Home School History Pirates 101
14 November 2008 | El Morro Fort San Juan Puerto Rico
We had planned a trip to the old forts of San Juan for a while and with Jeans determination we made this trip.
The forts have been here since the early 1500's. This fort made San Juan impenetrable and a safe haven for the Spanish treasure fleets preparing for the long voyage back to Spain.
The original tower was constructed only 38 years after Columbus discovered the new world. Growing with time Spain spent a large fortune maintaining it and the troops that guarded its walls.
There is a dungeon where condemned prisoners sketched the ships they had served aboard on the walls. The sketches remain there a testament to their last days alive in that dank hole under the fortress.
But, forts are more than stone and guns. The kids learned that El Morro has a 200,000 gallon cistern fed by rainwater from the rooftop by drainpipes. That the sentry towers, a national symbol of Puerto Rico, were constructed to provide the watchers shelter from more than just the weather.
We learned that the guns on the Santa Barbara deck were able to shoot over a mile. And we learned that gunners had named the deck after their patron Saint. We explored the bowels of the fort to find remains of a shell from an American warship fired during the Spanish / American war.
And we learned that during that war the original lighthouse was damaged by an American ship and then Rebuilt by the US navy in later years. Lastly we learned that the nation has a deep sense of historic pride and this is why not only the US and Puerto Rican flags fly here but the ancient Spanish Army flag with it's red cross on a white background waves as well.