Probably in the mid 17th century the small, half-moon, Fort Newbold (otherwise Whale Bay Fort or Whale Bay Battery on the 1898/1901 Savage map) was constructed on the coast of Norwood’s 1663 double share 33. The share was then owned by Sir Ralph Winwood but the fort section was in the occupation of Mrs Jane Leacroft or Leaycraft. Just north of the tract were the lands of the Overplus, then divided between Captain George Tucker to the west and glebe land to the east.
The little redoubt has survived into modern times and the area is now listed as an Historic Monument. In the late 1700s Captain William Newbold was the commandant from the parish, although the fort would only have been manned in time of crisis. His eponymous fortlet stands just to the northwest of the present Whale Bay Battery, a creation of the 19th century.
The purpose of a fort at this position was always to prevent landings on the adjacent beaches and to protect the entrance to Hog Fish Cut channel, just offshore.
In the 1870s a major rearmament of British fortifications took place, as new types of guns were invented to counter the moves afloat to ships of iron and steam, replacing the ‘wooden walls of England’ and the 300-year run of the smooth-bore, cannonball artillery. New fortifications were built at Bermuda, while others were remodeled to accommodate the new Rifled Muzzle Loaders (RMLs).
Whale Bay Battery and Scaur Hill Fort were the new works in Southampton and Sandys parishes, while the defences of the Dockyard were modified for RMLs. At a distance, the Dockyard was defended by the three entirely new works of the Prospect Position, namely, forts Hamilton, Prospect and Langton, while Alexandra Battery was the only new work in the eastern St George’s Parish, with other forts there being altered for the occasion.
Overlooking Whale Bay and the beaches of the Overplus to the immediate north on the coast, the battery of the 1870s mounted three 9-inch calibre RMLs of 12 tons. The reasons for its erection were given in the 1865 report by a visiting Royal Engineer, “The Hog Fish Cut, which is stated to be available for vessels drawing 13 feet of water, is narrow and might be easily blocked up, but it having been represented that it is desirable to keep open one channel to the westward for trading vessels, and this cut being within 600 yards from the shore, it is proposed to defend it by batteries on the sites of those which formerly existed at Whale Bay and Wreck Hill, adding in time of war such obstacles as might be rendered available.”
In the end, Scaur Hill Fort was constructed instead of Wreck Hill, as it more conveniently covered Somerset Bridge, which allowed access by an invading force to Somerset Island and consequently the rear of the Dockyard. Both forts mark the end of defensible works and their guns are but emplacements
in the landscape; the fortifications themselves could be quickly overrun or blockaded by land for a swift surrender by the occupants.
During this period, torpedo boats came into vogue and the Hog Fish Cut would have allowed such shallow-draft and swift vessels to approach the Dockyard from the west, as well as allowing attacks on the British fleet in Grassy Bay. The guns of Whale Bay Battery were also intended as a deterrent to that end.
At the end of the 1800s, major changes in artillery again took place and Bermuda was rearmed with the new, modern-looking Breech Loading Rifle. At Whale Bay, the redoubt was modified to take three 4.7-inch Quick Firing BL guns, the smallest calibre used on the island, the larger being the
6-inch and 9.2-inch BL pieces, as exhibited in the newly-built pairs at St David’s Battery defending the Narrows, the only ship channel through the reefs to the inner sanctuaries of Murray’s Anchorage, Grassy Bay, the Great Sound and Hamilton Harbour.
At the beginning of the 1900s, the island was still of some value to Britain, as a Defence Report broadside of 1904 spelled out with artillery-like precision, “The Bermudas command no trade route, but they afford for His Majesty’s Navy in time of war a secure harbour, refitting station, and convenient base for operations in the neighbouring seas, being about equidistant from Canada and the British West Indian possessions, with both of which direct cable communications exists. The adequate protection of this naval base, is therefore, of great importance, and the place has, for these reasons, been constituted one of the four Imperial fortresses.” Before the First World War only eight guns remained in service, with Whale Bay Battery being obsolete.
By the beginning of the Second World War, the battery had been abandoned and there were only two operational coastal guns at St David’s Battery.
Bermuda Architectural Heritage Series: Southampton published in Bermuda in 2022 available from the Bermuda National Trust www.bnt.bm
