The American Consul General at Hamilton

Your Excellency: At this time of Thanksgiving, we would be most grateful if you convey our considerable thanks and appreciation to your fellow citizens for all the turkeys and things that arrive daily from your country. We also extend our gratitude for the state of your nation, for without the independence of the United States, there would be no Bermuda Dockyard. Without America as an honorable enemy, none of the splendid buildings, including the Commissioner's House where you had dinner the other night, and the massive fortifications of the Dockyard would exist. The defences were built to hold the Dockyard against an attack by invading American armies, so I am sure you will appreciate having this report on their current state of preparedness.

Your most obedient servant, Commissioner at Dockyard

THE Bermuda Dockyard has had only a couple of designated enemies, but all the assaults on its buildings and fortifications have been by way of friendly fire. Neither the Americans in the 1800s nor the Germans or Russians in the 1900s managed with hostile intent to get a military foothold into the country. The table was somewhat turned in the Second World War when the Americans established the first-ever foreign base on British soil at the Naval Operating Base in Southampton in April 1941, a bridgehead held for 54 years on friendly terms.

The first attack on the dockyard took place as Queen Victoria's long reign came to an end in 1901. Contracted to build the South Basin and Yard, a British firm used parts of the fortifications of the dockyard as a quarry. The fine wall on the south side of Pender Road is composed of reshaped stone blocks from the demolished Ravelin Tower and the Couvre Porte, a case of heritage begetting heritage. Other parts of the Land Front fortifications were rendered into the sea as fill to create new land for the South Yard, or were burnt for lime or crushed to make huge concrete facing blocks for the new wharf.

In the North Yard, with its clutch of outstanding historic buildings, the assaults came from official neglect and deliberate destruction. The extraordinary quadrangle of buildings that formed the Smitheries built in the 1850s was apparently demolished to make way for a brewery in the 1960s, a modern industrial wonder that was never then erected on the rubble of some of Bermuda's finest buildings. Then came the invasion of octopus-like trees in the form of casuarinas, peppers and laurels, hell bent on finding every chink in the armour of the fortifications, a destructive advance only halted in the last year.

The troops finally rallied and last February, the West End Development Corporation launched the fight for the Land Front fortifications, to the south of the Casemate Barracks. Their weapon of choice, as has been the case in many of Bermuda's good causes, was a battalion of volunteers, led by staff of the Maritime Museum. One draft of the military enthusiasts scaled the manmade cliffs of the Land Front, hanging on ropes to kill the invasives with chainsaws and root poison.

On a less precarious battlefield, other volunteers fought their way up the slope of the terreplein of the eastern Land Front, uncovering features of the fortifications that had not seen the light of day for upwards of a century.

The fortifications of the Land Front rise to almost 100 feet above sea level. Due to the steep angle of the terrain, the five major gun emplacements to the east were placed in a series of terraces, the lowest of which now faces up Pender Road. It is here that the final assault on the Land Front has begun, hopefully ending with the preservation of the site as one of the major features of the dockyard. The weekend warriors usually gather on Saturday mornings, form a battle plan and hasten to the Front. The heat of battle is usually cooled with a delicious lunch at Valerio Ausenda's Freeport Seafood Restaurant. The combatants come from all walks of life, with several in the fine platoons being former residents of the Casemate Barracks.

The guns on the five terraces of the eastern Land Front were all 24-pounder cannon, with carriages on elevated slides. The racers, or iron tracks, for the easy traversing of the slides, have survived, several having the inscriptions of the owner and maker. As illustrated, the owner was WD, the War Department, and the maker RCD, being the Royal Carriage Department at Woolwich Arsenal, now better known for a football team than as suppliers of armaments.

The eastern rampart of the Land Front and its gun emplacements are being prepared for their own defence as preserved historic monuments, in the service in cultural tourism. Eventually, their state of preparedness for this new role in the defence of the fundamental economy of the island will be of the highest order. Slides, carriages and guns will be remounted in the emplacements, which will traverse to bear on the cruise ship dock or along Pender Road, from whence positions the armies of American tourists will hopefully invade.

With a reversal of roles and their outstanding generosity, no doubt many of our American friends will help us to preserve these great monuments of war that were designed to keep them out of the Dockyard in the first instance, but now welcome them with silenced guns.

Dr. Edward Harris, mbe, jp, fsa, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The views expressed here are his opinion, not necessarily those of the Trustees or Staff of the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm or to P.O. Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone 799-5480.