Fortresses from the Age of Piracy

[Sinewgrab]

Can anyone point me at a good reference site(s) for forts from this era? I want to build some small forts for 28mm to use with my pirate ships, but my google-fu is weak, and I can't find any good reference sites that will give me floor plans, good pics of walls, layouts, armament, etc. All I seem to find is tourist pics from on top of the wall, and some 'look at this view' pics.

[Captain Blood]

Osprey Fortress book 49 - fortifications of The Spanish Main. I have it. It's pretty good.

[Westfalia Chris]

Define "Age of Piracy"... I own the Osprey on "Spanish Colonial Fortifications in North America", and that one includes info on some fascinating Floridan ones, with some fabulous, tiny forts, watchtowers effectively.

Much recommended, although the main focus is on the lands north of Mexico and California.

[Will Bailie]

Here are a hundred or so 'tourist' photos from Cartagena de Indias in Colombia. 

http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x96/WillBailie/Hiking/Cartagena%20de%20Indias%202007/

I tried to get as much detail as possible for the city walls and of the Castillo San Felipe.  Note that the fortifications evolved throughout and even after the Golden Age of Piracy (when the city was sacked on multiple occasions).  Much of the city was damaged during the three month siege in 1747 during the War of Jenkins' Ear, and then rebuilt afterward, so I'm not sure how much of the fortifications are from the age of Piracy.

Castillo San Felipe




Typical Cartagena street



City wall with gate


Hope this helps.  Let me know if you have questions and i'll try to answer what I can.

Cheers

w

[Sinewgrab]

Define "Age of Piracy"... I own the Osprey on "Spanish Colonial Fortifications in North America", and that one includes info on some fascinating Floridan ones, with some fabulous, tiny forts, watchtowers effectively.

Much recommended, although the main focus is on the lands north of Mexico and California.

For me, I think of the 'golden age' when I think of the age of piracy - 1650 or so to 1800 or thereabouts. So, while the Florida ones would be helpful, I'd really be looking at the forts in Colombia, Panama, and on Cuba, I think.

[Sinewgrab]

Here are a hundred or so 'tourist' photos from Cartagena de Indias in Colombia. 

http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x96/WillBailie/Hiking/Cartagena%20de%20Indias%202007/

I tried to get as much detail as possible for the city walls and of the Castillo San Felipe.  Note that the fortifications evolved throughout and even after the Golden Age of Piracy (when the city was sacked on multiple occasions).  Much of the city was damaged during the three month siege in 1747 during the War of Jenkins' Ear, and then rebuilt afterward, so I'm not sure how much of the fortifications are from the age of Piracy.

w

Well, they certainly don't hurt. It at least gives me some idea of what I am looking at duplicating at some scale.

And thanks for pointing at Osprey books, everyone - I know womone who owns most of them, and they will become my reference library.

[bluewillow]

search Vauban fortifications for a few ideas

cheers
Matt

[warrenpeace]

On the Google main search page, there is a tab in the upper left named "images." Click on that and then do a search.  Here is the result of my Google image search for "Slaver forts Africa":

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1171&bih=608&q=Slaver+forts+Africa&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

[warrenpeace]

Here are images from a Google image search for "fort San Juan Puerto Rico":

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&biw=1171&bih=608&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=fort+San+Juan+Puerto+Rico&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

[warrenpeace]

Here are the results of a Google image search for "fort El Morro Havanna":

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1171&bih=608&q=fort+El+Morro+Havanna&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Note that many of the larger Spanish harbor fortresses were built in the 1700's.  The Spanish empire was not so heavilly defended in the 1600's, and even less so in the 1500's.  But the style of the smaller forts in the 1600's may have been similar.  Could search for Portobello, Maricaibo, Vera Cruz, etc., to see what else is out there for Spain, and for Guadaloupe and Martinique for France, and for Jamaica for Britain.  Also, the Portuguese had quite of few forts on the African coast dating from the 1500's and 1600's, which should also be worth a look.

[Sinewgrab]

Thanks for the links!

I know what the image search function is, but I don't have enough background knowledge built to know what to search for, and 'caribbean forts' gave me practically nothing, nor did a few other searches. Names help - as did the Vauban reference. Now I just have to decide on a practical size for a 28mm fortress. Maybe an 18 x 30 or so should be sufficient...

[Schogun]

Search for 3 forts in the Bahamas:

Fort Charlotte (the largest)
Fort Montagu
Fort Fincastle

[Patrice]

Have you seen the pics of Didier's model of Castillo de San Marcos in Florida
http://argad.forumculture.net/louis-xiv-pirates-f7/castillo-de-san-marcos-t94.htm

All the plans are here
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=hhsheet&fileName=fl/fl0000/fl0095/sheet/browse.db&action=browse&recNum=0&title2=Castillo%20de%20San%20Marcos,%201%20Castillo%20Drive,%20Saint%20Augustine,%20St.%20Johns%20County,%20FL&displayType=1&maxCols=2&itemLink=D?hh:5:./temp/~ammem_sFLb::

[Tym]

I built one.  Sorry first post so I don't know how to pot pics.  Link to another site
http://www.sdean-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=24379
Not totally correct.  Did use a good site for Vauban
http://www.flickr.com/groups/vauban/pool/
and another
http://www.fortified-places.com/