Important questions

Nuyt,

In your posting dated 2 Feb 2008 (“Coastal Suriname”), you include a series of photos, two of which are of that mystery gun emplacement within Fort Nieuw Amsterdam. The upper one shows the gun emplacement which I described in my earlier posting today thus:

“This emplacement’s location, within the old fort and much closer to the water, has me more and more convinced it is an older generation gun emplacement, the concrete hinting it was either late muzzleloading or early breechloading era. That rearward circular arc on the very rightmost (rearmost) portion of the concrete block looks to me to be appropriate for an old-fashioned gun carriage.”

While that circular arc is definitely on the right in the upper photo, it may not be on the REAR of the gun emplacement. Please identify in which direction the river lies: to the emplacement’s left or to its right. That is, using the emplacement as the point of reference, the RIVER is to the left or to the right.

Two other points:

1. Note that in the center of the flat portion of the emplacement, in line with the lighthouse in the background, is a lighter area that appears to have been removed and replaced by sand or rather newer concrete. I wonder if that area once had the base ring or bolt circle for the gun carriage. Whatever was once there, it would have been an obstacle for the performers on this makeshift stage, and was thus somehow removed.

2. Do you have any notion what that squarish concrete block is on the lefthand part of your upper photo and is the subject of your lower photo?

As I emphasized in an earlier posting, if this site is going to be an historical park, then the correct interpretation of its remnants is essential.

Nelson