The Cabrits headland is made up of the remains of a volcanic crater on the north-west coast of Dominica that protects Prince Rupert’s bay, the best anchorage on the island. The Cabrits derives its name from the Spanish, Portuguese and French names for goat. Sailors would leave pigs and goats to go wild on the headland so as to multiply to provide fresh meat on future visits to the bay. Later it was also called Prince Rupert’s Head after Prince Rupert of the Rhine who used the bay to repair and refresh his sailing ships in the 1650s.

The fortification of Prince Rupert’s began after the Treaty of Paris had ceded Dominica to Britain in 1763. The first small battery appears to have been erected in about 1765. Military engineers identified the site as a strategic post to defend the north of Dominica from the French and for the protection of the Royal Navy when on call to refresh its ships. Major work began under the governorship of Thomas Shirley 1774-1778. Construction of the garrison was a sporadic affair from 1774-1825 with intense work being carried out during periods of enemy threat particularly during the American War of Independence, The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

Although the Cabrits never saw action, it succeeded as being a deterrent to attack on a number of occasions particularly during the French invasions of Dominica in 1795 and 1805. The most important naval battle in the Caribbean, the Battle of the Saints, 12 April, 1782, was fought within sight of the ramparts and Fort Shirley was the scene of the famous revolt of the 8th West India Regiment in 1802.

Although the British undertook most of the construction, the French made significant additions during their occupation of Dominica 1778-1784. Together they amassed a garrison comprising one fort, seven gun batteries, seven cisterns, powder magazines, ordnance storehouses, barracks and officer’s quarters to house and provide for over 600 men on regular duty. With the end of hostilities between Britain and France, the garrison became obsolete and was finally abandoned in 1854. It remained in the hands of the British Admiralty until 1901 when it was transferred to the government of the colony and remained designated as Crown Land until being established as a National Park in 1986.

3000 BC – The first Amerindian people settle in the bay.

1493 - One ship of Columbus fleet on his 2nd Voyage enters the bay and sees dwellings and people.

1504 - Christopher Columbus sails past the Cabrits on his 4th Voyage.

1535 – The Spanish Council of the Indies declares this bay as a station for its treasure ships on their way out from Spain.

1565 – John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Richard Grenville and other privateers and pirates begin to use the bay to refresh their ships and trade with the Kalinago/Caribs.

1652 – Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin of King Charles I, uses the bay for repair and shelter. The bay is named after him.

1763 – Dominica is ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Paris.

1765 – First small gun battery erected on this site.

1774 – Major construction of Fort Shirley and Cabrits Garrison begins under Governor Sir Thomas Shirley with a workforce of 400 enslaved Africans.

1778 – French forces capture Roseau. The Cabrits Garrison surrenders also. Building work continues under the French.

1783 – Dominica returned to Britain by the Treaty of Versailles.

1782 – Battle of the Saints fought off of the Cabrits on 12th April.

1795 – French republican revolutionaries invade the north coast but are repelled by troops from the Cabrits.

1796 – West India Regiments, “The Black Regiments” formed and stationed at Cabrits.

1802 – The revolt of the 8th West India Regiment at the Cabrits.

1805 – Cabrits Garrison refuses to surrender to the French under General La Grange.

1854 – Fort Shirley and the Cabrits abandoned by the army. The forest takes over.

1982 – Restoration of Fort Shirley begins.

The Cabrits, Prince Bay and Douglas Bay form a capsule that contains a bit of everything that makes Dominica a spectacular example of tropical beauty. But there is a bonus, for upon the twin hills of the Cabrits lies Fort Shirley and the scattered 18th century garrison that tells us of the island’s history. Pre-Columbian farmers and warriors lived along the shore and some of the most famous adventurers anchored their vessels here. Revolts in the cause of liberty were fought and lost among the battlements.

This is an introductory booklet which was first published in 1982 to commemorate the Fort and Battle Bicentennial, 1782 – 1982. A more detailed version, Historic Prince Rupert’s Bay is in production.

