Fort Drum (El Fraile Island)

Fort Drum
El Fraile Island
Part of Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays
Near Cavite City in Manila Bay in the Philippines
Fort Drum in 1983, with the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) in the background
Fort Drum Location in the Philippines
Coordinates	14°18′18″N 120°37′50″E / 14.30500°N 120.63056°E / 14.30500; 120.63056Coordinates: 14°18′18″N 120°37′50″E / 14.30500°N 120.63056°E / 14.30500; 120.63056
Type	Island-fort
Height	Top deck is 40 ft (12 m) above water at mean low tide
Site information
Open to the public	No
Condition	Ruins
Site history
Built	1909–1914
Built by	United States Army
In use	1945
Materials	Reinforced concrete
Battles/wars	Battle of Corregidor (1942) Battle of Corregidor (1945)
Events	World War II

Fort Drum (originally known as El Fraile Island), also known as "the concrete battleship," is a heavily fortified island situated at the mouth of Manila Bay in the Philippines, due south of Corregidor Island. The reinforced concrete fortress shaped like a battleship was built by the United States in 1909 as one of the harbor defenses at the wider South Channel entrance to the bay during the American colonial period. It was captured and occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and was recaptured by the U.S. after igniting petroleum and gasoline in the fort, leaving it permanently out of commission.

The now abandoned fort was named after Brigadier General Richard C. Drum, who served with distinction during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War and died on October 15, 1909, the year of the fort's construction. The island and the other former harbor defenses of Manila Bay fall under the jurisdiction of the City of Cavite in Cavite province.

The Board of Fortifications chaired by William H. Taft recommended that key harbors of territories acquired by the United States after the Spanish–American War be fortified. Consequently, El Fraile Island was fortified and incorporated into the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays.