Fort de Rocher

[roytheodd]

I have been trying all day to find Fort de Rocher on Google Maps, but I have turned up empty. I've done searches on all sorts of search engines, but the best I've found are illustrations of the fort without any surrounding terrain for context, the phrase "the French built Fort de Rocher in a natural harbour", and the phrase "He built the Fort de Rocher on a rocky outrcrop of a natural harbour." I have found zero photos of it, zero maps of Tortuga that show any real detail, and found zero descriptions of where to find it. Does anyone here know where to look for Fort de Rocher, Tortuga?

[PirateQueen]

The port is Cayonne, on the south coast toward the east end of the island, not far from Basse-Terre, across the channel from Saint-Louis-Du Nord. All that remains of the fort are its masonry foundations, on a hillside above Basse-Terre.

The picture you've probably seen is this one:

I've not seen any others, on the Internet, at least.

[roytheodd]

Thanks PirateQueen!

The name Cayonne provided me with a major breakthrough. Before your post I had heard of Port Vincent, Colonie, and Basse Terre. Searching with "Cayonne" in my string led me to some seriously good maps. I have positively found the port, and I now know the hillside where the ruins remain. I don't have a specific location, but I have it narrowed pretty finely. I have generated a Wikipedia page about the fort using data that I found in my search. Thank you very much for tossing out the name Cayonne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_de_Rocher

I have plotted what I know on a Google Map. The clues that I amassed in my search are:

* the fort overlooks the harbor

* cannons of the day have a maximum range of about one mile (meaning the fort was within one mile of the harbor)

* the fort was attacked from above (meaning it's not on the hillcrest, but rather on the side)

* the natural spring once inside the fort is now used by Basse Terre locals for washing laundry (meaning it's not so high up the hillside that people won't visit it)

* in every picture I have seen of the fort it is directly above the port, narrowing the search to a lesser east-west width

the Google Map

If anyone knows anything else that can get the search to an even more specific location I would be thrilled to know it too!