From childhood I was made conscious of these details of nature and history which have continued to hold my fascination. It is important that the people of Portsmouth and of Dominica generally are aware of these unique features, and I hope that this booklet will encourage the maintenance of the National Park at the Cabrits and the development of Fort Shirley as a center for information and study on every aspect of Dominica’s natural and historical life, a sort of Institute of Dominica to be used by Dominica and visitors alike.

This new edition has been expanded to include colour photographs and a proposal outline. There is a great deal more to be told about the Cabrits and Prince Ruperts’s Bay but I trust that this little booklet will provide a nucleus for the production of more material on this interesting part of Dominica.

Prince Rupert’s Bay lies between two of Dominica’s largest mountain formations: the volcanic massifs of Morne Aux Diables to the north and Morne Diablotin to the south. Both are named after Diablotin birds which once inhabited the steeper slopes but became extinct because of over hunting by the French settlers.

The Bay is in fact formed by ridges running from these two mountains and by the alluvial deposits, the mud and rocks, washed down from the slopes. The flat land on which the town of Portsmouth stands is so low that in some places it is below sea level. This caused the formation of many swamps which were the greatest drawback to the settlement and development of the place. Malaria and Yellow Fever carried by the swamp mosquitoes made the area a notorious graveyard for European soldiers and coloniste. Not until the 1950’s did eradication campaigns free Portsmouth from this reputation, but by then the Portsmouth from this reputation, but by then the inferior port of Roseau was firmly established as the capital.

The mountains overlooking the Bay are of volcanic origin. Morne Aux Diables, The younger of the two massifs, still has sulphur springs near its summit and there are hot springs on the banks of the Picard River. One nearest the shore is shown on maps of 1768 as having a temperature of 105° F (40° C) and was recommended as a medicinal bath for ships’ crews. The twin hills of the Cabrits are the cones of extinct volcanoes similar in origin to Cashacrou or Scotts Head in the south. The hills were once a separate island until the flat isthmus of sand, coral and stone was formed by the action of the tides and ocean currents sweeping in from Douglas and Prince Rupert’s Bays.

Although the swamps along the Indian River, in Lagon and on the Cabrits isthmus have had their drawbacks, they provide some of the few examples of coastal swamp forest on the island. Mangrove forest is swamp forest which develops on land regularly in contact with salt water. Tree families such as Fabaceae and Clusiaceae which can tolerate these conditions are the most common. The widespreading stilt roots and ‘flying-buttress’ roots enable the plants to obtain oxygen from the air rather than from the waterlogged soil. The ferns, grasses, palms and other plants which grow along the rivers and at the Cabrits swamp all have their own specialized version of breathing roots.

In its natural state the mangrove swamp plays a vital role in the life cycle of many birds, insects, fish, crab crayfish families. The trees and these creatures in the early stages of life. The roots particularly are a veritable nursery for many water-based creatures. Herons, egrets and doves breed in the trees. The Cabrit hills are covered with the secondary growth of day deciduous coastal woodland. In the center of Douglas Bay lies a coral reef which is one kilometer long. The shore rises steeply into the tropical rainforest and streams tumble through the shady ravines and valleys into the two bays which provide some of the most magnificent tropical scenery in the world.

Prince Rupert’s Bay was an ideal setting for the pre-Columbian people of Dominica. It possessed all the requirements of the island-bases tribes who roamed the Caribbean from 5 000 BC: the sheltered bay, fresh water, reefs and fishing banks, land for cultivation and abundant forests bearing all the wood, thatch, bark, fruit and herbs which they needed for their self-sufficient existence. They called the bay Ouhayo and the island Waitoukoubouli.

