Prince of Wales Fort

This fort began as a log fort built in 1717 by James Knight of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and was originally called the Churchill River Post. In 1719, the post was renamed Prince of Wales Fort. It was located on the west bank of the Churchill River to protect and control the HBC's interests in the fur trade.[2]

The original wooden fort was replaced by a massive stone fort, probably to abide by the Royal Charter which required that Rupert's Land should be fortified.[3]

Construction of this fort was started in 1731 near what was then called Eskimo Point. It was in the form of a square, with sides 90 m (300 ft) long and walls 6 m (20 ft) tall and 9 m (30 ft) thick at the base.[3]

It had forty-two cannon mounted on the walls.[3] The cannon were massive, some weighing as much as 2,500 kg (5,500 lb), built to fire nine, eighteen and 24-pound balls.[4] There was also a battery across the river on Cape Merry meant to hold six more cannon.

In the 1780s, the French government launched a Hudson Bay expedition to damage HBC activities in that bay. Three French warships of the expedition, led by Jean-François de La Pérouse, captured the Prince of Wales Fort in 1782. The fort was manned by only 39 (non-military) men at the time, and the fort's governor, Samuel Hearne, recognised the numerical and military imbalance and surrendered without a single shot being fired. The French partially destroyed the fort, but its mostly-intact ruins survive to this day.

The fort returned to the HBC in 1783. Thereafter, its importance waned with the decline in the fur trade although the post was refounded a little way up the river.

Map of Prince of Wales Fort prepared in black ink by R.I. Ruggles, from original manuscript (map G. 1/19) in the Archives, Hudson's Bay Company, London.

Opposite the fort across the mouth of the Churchill River is Cape Merry Battery. The battery was named for former HBC Deputy Governor (1712-1718) Captain John Merry (1656-1729).[5] The fixed battery was built three times. The first was built sometime after 1718 and featured a wall protected by cannon(s) and powder magazine.[5] Only remaining parts are the ruins of the door of the magazine and parts of the wall. A second battery was built in 1747 further south and away from the river due to concerns that the first battery could be used to attack the fort.[5] A third was rebuilt in 1959-1960 from second as a restoration process.[5] The battery today has a single cannon.