English: This plan of Prince Rupert’s Head (Fort Shirley), a military fort on the island of Dominica was made for the British Army in 1799. It shows precisely the location of every building and gun battery, and allows us to understand the geography of the mutiny of the 8th West India Regiment in 1802.

The main fort is located in the middle of the site, on the southern edge. Most of the white officers would have lived there. Ordinary soldiers, the black sergeants and corporals, were housed on the Outer Cabrit, the large hill (570 ft high) on the left of the image. The barracks were set out in rows, marked [5] for regular troops, and [4] for officers. During the mutiny some of the white officers hid on the Inner Cabrit, the other large hill (462 ft high) on the right of the image.

The only access road to the mainland was on the southern shoreline. The mutineers and the governor’s troops faced each other across the parade ground, in the middle of the image. Once the firing began, the mutineers tried to escape by climbing the Outer Cabrit, but on the other side there is a very steep drop to the sea. Anyone who tried to escape this way faced cannon fire from Royal Navy ships.

Part of a set of plans of Prince Rupert's Bay in the island of Dominica: showing ground allotted for the town of Portsmouth and soundings in the bay. Surveyed by Robert George Bruce and Nathan Minshall, Engineers, 1771. Scale: 1 inch to 1200 feet. Compass indicator.

Shelfmark: The National Archives, ref. MPHH 1/18/1