A Bit of a Tussle

Another night of sleep challenge.  Stay with me on this.  As the Bear and I took a ride up the coast, we came upon Fort Caroline.  Nawh, this is not a third system fort but one which was put in place to basically tick off King Philip II of Spain in the 1500's.  Here is the deal:  as previously noted, Espana sent some dudes off to find and settle the "New World", not to mention perhaps plundering same for a few tons of gold and silver from the Incas and anyone alleged to have the stuff anywhere else.  The French, being somewhat jealous and equally as greedy, decided to mirror Spain's efforts and perhaps beat them to the punch and the added benefit was to be the religious redoubt of the Huguenots, a group of outcasts in the old world.   At the time the Spanish had a very sturdy fort in St. Augustine and thought themselves to be alone in the New World.  Columbus fell a bit short of being a player in this play.  Unknown to them was the fact that old King Charlie IX had his eye on the prize.

Not to get too deep here, the French decided, with the knowledge of the Gulf Stream that the Spaniards, having stolen the gold and silver of the Incas in Mexico and points south, would need to ride the "stream" north of here before making the turn to Europe.  If they put a fort close to the "stream" they could "day trip" out there and thump the  fleet and take the goodies.  Seemed like a good idea at the time---- not.

French Fort Caroline

Seems that with a way better fort and way more resolve, the Spanish had the upper hand.  The French put up a whimpy fort made of dirt and wood on the St. Johns river some thirty miles north of St. Augustine.  When the Spaniards learned of that little endeavor, they decided to rid themselves of those pesky French.  They went defcon and whipped out a can of whupasse by the name of Admiral Menendez, one bad General Patton type of guy.  In September old Menendez took a few hundred troops north and smote the French, killing all but a few dozen women and children and also sparing anyone claiming to be Catholic.  They took no mercy on the musicians (actually mentioned in a narrative).  Methinks the sparing of the women might not have been purely humanitarian.  There were a few back and forths in this tragedy play  but the bottom line is that the French, with a whimpy fort, little resolve and some really beautiful but nonfunctional cannons managed to get several hundred dudes and dudettes along with some loyal Timucuan Indians (Native Americans) dusted.  Fort Caroline is still there, faithfully recreated by the National Parks Service.  The Fort at St. Augustine stands as proof that the dog with the bigger teeth will win the fight.

Inside the French fort

Looking up river on the St. Johns toward Jacksonville

Not long from now we will sail past the biggest dawg in the pound, the boomer pins in Kings Bay.  For those that need some clarification, a boomer is an SSBM, submarine, ballistic missile.  How's that for a really cool big dawg thing?  Kinda don't see Spain or France in the picture any longer.