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 sea fort 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 unique among forts built by the United States between the Civil War and early World War II, both as a sea fort and in having turrets. It was captured and occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and was recaptured by the U.S. after U.S. forces ignited petroleum and gasoline in the fort, leaving it permanently out of commission. Sixty-eight Japanese soldiers perished in the blaze. It took the U.S. soldiers days before they could even go into the fortress because of the heat. 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.
