Yachting Through History: Piracy, Trade, and the British
Virgin Islands
History in the British Virgin Island starts with the Carib
Indians, who had killed off most of the Arawak earlier inhabitants and were in
the Virgin Islands the day Europeans led by Columbus landed on its shores.
Columbus chose not to stay long, however, and his decision to move on led to an
international argument about who the Virgin Islands really belonged to, then
chaos, and then a rich piracy, privateer, and smuggler history. Exploring the history of the British Virgin Islands by
yacht, you're moving in the wake of pirates from the Golden Age on through the
much-later pirates of the early 18th century. One of the best places to
explore for piratical history is Norman Island, the probable inspiration for
Robert Louis Stevenson's immortal Treasure Island. On this island in the
southern tip of the Virgin Island archipelago you'll find all the piratical
features you might imagine: Spyglass Hill, sea caves accessible by boat,
welcoming open ports and coves, and for lunch Pirates Bight Bar and Restaurant,
clearly marked not with an X but with the word “Pirates” laid out in white
on the red roof. Dead Chest Island in Deadman's Bay, off Peter Island, is
probably the inspiration for the “15 men on a dead man's chest” song, also
from Treasure Island. Legend has it that Blackbeard marooned fifteen crewmen
on this dry and deserted shore with only a bottle of rum to sustain them; when
the desperate men tried to swim the wide strait across to Peter Island, they
were swept away by the current and drowned. Today, it's still dry and barren,
but it's also surrounded by excellent diving spots for snorkelers and scuba
divers. All around Tortola you'll find spots, mostly in ruins or
with only the foundations left, where forts were raised by Dutch and British
soldiers, and sometimes by the pirates themselves. The area passed from
Spanish to Dutch to British hands over and over throughout the two centuries
between about 1550 to 1750, finally winding up a British colony. Fort Recovery,
for instance, was first built by Dutch explorer Joost van Dyk (after whom an
island is named) to defend against possible Spanish incursions in the early
1600s. It was abandoned in 1672 when the British took the island, but then was
rebuilt in the late 1700s, when the British were worried about the newly-formed
United States and, later, Napoleon. Today, a two-story ruin is left, and Fort
Recovery Beachfront Villas dominates the shoreline instead of a hardened
fortress. Later, the history of Tortola and the British Virgin
Islands took a decidedly cruel turn, as slaves imported from Africa were made to
farm sugarcane throughout the islands. They toiled in the hot fields through
about the mid-19th century, when slavery was abolished in all British
territories. You can see a little of this history if you visit Sugar Mill Hotel,
which is built inside a 370-year-old sugar mill ruin, and much more in some of
the small museums in Road Town, Tortola. Piracy, war, slavery, and now a premier tourism spot for yachters and the preeminent financial market in the Caribbean – the British Virgin Islands have come a long way through history, and you'll feel it as you sail between the exotic islands, where pirates once navigated and wars were waged.
Click here to return to Tortola Yacht Charters from Tortola Yachting thru History.
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