Vandals have covered one of Bermuda's most precious historic sites with grafitti -- just months after $23,000 was spent cleaning it up.

And Parks Department Forts curator Lance Furbert said Police told him that gangs of youths who wanted to "mark their territory'' were most likely behind the graffiti at Alexandra Battery, St. George's.

"We're not going to bend to them and close it down again,'' he said. "But we want the community to help with this, to be proud of this site and to help us both protect it and repair it.'' Mr. Furbert made the comments in a speech to the Hamilton Rotarians on the great value and rich heritage of Bermuda's forts.

He discovered the heart-breaking vandalism when he took two visitors from the United States to the Battery over the Christmas period.

He said the final bills from the 18-month clean-up were not even in yet.

And the site was only re-opened to the public in mid-1997 -- when repairs began -- after being concreted up for twelve years from 1985 because it was feared vandals could permanently destroy it.

"We would really like to put a sign up outside it so tourists are drawn to see this, but now we're afraid to do that because vandals will probably just cover it in their paint,'' he said.

"And we had planned to put exhibits inside on its colourful history, but I don't know if we can go ahead with that now.'' The British military built the Alexandra Battery in the 1860s but it fell into disuse after the First World War.

Mr. Furbert said its main historical significance lay in its close proximity to Buildings Bay where the Sea Venture castaways built the Deliverance in 1610.

The settlement -- Bermuda's first -- was the site of many firsts for the Island including weddings, births, trials and at least one execution.

Mr. Furbert called on the community to work together to clean up the vandals' mess but also to educate young Bermudians on the value of the Island's forts and other historical monuments.

He said the sites were not only precious because of their uniqueness in the world but also because of the allure they held for tourists.