page_title: Harbor Defenses of Boston
section_title: Endicott period
hierarchical_section_title: Harbor Defenses of Boston / History / Endicott period
caption_attribution_description: English: Dans un fort, mortiers de gros calibre en usage dans l'armée américaine.
context_page_description: The Harbor Defenses of Boston was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command. It coordinated the coast defenses of Boston, Massachusetts from 1895 to 1950, beginning with the Endicott program. These included both coast artillery forts and underwater minefields. The command originated circa 1895 as the Boston Artillery District, was renamed Coast Defenses of Boston in 1913, and again renamed Harbor Defenses of Boston in 1925.
context_section_description: The Board of Fortifications was convened in 1885 under Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott to develop recommendations for a full replacement of existing coast defenses. Most of its recommendations were adopted, and construction began in 1892 on new forts to defend the Boston area. Two underwater minefields also guarded the harbor. Most of the forts were completed by the end of 1904, and the last fort was completed in 1907. The complex geography of the harbor area required seven forts to defend it, including the rebuilding of parts of Fort Warren on George's Island. The six new forts were Fort Banks and Fort Heath in Winthrop, Fort Strong on Long Island, Fort Andrews on Peddocks Island, Fort Revere on Point Allerton in Hull (on the site of the Revolutionary War's Fort Independence), and Fort Standish on Lovells Island. The heavy weapons were as follows: Fort Banks had sixteen 12-inch (305 mm) mortars in the "Abbot Quad" configuration (four pits in a square with four mortars per pit) to concentrate their fire; it was the first mortar battery of the Endicott program completed. Nearby Fort Heath had three 12-inch guns on disappearing carriages. Fort Strong had five 10-inch (254 mm) disappearing guns while Fort Andrews had sixteen 12-inch mortars with the pits in an open-back line to improve reloading. Fort Warren was rebuilt with two 12-inch and five 10-inch disappearing guns, Fort Revere had two 12-inch guns on barbette carriages, and Fort Standish had four 10-inch guns.  Medium-caliber weapons included two 4.72-inch (120 mm) Armstrong guns at Fort Strong, two 6-inch (152 mm) guns and two 5-inch (127 mm) guns at Fort Andrews, six 6-inch guns and two 5-inch guns at Fort Revere, and five 6-inch guns at Fort Standish. Smaller weapons were also provided to defend the minefields against minesweepers; these were primarily several models of 3-inch (76 mm) guns with an odd pair of 4-inch (102 mm) guns at Fort Warren.
  As the new forts entered service, by 1908 Forts Independence and Winthrop (which had a magazine explosion in 1902) were removed from use.
  The battery of two 4.72-inch (120 mm) Armstrong guns at Fort Strong was among many hastily added following the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898. Most of the Endicott batteries were years from completion, and it was feared the Spanish fleet would bombard the US east coast. In 1917, during World War I, these guns were transferred to Sachuest Point in Middletown, Rhode Island and removed from service in 1919, shortly after the war ended. One is preserved as a memorial in Ansonia, Connecticut.
  In 1909 a vast landward defense system was proposed for the Boston area, 70 miles long with its ends at Lynn and Hingham, but none of it was built.
  In 1910 four M1890 12-inch (305 mm) mortars were removed from Fort Andrews and sent to the Philippines; two of these survive at Battery Geary, Fort Mills, Corregidor. These weapons saw action in the Japanese invasion in 1941-42. At Fort Andrews they were replaced by M1908 mortars in 1913.
  In 1911-12 eight of Fort Banks' sixteen M1886 12-inch (305 mm) mortars were replaced with M1890 mortars; the remainder were replaced in 1915. Also, in 1912-13 the fort's structure was largely replaced due to inferior concrete, and the magazines were expanded.
  In 1914 a one-gun 10-inch (254 mm) battery at Fort Warren was disarmed and abandoned due to inferior concrete; this was Battery Jack Adams inside the stone fort.
caption: 12-inch mortar pit, similar to installations at Fort Banks and Fort Andrews.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}