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PRELIMINARY REPORT ON DAUPHIN BASTION

BY

BERNARD POTHIER

September 9, 1964

(Fortress of Louisbourg Report H B 8)

NOTE:
Presently, the bibliography is not included here.
For these, please consult the original report in the archives of the Fortress of Louisbourg

PARAGRAPH E: 

AUXILIARY FEATURES OF THE BASTION, 1729-1735

Within the area of the Dauphin bastion and auxiliary to its function were several features, including at first three buildings: a guard house, a powder magazine and a small barracks building. Later, in 1733, a second guard for the officers was added, and in 1749 a small coal shed was built. 

The single guard house, inside the Dauphin gate and to the right as one would enter, was erected in the summer of 1729, just after work on the embrasures was finished. It was a fieldstone masonry structure with freestone corners and measured 22 pieds 3 pouces by 19 pieds. 6 pouces (9 Oct. 1753, Etat général..., AC / C11B / 33 / 229v- ). It had a shingled roof, and a wooden verandah supported by five wooden pillars. There were two windows and a door all on the same side, and three crenels overlooking the ditch in front of the gate.
The guard house at the Dauphin gate was of very particular importance. It was through this gate that all landward movement in and out of Louisbourg could be and had to be observed. It was from this post only that the town was policed after nightfall, and thus the merchants of the Esplanade area could more readily allow equipment and merchandise to lie in safety on the quay. Especially after the powder magazine came into service, the guard at the Dauphin bastion became indispensable.

The powder magazine was also begun in 1729 and by the end of the summer it was ready to be vaulted. Also built of fieldstone masonry, this structure was 30 pieds 6 by 34 pieds 8, and it was 9 pieds high (1749). Unfortunately we do not have figures for the thickness of the walls which figures, for a powder magazine, were of special significance. The vaulted roof, ready by mid-July of 1730, was bomb proof. Its construction was
of fieldstone and flatstone, with very little brick, like the vaulted roofs of the casemates in the King's bastion: the flat stones laid vertically and held fast with mortar. This stone vault was in turn covered by a wooden shingle roof, to better protect the structure from the elements, especially rain, so deadly to gunpowder. To this end, another contribution was to roughcast the inside of the magazine, done in 1732. 

The magazine had a top capacity of 30 milliers, or 250 barrels, if the barrels were packed right up to the roof. The Encyclopaedie article for "magasin a poudre" suggests that the barrels are arranged "sur des espèces de chantiers (?), à peuprès comme on arrange des pièces de vin dans une cave". The structure probably did not come into use until 1733, before which date it was quite imprudent to even release the forms which supported the roof when it was freshly laid. We know that late in 1732, the inside was still very humid. One of the serious frustrations of 18th century construction, at least in the New World, was the lingering humidity of fresh masonry, particular on the inside of a structure such as a powder magazine, with its very thick walls, and which received all but the barest minimum of sunlight. Furthermore, Louisbourg was extremely more humid than most other establishments in America. By 1741, Verrier foresaw that this magazine would fall short of the facilities required by the time all the batteries of Louisbourg would become operational.

The larger fieldstone masonry structure standing to the left of the powder magazine near the shoulder angle of the Dauphin bastion was, like both the guard house and the magazine, begun in 1729. It served as a barracks "pour le service du bastion". It was 48 pieds long and 25 pieds wide. It had a chimney at the end facing the curtain. 

In 1733, when St-Ovide detached the guard to the bastion it comprised an officer, a sergeant, two corporals and twelve soldiers. In 1745, Bastide, the English engineer, suggested that roughly forty men could lodge in this building. but in 1741 the Dauphin gate guard had consisted of three factions totalling some 72 (sic Pro 767) men. 

The barracks was built of fieldstone masonry and had a shingled roof. There were two sections, the larger for the soldiers and non-coms, and a small room for the officer. If the 1731 view of Verrier file is accurate, the roof on the harbour side had two gables. 

It is questionable how regular was the role of this buildings. In 1738 it was vacant so that the recruits of that year were able to find temporary shelter in the building. In 1753 it was vacant and stripped of any furnishings.

A second guard house was erected in 1733 opposite the first one, inside the Dauphin gate. This latter structure became the officer's guard, while the former was the soldiers' guard. The new building was built like all the others, and measured 16 pieds 6 by 15 pieds (9 oct. 1753, Etat général..., AC / C11B / 33 /229v- ). Its roof was shingled and it had two 12 pane windows, one to the rear, the other beside the door on the side. A crenel was put through the wall overlooking the ditch, and beside it was a false crenel. Three or four more crenels (plan 1734-1) were in the side wall overlooking the harbour. 

At the flanked angle of the bastion, a barbette battery was erected, and there is reference in 1735 to six guns mounted here to defend the approach to the Dauphin gate. 

The battery had a raised platform of mérizier like the rest, V-shaped. It is to be seen on almost all of our plans. From the barbette, several steps led down to the passageway leading to the pentagonal guérite, this last made of freestone, perched atop the flanked angle and resting on a freestone cul-de-lampe. below cordon. Judging from those plans showing the guérite, its roof was cone-shaped with a decorative motif (fleur de lys?) crowning the whole. 

Outside the Dauphin bastion was the éperon which was built in 1735 at a total cost of over 12,500". Its principal function was to control clandestine enemy movement along the harbour's edge, and to flank the profile of the right face of the tenaille of the Dauphin gate. It had two faces, and mounted six guns. They faced the beach towards both the faubourg de la Porte Dauphine, and along the quay. A stockade extended beyond the éperon into deep water to further prevent pedestrian access to the town, thus channelling all traffic through the guard at the Dauphin gate. 

The plan 1734-1 suggests the face of the éperon was fifty-four pieds long, planked, the parapet, 5 1/2 pieds thick at the top. The structure had a total width of 40 pieds at the gorge, and 26 pieds at the tip. These measurements are not supported by documentary evidence, nor is there reference to items such as the banquette, the platforms, embrasures, etc.

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