Hardly any archeological study has made of the area, but through the years visiting experts and enthusiasts have picked up clues which indicate that settlements existing here following the pattern of other Amerindian habitation in the Lesser Antilles. When the Spaniards first reached Prince Rupert’s Bay, first without landing in 1493 and then more effectively in 1502, they found the area inhabited by Indians who spoke Cariban, a language, which like Arawakan, is widespread in eastern South America. The material culture of these people belonged to the final pre-Columbian age, or period of development, in the Caribbean area; that age is know as the Neo-Indian. This means that the Caribs, like the Arawaks on other islands, made pottery. They also knew the art of farming and were skilled mariners. It is probable that bays such as Prince Rupert’s were populated by man early as 5 000 BC. We know about the Arawaks from their finely decorated pottery chards and also from artifacts on other islands, but about the Caribs of Prince Rupert’s Bay we have the more definite reports of Spanish, French and British visitors who called here after 1493.

The Carib villages along the Bay were each made up of a small number of house with the carbet or communal longhouse in the midst of the dwellings. Reports indicate that these dwellings were on firm ground out of the reach of the swamps. Missionaries and other visitors in the 17th century described the giant carbet of the chief of Ouhayo on the bank of the Indian River.

This was a splendid site for a major village. The canoes entered the river from the sea, paddling up to the firm ground some 300 metres upstream. Here, surrounded by smaller dwellings was the longhouse of Ouhayo, the big meeting place where the men assembled. It was 40 to 50 metres long and could hold some 150 hammocks slung from the several stout posts supporting the roof. This vaguely oval building was thatched with cachibou leaves tied down with mahoe bark cord.

The men were the fishermen, hunters, warriors, boatbuilders and basket makers. The women’s work was plant, prepare and cook food. They also spun thread, wove hammocks and made clay vessels for holding food and liquid.

This pattern did not change as soon as a single Spanish caravel rounded the Cabrits point November 3, 1493, circled the bay and then sailed out again. Dominica, through the Caribs and its terrain, resisted colonization for a longer period than any other island of the Caribbean. Although many visitors called at Ouhayo during the next 250 years, the Caribs still held sway over the area until about the 1740’s.

Christopher Columbus only saw Dominica from a distance in 1493. It was not until June 18, 1502 that he actually visited the island, landing at “the Bay on the North-west Shore”. Dominica was a natural stopping place for ships during the age of sail, for the Trade Winds carried the vessels across the Alantic to the Dominica – Guadeloupe Channel. After weeks at sea the crews needed fresh water, wood for their stoves and fruit which they obtained from the Caribs. Warm springs on the banks of the Picard River also provided them with medicinal baths. Prince Rupert’s Bay was therefore a popular refreshment stop for the ships of all nations.

Pedro Arias de Avila called here in 1514 with 19 vessels and 1500 men and later suggested to the Spanish Council of the Indies that the island should be held by Spain for the purpose of refreshing crews no colonists settled here, but by 1535 the Board of Trade in Seville made the Bay an official dividing point for the treasure galleons on their way to Central America. In 1557 on of these convoys loaded with treasure was totally destroyed on the cliffs north of the Cabrits when it was caught in a hurricane on its homeward voyage.

As adventurers of other nations followed the Spaniards in their mad grab for the riches of the New World, visitors to the Bay increased. The French pirates or corsairs called often. In 1565 the English captain John Hawkins arrived with his first shipment of slaves bound for the flourishing Spanish colonies. The following year he was back again with his cousin Francis Drake. This famous “seadog” was at Prince Rupert’s Bay on his own in 1585 at the start of the plundering ‘Indies Voyage’. Another English adventurer Richard Grenville was here that same year. John White, the North American colonist, was here in 1590, and George Clifford, 3rd of Cumberland, called in 1596 and was entertained by the Carib chief of Ouhayo. Two of his captains then danced with the chief’s daughters, which was quite a social achievement:

The French sent the missionary Fr. Raymond Breton in 1642 who stopped off at Ouhayo on his way to live at Itassi (Vieille Case).

