Michael G. Laramie - King William’s War: The First Contest for North America, 1689–1697

ON SEPTEMBER 18, 1609, a small Dutch vessel named the Half Moon dropped anchor near modern Albany, New York. The vessel better known for its captain, Henry Hudson, had spent several weeks sailing up the narrow waters of the Great North River, which the Hudson River was known as for many years to come. Hudsons journey had come to an end at Albany. Although the river extended north for many more miles small boats sent forward reported it to be at an end for shipping, having found but seven foot water, and unconstant soundings. It was but one of many disappointments for the explorer who had previously charted Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River in search of the elusive Northwest Passage. With another dead end before him, a few days were spent trading for beaver and otter pelts with the local Mahican before Hudson retraced his steps, never to return to the river that would one day bear his name. Although the explorer would not know it, this short and seemingly benign event was to have a profound impact on the future of North America.

News of the discovery and the promise of the lucrative fur trade attracted a number of Dutch vessels to the area over the next few years, and as each vessel returned with more furs the decision was reached to erect a permanent establishment at this location. In the summer of 1614 small bands of Mahican watched from the banks of the river as a handful of Dutch traders erected Fort Nassau on Castle Island. The regions first fort was an unassuming structure built like many early North American fortsby men with little or no formal training in the art of military fortification. In its completedform the stronghold was nothing more than a square palisade, measuring fifty feet to a side with an eighteen-foot-wide moat dug about its perimeter and a drawbridge at the main gate. Inside this stockade sat a thirty-six-by-twenty-six-foot trading house, which not only harbored the trade goods but acted as the living quarters for the dozen or so traders who occupied the post. A pair of light cannon sat within the forts parade ground for defense, while eleven pierriers, small swivel guns designed to fire rock projectiles, lined the structures walls.

As it was, Fort Nassaus days were numbered. The low-lying Castle Island, while seemingly an excellent defensive choice, was subject to the annual ravages of the Hudson River. In the spring of 1617 the fort was so badly damaged by floodwaters that its occupants were forced to abandon the structure and build a new one on the west bank of the river a few miles south of the old site.

In 1624 the second Fort Nassau was replaced by a larger structure to better accommodate the burgeoning fur trade. Fort Orange, as it was called, was moved back up the river almost opposite the old Fort Nassau on Castle Island. A four-bastioned structure measuring 150 feet to a side, it was of earth and wood construction. A pair of fifteen-foot parallel walls, made in the same fashion as Fort Nassau, were erected, tracing out the forts perimeter. At this point the walls were braced with cross members and the intervening space between them was filled in with earth, most likely taken from the moat that surrounded the fort on three sides. A rampart or walkway was then fashioned in the area between the two walls by placing planks on horizontal cross members, which were then secured to the palisades on either side. It is not clear exactly how thick the walls of Fort Orange were made, but given that one citizen who had a dwelling within the fort petitioned to cut a door in the curtain wall to allow easier access to his home, one suspects that they were thinner rather than thicker. Protruding diamond-shaped bastions were placed at each corner of the structure to allow the defenders to sweep the walls with gunfire and serve as firing platforms for the forts eight large stone firing guns.