Like El Morro commands the entrance to San Juan harbor in Puerto Rico, Fort Rodney overlooks the entrance to Rodney Bay in St. Lucia.
Fort Rodney, named for British Admiral Rodney, was built in 1778 on Pigeon Island, two peaks that rise between the Atlantic Ocean and Rodney Bay. Located just 25 miles south of the French post at Fort Royal in Martinique, Rodney Bay "is the post the Governor of Martinique had set his eye on and if possessed by the enemy would deprive us of the best anchorage in these islands and from which Martinique is always attackable" Admiral Rodney wrote to the Admiralty back in England.
Barracks, cook houses, and other support buildings were built below. The heart of the fort was the gun battery on the lower of the two peaks commanding the entrance to the bay.
Three 24-pound cannons and two eleven-and-a-half inch mortars guarded the bay entrance.
Further up the ridge between the two peaks the fort's heaviest gun, a 32-pounder, could be turned from north to south to cover the St. Lucia Channel and Gros Islet Bay.
In 1781 Fort Rodney successfully held off a French invasion of Gros Islet.
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