In 1652, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, nephew of Charles I was running away from the navy of Oliver Cromwell and found refuge in the Bay which bears his name. Another important soldier associated with the Bay was Lord Cathcart who died off Dominica in 1740 on his way to fight the Spaniards at Cartagena. A monument to his memory stands in Portsmouth and it is believed that he was buried beneath the mass of locally cut stone. By then French were beginning to settle the place and this caused the British to attack and eventually capture in 1759 the island which had hitherto been “neutral”.

When the Treaty of Paris in 1763 transferred Dominica to the British, Surveyors and engineers were quickly sent out to the island to lay plans for the towns, plantations and coastal defences. In August 1765 a portion of land at Prince Rupert’s Bay was divided into 206 lots separated by 23 streets with a large central square. On the eastern side of this were to stand the Courts of Justice, House of Assembly and Government offices. On the bank of the Indian River there was to be a market place and dockyard. The town was called Portsmouth and it was intended to be the capital of the colony.


This was a natural choice, for the Bay is an excellent harbour and the surrounding land slopes very gently. But it never became the capital for people who tried to settle there found it sickly and were forced to abandon it and move to Roseau. By 1771 it looked like a deserted village. In an effort to spur on development, Portsmouth was declared a free port in 1766 so that it could be used as a trading post for ships of all nations, but this did little to improve its importance.

The Royal Engineers who came out to establish the forts to defend the island against the French and other foreign forces noted the strategic importance of the Cabrits headland at once. From 1771 there hills, but building began in earnest late in that decade just before the French captured the island again. From 1778 to 1782, French engineers took over where the British had left off in the hope that they would hold the island permanently. But the Treaty of Versailles, influenced by the British victory at the Battle of the Saints, returned Dominica to the British. From then, until 1813, work on the Cabrits garrison was a start – and – stop affair. By the end of it, the British, employing rented slaves, white artisans, soldiers and engineers had covered the 200 acres with one fort, seven batteries, six cisterns, powder magazines, ordnance storehouses, barracks and officers’ quarters to house and provide for 500 men and a company of artillery with officers.

Lieutenant Charles Shipley of the Royal Engineers provided most of the plans, but the driving force behind the construction was General Thomas Shirley who served as Governor of Dominica and later of Antigua. He was insistent in the need for fortifications on the islands and on the Cabrits garrison Fort Shirley bears his name.

Stone was cut down the coast at Grand Savannah, boulders were carried, cannons hauled, land cleared and by the end of it all 35 cannons of various sizes were pointing seaward from the Cabrits waiting for the enemy.

In 1778, France joined forces with the 13 North American Colonies in their fight for independence from Britain. For the next five years the two most powerful naval fleets in the world were concentrated along the eastern coast of North America and in the Caribbean. Commanding them were the leading Admirals of the age. For France, Francois Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, and for Britain, Sir George Brydges Rodney.

In 1781 the British Navy suffered a fatal defeat at Chesapeake in North America, which led to the surrender of British power over the colonies and the eventual creation of the United States. The French were now determined to crush their old enemy in the Caribbean. If they could link with the Spanish and capture British Jamaica, then Dominica and the other captured islands could be held by France.

De Grasse collected his forces in Martinique and Rodney waited with his fleet in the north of St. Lucia. On 8 April 1782 De Grasse set sail for Jamaica and Rodney gave chase. Up the coast of Dominica sailed the two mighty fleets. The French sped ahead but the mountains of the island took the wind from the British sails and only the vanguard of the fleet led by Sir Samuel Hood could engage the French. Held back by this action and the collision of two of their ships, the French were forced into a position where they had to fight. At 8.00 am on 12 April the two long lines of ships sailed past each other in battle, their cannons pounding broadside across the water. They were positioned halfway between Dominica and the islets of Les Saintes.

Taking a chance, Rodney cut across the French line and this was repeated at another point thus breaking the French fleet into three scattered sections. By 6.30 pm De Grasse surrendered aboard his flagship Ville de Paris. This spectacular sea battle was clearly seen from the heights of the Cabrits and north coast of Dominica.

