Fort Drum 2009 August 14th

[Karl Welteke]

Friends
On the 14th of August 2009 a friend and I visited ex Fort Drum, on Fraile Island, the Concrete Battle Ship in Manila Bay. Because the gun barrels on the after 14 Inch turret dropped down, in, out of sight there might be some renewed interest in the ex fort.
Here is the URL where I placed most of my Fort Drum pictures, it has many sub albums:
s74.photobucket.com/albums/i265/PI-Sailor/Manila%20Bay%20Forts-Other/Fort%20Drum-Fraile%20Island/
The above link is active again as of 2011-08-23.

If you would like the URL to the most outstanding web page on Fort Drum, this is it:
www.corregidor.org/drum/contents.htm



If you are interested in the history of the American and Philippine defense of Manila Bay and its glorious recapture in 1945, you want to look at this most outstanding webpage:
www.corregidor.org/

Enjoy
Karl, the PI Sailor from Subic Bay

[fots2]

That was a good trip Karl. Lets get back to Fort Frank again.

[okla]

hey karl....this is really great stuff. betcha entering and exploring the interior of drum is a creepy experience. ghosts abound the place. methinks, fort drum and her smaller sister forts, hughes and frank, get forgotten in the larger and, i suppose, more glamorous shadow of their big brother, corregidor.

[Karl Welteke]

The original URL above was dead and is active again as of 2011-08-23. Here is the URL again where I placed most of my Fort Drum pictures, it has many sub albums:
s74.photobucket.com/albums/i265/PI-Sailor/Manila%20Bay%20Forts-Other/Fort%20Drum-Fraile%20Island/

Here are some sample pictures:

2005-01-21, Battery Marshall in back. My partner and I sitting on the edge of a bomb crater which is directly in front of Battery Wilson.


2006 in March with CDSG. Oooops, is he going in? It can be hairy getting on board the fort. He didn’t fall in, our Philippine helpers saved him.


Battery Wilson turret, inside 2009-08-14



Battery Wilson on ex Fort Drum as of the 14th of Aug. 2009. Recently both rifles have dropped back into the turret, casualty of scrapping and the rusting of steel over time.


Fort Drum, Fraile Island, Carabao Island and Cavite are in back. A RP Coast Guard Man was our escort, 2009-08-14
This was my 3rd time to Fort Drum on my own and just a few friends from Corregidor Island. This time we had to go thru a paper drill. This may be standard procedure now or it was a case where the Coast Guard wanted a free sight seeing trip. He shot as many pictures as we did. The Corregidor Hotel was forced to execute a non responsible form for us, we signed , the boat captain signed and the coast guard came along. It all happened as an after thought, maybe because the Coasties wanted to go along.

[Karl Welteke]

The sub albums of the above URL are mostly from my 2005 visit. But here is an album with no sub albums and are continuous 47 images.

On the 13th of Aug. 2009 a 'Good Weather Window' opened and 3 friends met on Corregidor, PFW, AJM and I. The next day the Manila Bay waters looked perfect for a visit to Fort Drum. We hired a boat via text from Cabcaben and off we went. One main purpose of this visit was to look at the aft 14 Inch turret, Battery Wilson, because it had become obvious that the barrels had dropped down recently.

Here is the album:
s74.photobucket.com/albums/i265/PI-Sailor/Manila%20Bay%20Forts-Other/Fort%20Drum-Fraile%20Island/Ft-Drum%202009-08-14/

Here are sample images:

Above Battery McCrea, double deck dual 6 Inch barrels, stbd side, looking forward. This is what blew up when the Army recaptured the fort in 1945.



In the Galley, the Army calls it kitchen, stbd of the mess decks, looking aft. The Officer Mess is in back.



Fort Drum, Battery Marshall, the forward 14 Inch Dual Turret. The boat crew member was my walking partner. That is how we enter the turrets on top.

[okla]

Hey Karl...Good stuff. Thanks for posting. As for certain members of this safari, I have never seen a more vicious appearing group of "cut throats". Cheers.

[westernaus]

Thanks Karl for the photos .
Like FOTS and a few others your photos are high ranking and those of us who cant make it to these different sites your time and efforts are much appreciated .
Looking at the concrete it is breaking down rapidly , like the structures on Corregidor and if some organisation doesnt initiate some type of restoration its all going to crumble away . I maybe wrong but spraying the concrete with silicon may give the concrete structures a few more years .

[okla]

Hey All....On re-reading my post of August 23, I want to emphasize that the "cut throats" of whom I referred were of the "Gringo" variety. Methinks the "native" members of this mission were in greater peril than they surely were aware. Cheers.

[xray]

Thanks for posting, very nice photo spread, and the captions help a lot.

Hard to believe that steel is in such short supply there that would make such a risky, laborious and time consuming venture profitable.
I mean, how much could one expect to get for the average rusted out I-beam?

[Karl Welteke]

FRAILE ISLAND 1909, COURTESY OF THE MACARTHUR MEMORIAL

Sometime the MacArthur Memorial, hosted by the City of Norfolk in Virginia send me a snippet as a personal favor because of my great interest in our Philippine-US historical relationship.

Here is an early image of Fraile Island in Manila Bay and I made two pictures out of it and posted them here in this album with the numbers M1 and M2:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Corregidor%20by%20subject/Historical%20Corregidor/MacArthur%20Memorial%20images?sort=9&page=1

The same two pictures are presented here but are much smaller.



W107 (M1) Fraile Island in Manila Bay is about to become Fort Drum, a survey, a planning team or an advance party has landed to convert the island to the CONCRETE BATTLE SHIP, FORT DRUM. This image is from the MacArthur Memorial.



W107a (M2) this is a close-up of image M1. Fraile Island in Manila Bay is about to become Fort Drum, a survey, a planning team or an advance party has landed to convert the island to the CONCRETE BATTLE SHIP, FORT DRUM. This image is from the MacArthur Memorial.