Spanish Small Coastal Defense Fort (after Fortín de San Jerónimo de Boquerón)
Spanish Small Coastal Defense Fort (after Fortín de San Jerónimo de Boquerón)
Are you looking for a small but mighty Spanish fortress for your Age of Sail naval wargame board? We are proud to introduce our model Spanish Small Coastal Defense Fort patterned after historic Fortín de San Jerónimo de Boquerón.
Fortín de San Jerónimo de Boquerón which translates to “Little Fort of Saint Jerome at the Big Mouth (Inlet)” is a small fort (Fortín) located at the mouth (Boquerón) of the Condado Lagoon to the East side of San Juan Puerto Rico. The Lagoon controls access to the San Juan Inlet thus being one of only two ways to enter San Juan’s harbor. The other being past the formidable fortresses of Castillo El Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal. The fort is also known as Fort San Geronimo (a more English spelling)
It was built during the 18th century to replace a smaller battery originally called El Boquerón that was used by the Spanish to defend the city of San Juan from attacks by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and George Clifford, the third Earl of Cumberland in 1598, who managed to destroy it during his attack. After being rebuilt Fortín San Jerónimo became part of San Juan's eastern first line of defense, along with the Fortín San Antonio (south and west) and the Escambrón Battery (north and west).
Design and Kit Notes:
Sailpower author and Sea Dog Game Studios lead designer Brian Carnes, first saw San Jeronimo while staying at the wonderful Caribe Hilton on a family trip. He’s wanted to make a model of this fort ever since. (we are including some photos by Brian of the Fort from his 2017 trip in this listing). Brian has finally realized that goal with this fantastic little fort model!
This kit has an extensive gun sprue set that allows the builder to represent the fort as a more generic fort with 10 cannons on naval carriages, but also to reflect the Fortín as it would have appeared during any of the days of the British siege of 1797. In many cases Brian has provided double the guns needed to allow for a lot of alternate armaments as would make it more useful for wargamers looking to represent other generic forts and make it more flexible as a Sailpower game terrain piece.
As Brian was researching this project, he discovered the excellent work “San Juan 1797: Illustrated Compendium of the Great British Siege of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1797” by José E. López Reyes. This book, as of when we write this, is available as a free E-book at the National Digital Archive of Puerto Rico. This work is rather comprehensive, showing the siege in maps and renders for each day, and Brian was very captured by the plight of this little fort and its valiant defense of the city, thus chose to reflect his build of the prototype kit in the Dia/Day 5 defense configuration. He recommends the book highly to those interested in this fort and hopes to score a physical copy of the book when he next visits historic San Juan!
This kit is printed in FDM filament, with small parts in high resolution SLA resin. It contains small parts and comes unpainted
This model is natively modeled at 1MM to a foot (nominally 6MM scale) but plans are underway for a 3MM scale copy, and other scales may be available by special order. Watch this space for info on releases in other scales!
History:
Fortín San Jerónimo and Fortín San Antonio were pivotal in repelling the invasion by the forces of British Admiral Henry Harvey and Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1797. On April 17, 1797, their combined forces (Approximately 64 to 68 ships and 7,000 to 13,000 men) landed on a beach in Cangrejos, approximately three miles west of San Juan. San Juan's defenders were outnumbered by the invaders both in number, and in professional soldiers with many of the defenders being militia or other volunteers.
Admiral Harvey blockaded the San Juan Harbor while Abercromby established his operations headquarters in San Mateo parish overseeing all of San Juan and the Martín Peña Bridge. Abercromby's strategy was to take the Martín Peña bridge in order to block Spanish reinforcements from the south and bombard San Gerónimo and San Antonio from Miramar to gain access to and cross the San Antonio Bridge into the San Juan islet.
Over two weeks Governor of Puerto Rico Field Marshal Don Ramón de Castro y Gutiérrez, a brilliant strategist, prevented the British from advancing and frustrated their conquest of San Juan.
The San Gerónimo and San Antonio sustained heavy damage from the constant bombardment during the two-week siege on the city. Chronicles describe the defenders shooting their muskets and cannons from behind sandbags because of the devastation their forts sustained. After realizing the defenses of Sab Juan were much more effective than he had hoped for Lord Abercromby’s forces retreated and the British fleet left. Both San Gerónimo and San Antonio were eventually rebuilt and expanded.
This model features 3D printed parts: There are two types of 3D printed parts we use in our products. "FDM" is lower cost, and is what most would recognize as traditional 3D printing. This type of model printed in layers from thermal plastic (generally PLA or PETG), and is lightweight with reasonable detail but will have visible striation (or lines) that the hobbyist may want to clean up using putty, primer, or other hobby techniques. "SLA" is a laser cured photo-resin that has exceptional detail, and generally has a much smoother finish without significantly noticeable striation. This type of material is more expensive, and fine details can be more delicate. Some models may use either or both types of parts, and some models may have the ability for the buyer to select the print type under print options. These models are intended to be painted and may come in different colors.