Taking a chance, Rodney cut across the French line and this was repeated at another point thus breaking the French fleet into three scattered sections. By 6.30 pm De Grasse surrendered aboard his flagship Ville de Paris. This spectacular sea battle was clearly seen from the heights of the Cabrits and north coast of Dominica.

By the end of the 18th century, military forces required in the Caribbean were causing a strain on the revenue of the islands, and disease was taking its toll of the British soldiers stationed in the region. At the Cabrits, fever and other ill effects of the climate caused the loss of many members of regiments stationed there.

To solve the problem of manpower for defence, the Colonial Government launched a plan for a Black West Indian Regiment since it was considered that Africans would better survive the climate. The local legislature was alarmed at the idea of having armed and trained black forces guarding the island, but the Colonial Office was insistent.

In 1795, the first group of slaves to be trained as soldiers was bought. Two years later Dominica received a new Governor, Andrew James Cochrane Johnstone. As Governor, he was Colonel-in-Chief of the 8th West Indies Regiment, one of the twelve regiments serving in the West Indies. By 1801 the 8th was well organized; some 500 men with Major John Gordon in command and Captains Carr, Cummins, Casson Cameron and Arbuthnot at the head of 100 men each. That same year they distinguished themselves in battle at St. Martin.

Governor Cochrane’s treatment of his men was however causing discontent. He set the men to work for his private use. They were put to dig fields, build the wall around Government House, work on his estate without pay and they were insulted when put to work clearing bush in the Cabrits swamp with cane bills, a tool they considered to be a badge of slavery. Food and clothing supplies were irregular and because of Cochrane’s swindling they failed to get the regular soldier’s allowance due to them.

On 9 April, 1802, when they could stand conditions no longer, the 8th West India Regiment revolted. They killed three officers, imprisoned the others, and took over Fort Shirley. On the following day, the man-of-war HMS Magnificent with marines on board arrived to restore order, but was fired upon by the mutineers. On 12 April Colonel Cochrane arrived from Roseau and entered Fort Shirley with the Royal Scots Regiment and the 68th Regiment.

The rebel troops were drawn up on the Upper Battery of Fort Shirley with three of their officers as prisoners, and presented arms to the other troops. When Governor Cochrane ordered them to shoulder, order and ground their arms, they obeyed. But on being commanded to step three paces forward the cry was “No!” and they resumed their arms and fired a volley. This was returned and followed by a charge of bayonets which broke their ranks, and a wild gun battle ensued at close range. Mutineers who tried to escape over the precipice to the sea were exposed to a fire of grape-shot and canister from Magnificent.

The court-martial that followed sentenced 34 of the rebels to hang. But an investigation into the conduct of Governor Cochrane began. He tried to shift the blame to his subordinate John Gordon, but after hearing the evidence the court acquitted Gordon and indicted the Governor himself. In March 1804, Cochrane faced four charges before another court-martial, this time in London. To the disgust of George III the prosecution failed, but the King ensured that Cochrane was never promoted and was made to resign his commission.

The revolt of the 8th West India Regiment was the only military action which occurred at the Cabrits. The garrison did however play an important role in the defence of Dominica on two other occasions.

In 1795 the Commissioner of the French Revolutionary Government in Guadeloupe, Victor Hugues, organized and attack on Dominica in the hope that he could capture the island with the assistance of sympathectic French inhabitants here. On 4 June, a party of about 800 revolutionaries landed at Pagua Bay in the north-east. British forces on the island were weak from malaria but the Governor, Henry Hamilton, sent two groups from the St. George Parish Militia with orders to proceed in opposite directions around the island until they had the enemy between them.

One detatchment went via Prince Rupert’s and joined regular soldiers from the Cabrits en routs along the north coast. On 12 June the forces met and there were several skirmishes until the 15th when the French began to withdraw. Prisoners taken during this action and French inhabitants who had taken part were imprisoned at the Cabrits. Five of the ringleaders were hanged and the 110 other were taken to England as prisoners of war.

