The Keep
THE KEEP
The Keep is the final line of defence of the Dockyard. The billy
peninsula and natural tidal pool around which it was built, was
transformed into a fortress by walling-up cliffs, carving out batteries
and underground magazines in its interior Access was gained from a
sea gate in the wall into the tidal pool, or over a drawbridge across a
moat guarded by cannon, or from the North Rampart by means of a
temporary removable bridge
Tbe Keep contained the magazine for storage of powder cannon sbot,
sbells and explosives for Sbips of the Fleet, the Gun Wharf Sbed, and
at its highest elevation, the house of Civilian Commissioner of the
Admiralty responsible for the Dockyard. The gunpowder magazines,
built in 1837, are some of the oldest buildings in the Yard
Commissioner's House has had many uses, a residence, Royal Marine
barracks, military staff office, married quarters, and as a former HMS
Malabar After undergoing years of restoration it now houses the
offices and exbibits of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. (Tbe Keep
magazine was under the control of the Army until 1930)
The sea gate enabled gunpowder and shot to be lightered out to
waiting warships with minimal risk of explosion occurring.
The Keep commands the Dockyard, Sally Port, the Breakwater, the
Fleet Anchorage, and the deep water channels leading to the
Dockyard. In tbe Second World War it boused a cypber station and
radio communications towers. The fortifications display a range of
gun emplacements and guns from the 1820's to the early twentieth
century from smooth bore cannon, to rifled muzzle loaders, and
breech loading, quick-firing guns.
Submitted by Gilda Spitz