Mortar plotting rooms
Fort Worden, HD Puget Sound
A.M.T.B. btry Ft. Flagler.

The plotting bunker for the mortar batteries was built between Battery Brannan and Battery Powell as part of the original construction project. It was replaced by the newer plotting rooms built in 1915 and used for storage until the early 1940s when it was refitted to serve as a temporary Harbor Defense Command Post. The modifications made for the HDCP included blocking off part of the corridor with wooden partitions thus creating a 'Protector room' which held a pair of Chemical Warfare Service, or CWS, air filters and also served as an air lock.

The complex consists of four rooms, a latrine and a ladder shaft that goes up to an observation station, all connected by a corridor running down the middle. The two rooms to the east each have a small vent hole, about two feet square, that connect to rooms in Battery Brannan. All of the other rooms had vent shafts to the surface.

As I don't have any details for the structure dating to the plotting room era, I have referred to the rooms by the 1940s HDCP designations.




The main door.
March 2002
Looking south in the corridor.
Looking north in the corridor.






Rooms #1 and #2


The northeast corner of room #1.
The southwest corner of room #1.
The northeast corner of room #2.
The southwest corner of room #2.
Looking west in room #2.
January 2002
Looking east out of room #2.
March 2002
The southeast corner of room #1.
The northwest corner of room #1.
Looking east out of room #1.
March 2002
The southeast corner of room #2.
The northwest corner of room #2.






Rooms #3 and #4


The southeast corner of room #3.
January 2002
The northwest corner of room #3.
The northeast corner of room #4.
The southwest corner of room #4.
Light fixture in room #4.
The southwest corner of room #3.
The northeast corner of room #3.
The southeast corner of room #4.
The northwest corner of room #4.
Two square wooden panels with gaskets around the outsides, possibly the gasproof covers from the room #3 and #4 vent holes.






CWS room


Looking south into to the CWS room.
March 2002
Looking south in the CWS room.
January 2002
Remains of one of the blowers.
Looking south at the inside of the main door.
March 2002
Looking north in the CWS room.
March 2002
Detail of the pressure relief valve above the CWS room door.
Looking north at the CWS room.






Latrine


Looking south at the doors to the latrine(left) and CWS room(right).
Looking west in the latrine.
Looking east in the latrine.






Observation station


Looking north at the door way to the ladder shaft.
A transformer in the ladder shaft, possibly from the HDCP refit.
Looking east at the observation station.
March 2002
Looking up the ladder shaft.
Looking west in the observation station.
March 2002









RCWs
Form 2November 5, 1943



Access info:
The plotting rooms are part of Fort Worden State Park and are open to the public.

The only way in is through one of the vent holes from Battery Brannan, as the ladder shaft and the main doors are both welded shut. The vent in the tool room of btry Brannan has a few old crates to clime up on that makes things a bit easier, but it's still a tight fit.



All photos from Sep 2003, unless otherwise noted.


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