Although the Cabrits saw no action with the enemy, its sheer size discouraged an attack in 1805. On 20 February, a French squadron of some nine ships under the command of General La Grange attacked and took the town of Roseau. Although the capital had fallen, the British Governor George Prevost was determined to hold the north of Dominica. He ordered his troops, the 46th Regiment and the 1st West India Regiment, to make forced marches across the island via Rosalie, then along the east coast and through the Carib Quarter, and to join him at the Cabrits.

With a few of his staff, and with help from the Caribs, Prevost made a dramatic twenty-four hour dash to Portsmouth. The troops made the difficult journey in four days. At the Cabrits, Prevost hastily put the fort in order. Cattle were driven in and the cisterns filled with water from the North River. On 25 February La Grange summoned the garrison to surrender. He reminded Prevost of the fate of Roseau, and urged him to accept honourable conditions of surrender. The Governor refused.

La Grange assessed the situation and, noting the formidable appearance of the garrison, returned to Roseau. There he demanded a ransom of £12 000 or he would take the members of the Legislature as hostages to Guadeloupe. The ransom was not forthcoming and he settled for half the amount but not before seizing everything of value he could lay his hands on. After hovering off the island for some days the squadron moved north and the last French attack on Dominica was over.

When Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815, the French threat to British possessions in the Caribbean was over. The sugar colonies were entering a decline and although a limited number of troops were kept stationed at garrisons such as the Cabrits, most of the buildings were out of use and rapidly fell into disrepair. Devastating hurricanes between 1813 and 1834, most notably that of 1825, hastened the ruin. Finally in July 1854 the Cabrits was abandoned as a military post and the regiments marched out for the last time.

The town of Portsmouth had seen little development since it had been established. For most of the 19th century it was no more than a fishing village and a center for the construction of inter-island sloops and schooners. Excellent timber was readily available, vessels were careened and new masts were stepped in the estuary of the Indian River.

At this time there was a great demand in North America for whale oil, the raw material for soap, candle-making and cooking oil. Whalebone was also required for many items from women’s corsets to buggy whips. New England was the center of the U.S. whaling industry and from the mid-19th century Yankee whalers used Prince Rupert’s Bay as a depot. One of the most famous whaling ships to use Portsmouth harbour was the Charles W. Morgan, (pictured here). It made its last whaling voyage out of Portsmouth in 1921 with a mainly Dominican crew, and can still be visited at Mystic seaport in Connecticut USA.

In the 1930s ships of the Canadian National Steamship Company called here to collect bananas. When the Geest Banana Company began operation in 1954 Portsmouth, Salisbury and Roseau were ports of call. Today, Portsmouth, through its depot at Longhouse, remains Dominica’s most productive banana port.The banana trade gave the town a much needed boost, but by then island commerce and government was firmly concentrated at Roseau. This lack of development and neglect over the years has created a “north versus south, Roseau versus Portsmouth” attitude to district affairs which is most marked in political matters and is always a subject of contention at election time.

The area has, however, produced its share of island leaders. Apart from at least three Ministers of government, there has been a Chief Minister, Frank a Baron, a Prime Minister, Roosevelt ‘Rosie’ Douglas and the second President of Dominica, Aurelius B. Marie. Bankers, educationists, farmers and most notably schooner captains born and brought up along the Bay have all contributed to island life.

One reason for despondency has been the failure of numerous schemes to develop the area, particularly the Cabrits. In the 1960’s the Sunday Island Free port Project, later Valhalla, then the Don Pierson Freeport fiasco as well as other unrealistic proposals raised and dashed hopes.
In the 1980’s certain small but significant projects began to take shape so that after two centuries of obscurity attention is slowly turning once again to Ouhayo, Grand Anse, Prince Rupert’s Bay.