is exactly what the Spaniards did, overwhelming the British force at Fort Mose. Undecided about further land attack, the British then began shelling the Castillo and the town from their siege batteries in a bombardment that lasted 27 days. But the British mortars and siege guns were too far away to be totally effective and the damage they did was slight. Some of the newer stonework was damaged. Only two Spanish soldiers were killed during the attack and another had a leg shot away. Among the British there was no agreement regarding another course of action. Oglethorpe himself was down with a fever, and the troops had become unnecessarily tired by purposeless maneuvering. With the approach of the hurricane season, the naval commander refused to continue the blockade, and British forces left. The Castillo and its defenders had done what they were meant to do.
The construction of the bombproof vaults in 1738-40 and 1751-56 provided a substantial room for the guard. Bedding was laid on the raised platform at left.
Cuba’s governor was a resourceful administrator eager to meet his responsibilities. He sent guns, soldiers, artisans, convicts, provisions, and money. The walls would be raised five feet and masonry vaults, to withstand English bombs, would replace the rotting beams of old rooms in the Castillo. Stronger outworks would be built, too. To supervise the project, Engineer Pedro Ruiz de Olano came from Venezuela. The work began in April 1738 rather inauspiciously. The master of construction, one Cantillo, was a syphilitic too sick to earn his 16-real daily wage. Much of his work fell to his assistant, a 12-real master mason. All six stonecutters were Negroes. One was an invalid, and none of them as yet had much skill with coquina. For moving stone, there was but one oxcart. The labor gang—52 convicts—was too small. Nevertheless, quarry and kiln hummed with activity, and in the Castillo the crash of demolition echoed as the convicts pulled down old structures and began trenching for the new bombproofs. They started on the east, because this side faced the inlet where enemy action was likely.
As usual, misfortunes beset the work. Cantillo’s illness worsened and Blas de Ortega came from Havana to replace him. Eight convicts working at the limekiln deserted. Engineer Ruiz moved a crew of carpenters, sawyers, and axemen from work on the Castillo to rebuild a blockhouse where the trail to Apalache crossed the St. Johns River.
The oxcart driver broke his arm. Quarrying and stonecutting dragged. The old quarry played out. Luckily, a new one was found and opened, even though farther away. And Havana sent two more carts and more stonecutters and convicts.
It was well into October before the carpenters began setting the forms for the vaults. The masons followed close on their heels and finished the first of the massive, round-arched bombproofs before the year ended. Just a year later all eight vaults, side by side along the east curtain, were done. Each one spanned a 17- by 34-foot area, and had its own door to the courtyard. Windows above and beside the door let in light and air.
Ordnance
Forts are often described with words like impregnable, unassailable, grim, invulnerable, and redoubtable. These descriptions often came about because of their armaments. A strategically positioned fort with a full complement of weaponry would be a problem for any invader, because the fortress, unlike naval ships, provided a stable platform upon which guns could be mounted and trained on the enemy. Anyone approaching within approximately 500 yards would be in great danger, even though the artillery in those times was not always accurate and aim was extremely difficult.
Tools for Guns
The tools used to operate the ordnance had a variety of functions. The wet sponge swabbed out the cannon to make sure all sparks were extinguished. The ladle dumped the exact amount of powder needed into the chamber. The scraper removed any powder residue. The worm removed unfired bits of cartridge and wadding. The point was to make sure the cannon was clean before it was loaded and fired.
1. Sponge
2. Powder ladle
3. Scraper
4. Worm
5. 24-pounder cannon
6. 16-pounder cannon
7. 12-pounder cannon
8. Grape shot, side view
9. Tongs for handling hot shot
10. Garrison carriage, top view
11. Garrison carriage, side view
These illustrations come from Tomás de Morla’s A Treatise on Artillery
Basically all artillery falls into two categories: mortars and guns. Mortars were designed to fire the largest and heaviest projectiles on a curved trajectory. They could shoot over obstacles or fortifications, landing on, and perhaps piercing, the deck of a ship, or hitting a pile of powder kegs or other supplies behind fortified walls, or just wreaking havoc and demoralizing the people. Guns fired their projectiles in a flat trajectory, and their effectiveness in turn depended upon the weight of the shot: the greater the weight of the shot, the greater the muzzle velocity—the speed at which the shot exited the gun—and the farther the shot would go and the deadlier it would be.
The first artillery pieces were made of forged iron. The greatest concern was in producing a weapon that could contain the explosive force of the gunpowder, hurl the projectile at the enemy, and not blow up in the faces of the gun crew. Once guns could be cast in a single piece in either brass or bronze, great strides were made in the effectiveness of the artillery pieces. By the 18th century bronze seems to have been the metal of choice. The guns and mortars were highly decorated. All bore the coat of arms of the sovereign. Usually the maker was identified in some way; the name might be part of the base ring or shown in a cipher below the sovereign’s arms. Garlands of flowers, animals, and mythical creatures sometimes decorated the piece. All Spanish guns were named—Vindicator, Invincible, Destroyer are a few examples—and the authorities made sure that each gun’s whereabouts was always known. This has been invaluable for present-day historians investigating what guns were used where and when. Guns were classified by the weight of the projectile: a 12-pounder gun shot a 12-pound ball. The kinds of projectiles varied greatly: solid shot, canister shot (a container full of bullets), grape shot (cloth container full of bullets), and bombs or grenades (hollow shot filled with gunpowder) fired from a mortar. Sometimes solid shot was heated until it was red hot. If it landed on a ship, hot shot could set a wooden ship afire. Ordnance enabled a fortification to meet the potential the military engineers had hoped for when they sited and built it.
The tops of the ponderous vaults were leveled off with a fill of coquina chips and sand. Tabby mortar was poured onto the surface, and tampers beat the mixture smooth. After the first layer set, others were added until the pavement was six inches thick. The whole roof was thus made into a gun deck, and cannon were no longer restricted to the bastions alone. For unlike the old raftered roof, the new terreplein was buttressed by construction that could take tremendous weight and terrific shock; and masonry four feet thick protected the rooms underneath from bombardment. In San Carlos bastion, by mid-January of 1740, they had finished the tall watchtower and the new parapet.