Ft Adams by Kate

Hi it’s Kate again. I just wanted to write about Fort Adams. Well, it started out just being a normal day on Sunday July 8^th, well almost as normal as a day could get. On that Sunday morning we were going to go to the Tall Ships Parade. We sat down on the flat red rocks, and we saw the ships come out of the harbor to where their starting point was. We waited and waited and they still did not come around in parade form. We played 20 guesses, and we started getting a little too silly for my mom and dad to handle, so we decided to take a walk. We wandered around a while and soon discovered we were starving. We bought 5 hotdogs and sat down to eat. But Before that we had purchased tickets to go see a fort, that fort was Fort Adams. Before I had taken even one bite of my hotdog, my dad said that it was time to go, I scarfed down my hotdog and ran to the gift shop (The start of the tour). When we started the tour, our tour guide introduced himself, and told us a little history of Rhode Island before we began. We got to go into the main officers quarters, we also got to go in the powder chamber which is where they stored all the gun powder (They didn’t have any medal in that room so there wouldn’t be any sparks), we got to go where they put the cannons, and we got to take flashlights into an underground tunnel (the soldiers way of fast communication). That part was the most fun out of all of it. The tour was over before I knew it, and I was so sad. We had to go back to the boat after that and that was the end of the almost perfect day.

Some facts that I learned about Fort Adams:

·      Fort Adams is the biggest fort in all of America.

·      You can fit 3 large forts inside it.

·      They had lots of sources of entertainment at the fort such as a bowling ally, a shooting range, and a movie theater.

·      In the powder chamber, the gunpowder was stacked from ground level to ceiling top.

·      The East Gate was the main entrance.

·      There is dirt on the fort roof so cannonballs wouldn’t crack the fort.

·      The listening Tunnels were used to allow defenders to listen for and destroy enemy tunneling operations.

·      The listening tunnels were 5ft. and got to the point where they were 4 ft. 6”.

Huge flag hanging on the fort wall

Kid Fact:  "On board US Navy sailing warships in the early 1800's it was common to find boys aged 8-14 serving as powder monkeys, cooks assistants, and even midshipmen!"

HMS Bounty