After having breakfast with some of the Coastal Amateur Radio Society crew yesterday morning, I drove roughly hour and a half from Savannah up to the Port Royal Sound area of South Carolina to visit the Fort Fremont Preserve on St Helena Island. It's a place that I've had on my want to visit list for several years, but since their visitors center is only open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and I work most weekends, I hadn't yet found the opportunity to visit. Since I was off, had no plans, and the weather was beautiful, I made a last minute decision to visit. On the radio side of things, it was a beneficial visit because it uncovered a flaw in my radio programming.
Radio
Amateur Radio-wise, it was a disappointing trip. I threw out my callsign on several repeaters in the Bluffton and Beaufort areas (including the PRN DMR repeaters) and drew nothing in response. I didn't even hear any activity on the area repeaters other than repeater IDs. On the way back in to Savannah, I tried putting my callsign out on Savannah area repeaters once I got in range with the same results.
Overall, it wasn't a particularly active radio day (although partly, it was my fault...) I didn't catch any MilCom traffic other than the USMC TRS site at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island (which is all encrypted), but there was plenty of general aviation and commercial aviation traffic on VHF airband frequencies. On the FedCom side of things, while I never heard anything on Marine VHF Ch 21 (I was surprised I didn't hear any USCG Auxiliary traffic), there was some traffic on USCG Rescue 21 frequencies. Public Safety is where I uncovered a flaw in my radio programming; somehow I overlooked programming the Beaufort County Palmetto 800 simulcast site into my radios (this is being remedied), so I never heard any Beaufort County public safety traffic. All I caught during the whole afternoon was Jasper County traffic.
118.975 - Hilton Head Airport Tower
122.700 - Beaufort Executive Airport
125.125 - Beaufort Approach/Departure
120.700 - Charleston TRACON
124.075 - Jax Center Summerville High
126.125 - Jax Center Statesboro High
127.875 - Jax Center Aiken High
132.925 - Jax Center Allendale/Savannah Low
133.450 - Jax Center Florence Low
133.625 - Jax Center Georgetown High
134.375 - Jax Center Charleston Low
USMC TRS (MCRD Parris Island site)
TG 9401 - MCAS Beaufort Unknown
TG 1517 - MCRD Parris Island Training
TG 3501 - MCRD Parris Island FD/EMS
TG 5501 - MCRD Parris Island Unknown
TG 5513 - MCRD Parris Island Unknown
TG 7501 - MCRD Parris Island Range?
156.8000 - Marine VHF Ch 16
157.1000 - Marine VHF Ch 22
163.1375 ($293) - CG 113, Station Tybee
413.0000 ($293) - CG 410, Sector Charleston Air Ops
159.2475 (DCS 115) - SCFC Okatie
Palmetto 800
TG 6541 - Jasper County FD Dispatch
TG 6542 - Jasper County FD Tac 1
Fort Fremont
My visit to Fort Fremont Preserve was an informative one; until I saw a local news story about it a few years ago, I wasn't even aware of its existence and until I visited it yesterday I wasn't familiar with Port Royal's history as a navy base after the Civil War. Port Royal Sound is the deepest natural harbor on the US east coast south of New York, so by the 1890s, it had become the home of a significant US Navy base: Naval Station Port Royal, South Carolina on Parris Island, now home to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. By 1895, Naval Station Port Royal was home to the largest dry dock in the United States and was an important coaling station for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. During the Spanish-American War, the Naval Station was a key base supporting US Navy activity in the Cuban theater of the war. When the United States began improving its coastal defenses in the 1880s, the Endicott Board initially left Port Royal off the list of locations to get coastal defense forts, but the advent of the Spanish-American War in 1898 brought the realization that Naval Station Port Royal was open to attack from the sea without protection from coastal defenses. Congress allocated funds to build a fortification on St Helena Island to protect the Naval Station and when completed in 1899, it became Fort Fremont (named after Republican presidential candidate and Civil War Union General John C. Fremont).
Fort Fremont consisted for two batteries, Battery Jesup and Battery Fornance, with support and maintenance buildings to the north of the batteries on a 170 acre site. The Beaufort County park, Fort Fremont Preserve, has a small part of that 170 acres just around the batteries; the rest of what was once the fort is now privately owned land. Battery Jesup is the larger battery and housed three 10-inch breech loading disappearing guns. Battery Fornance is the smaller battery and housed two 4.72-inch breech loading guns. Battery Jesup was the main battery that protected the Naval Station from attack by an enemy fleet. Battery Fornance protected a manually detonated minefield in the sound that provided additional protection to the Naval Station. Both batteries are of concrete construction with earthen berms on their beach side.
In 1901, the Naval Station at Port Royal was moved to Charleston and Fort Fremont lost its reason for existence. Eventually it would be manned by caretaker detachments from Fort Screven on Tybee Island, GA and it was abandoned in 1920. Over time, the batteries were grown over with maritime forest (which creates a lot of shade for visiting the park). In 2004, Beaufort County bought the land around the batteries and created Fort Fremont Preserve. The History Center/Visitors Center was built in 2021. The Friends of Fort Fremont maintain interpretive signage, man the History Center and provide tours, and help maintain and keep the batteries clean.
If you're interested in Lowcountry, SC history, US Navy History, or the history of the Spanish-American War, Fort Fremont Preserve is a great place to visit. I'd recommend visiting on a Friday, Saturday, and or Sunday when the History/Visitors Center is open; the park is open on other days but the staff are only there when the History/Visitors Center is open and they do a great job of presenting the history of the fort and it's place in history.
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| The History/Visitors Center at Fort Fremont Preserve |
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| Model of the drydock at Naval Station Port Royal |
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| Cutaway Model of one of the gun emplacements at Fort Fremont's Battery Jesup |
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| Model of the 10-inch guns that were employed at Fort Fremont's Battery Jesup |
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| 10-inch gun practice round found in Port Royal Sound and restored |
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| Battery Fornance at Fort Fremont |
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| Battery Fornance at Fort Fremont |
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| The top of Battery Fornance at Fort Fremont |
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| The shore side of Battery Jesup at Fort Fremont |
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| The beach side of Battery Jesup at Fort Fremont |
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| The top of Battery Jesup at Fort Fremont |
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| Looking down into one of the 10-inch gun emplacements at Fort Fremont's Battery Jesup |
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| Battery Jesup at Fort Fremont |
Chapel of Ease, St Helena Island
On the way home from the Fort Fremont Preserve, I stopped at something I saw on the way there - the Chapel of Ease ruins on St Helena Island. The Chapel of Ease was built in the early 1740s to serve the parishioners of the Church of St Helena in Beaufort who lived on St Helena Island. The church of ease made it easier for them to attend church services due their distance from the church in Beaufort. Following the American Revolution, it became it's own church and was known as the "White Church" due to the appearance of its tabby construction. It was abandoned during the Civil War and stopped being used when it was burned during a forest fire in 1886.
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| Chapel of Ease ruins on St Helena Island |
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Chapel of Ease ruins on St Helena Island
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Chapel of Ease ruins on St Helena Island
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