Undergraduate students from the Institute of Archaeology University College London conducting a surface collection on the Battery site. The location of each artifact is carefully recorded in order to reconstruct  daily life on this remote military outpost.  Food items included West Indian Welks, goats, pigs and cows.  Drink included Gin, wine and water.

ver 17 batteries and forts were built along the coast of St. Eustatius ostensibly to defend the island from enemy attack.  However, the ineffective nature of these gun emplacements is seen in the high rate at which the island changed hands during its history--22 times. 

Barbette Battery St. Louis was designed to drive approaching enemy shipping toward the Caribbean side of the island where the greater firepower of Fort Oranje could be directed at the vessels. Construction of the battery was started by the British when they invaded St. Eustatius in 1781.  When the French took Statia from the English later that same year, they finished construction and took an inventory.  Battery St. Louis was described as:

"A Barbette battery, for three guns, on a stone platform. It includes a wooden Guard House (30 feet by 18 feet) and a Powder Magazine (12 feet by 8 feet)." (Moret 1994)

Previous archaeologists and historians describe the battery as being in a very ruined state with no sign of barracks or powder magazine.  In April 2000, while exploring the English Quarter property the S.E.C.A.R. team noted that the site was severely eroded by goats and cows.  As a result, large numbers of artefacts were exposed as well as the barracks with at least two rooms.  It was determined that the site needed to be recorded before data loss was complete.  The site was mapped during the Spring and two complete surface collection sweeps were made during the course of the summer by students from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 

Artifacts recovered included several beads, numerous stoneware gin bottles, case bottles, wine bottles, a surprisingly diverse collection of ceramic types, buttons and kaolin clay pipes, One bayonet as well as musket balls and both French and English gun flints comprised some of the military artefacts found at Battery St. Louis.

S.E.C.A.R. is currently addressing the issue of animal impacts on irreplaceable archaeological sites by lobbying the government to install fences around sites located near cliff edges such as Battery St. Louis.  In less than 5 years, erosion exacerbated by animals has damaged the site much more than wind and rain over the previous 200 years.  Hopefully, S.E.C.A.R. will be successful in protecting these sites from further destruction.

The foundation for the "wooden Guard House" can be seen in the foreground while to the right is a protective wall. (Click the photo to enlarge)

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