The British Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and north-west of Anguilla. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles and part of the West Indies.
Country Code: +1284
International Call Prefix: 011
The History of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:
Anegada is the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It lies approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Virgin Gorda. Anegada is the only inhabited British Virgin Island formed from coral and limestone, rather than being of volcanic origin. While the other islands are mountainous, Anegada is flat and low. Its highest point is only about 28 feet (8.5 m) above sea level, earning it its name, which is the Spanish term for the flooded land, "tierra anegada".
Norman Island is an island at the southern tip of the British Virgin Islands archipelago. It is one of a number of islands reputed to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate novel Treasure Island.
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of 55.7 square kilometres with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in Road Town. Mount Sage is its highest point at 530 metres above sea level.
RMS Rhone was a UK Royal Mail Ship owned by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSP). She was wrecked off the coast of Salt Island in the British Virgin Islands on 29 October 1867 in a hurricane, killing 123 people. She is now a popular Caribbean wreck dive site.
Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, previously known as Beef Island Airport, is the main airport serving the British Virgin Islands, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. The airport serves as the gateway to just about all of the islands within the BVI. The airport is also a gateway for inter-Caribbean travelers headed to the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands. Many travellers fly into Beef Island, with the intention of taking a ferry to the other smaller British Virgin Islands. The airport is located on Beef Island, a small island off the main island of Tortola, to which it is connected by the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.
Virgin Gorda Airport is an airport on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom.
Salt Island is one of the islands of the archipelago of the British Virgin Islands located about 4.7 miles south east of Road Town, the main town on Tortola. It is named after its salt ponds, which were once an important resource.
Piracy in the British Virgin Islands was prevalent during the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy", mainly during the age of 1690-1730. Privateering was also widely practised in the jurisdiction throughout frequent colonial wars, not least by emancipated slaves who, with in preference to back-breaking labour in the fields for pitiful wages, took enormous risks to capture fortunes on the seas with the sanction of the Crown. In 1808, Patrick Colquhoun, a prize agent for the Territory spoke of "the most daring outrages which are frequently committed by people of colour."
Great Tobago is an uninhabited island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, located, along with sister island Little Tobago, approximately six miles west of Jost Van Dyke. The Tobagos are the westernmost of the British Virgin Islands. At 210 acres (85 ha) in size, it is surrounded by steep cliffs that also extend below the water. Since the 1990s, Great Tobago, Little Tobago islands, and nearby Mercurious and Watson Rocks are protected as part of the National Parks Trust.
Little Tobago is an uninhabited island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, located, along with sister island Great Tobago, approximately six miles west of Jost Van Dyke. The Tobagos are the westernmost of the British Virgin Islands.
Dog Islands are a small group of islets among the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
Cooper Island, formerly known as Bergen Island under Sweden-Norway administration until 1905 is a small island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. There are five privately owned properties on the island, plus a small beach club resort. Cooper Island Beach Club has 12 hotel rooms, a restaurant, rum bar, coffee shop, solar powered brewery, and gift shop. Facilities are open to guests, day visitors and yachts using the nearby moorings. Manchioneel Bay features 30 mooring balls that accommodate vessels up to 60 feet.
British Caribbean Airways was a short lived airline, which in 1986 operated a single BAe 146-100 jet aircraft from Miami, Florida, to Tortola, British Virgin Islands, with an intermediate stop at Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands. The British Caribbean flights into Tortola marked the only time this small airport in the BVI had scheduled passenger jet service.
The colony of the British Virgin Islands has issued its own stamps since 1866. The first Post Office was opened in Tortola in 1787. At the time postage stamps were not yet invented, and it was not until 1858 that a small supply of adhesive stamps issued by Great Britain depicting Queen Victoria were utilized by the local Post Office. These stamps were cancelled by an A13 postmark and are extremely rare so cancelled.
BVI Airways is a defunct airline of the British Virgin Islands. Its headquarters were located at its hub at Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport serving the territory's main island of Tortola with the capital, Road Town. It suspended inter-island operations in late 2014, shortly after a change of ownership to concentrate on a non-stop schedule directly to the United States. The company slogan was Your Caribbean Airline.
Air BVI was an airline which operated and was based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Founded in 1971, in 1975 it significantly added capacity to its fleet with the introduction of two Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Air BVI primarily flew between the Beef Island Airport (EIS) on Tortola and Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, providing connecting flights to and from major air carriers serving San Juan in order to enable tourists to visit the British Virgin Islands as well as providing transportation for local BVI residents and also served other destinations in the BVI such as Anegada and Virgin Gorda.
VI Airlink is an airline from the British Virgin Islands, with its license issued under the British Overseas Territory's air requirements. It is the only Airline with airplanes registered in the B.V.I. It operates mostly chartered short-haul flights throughout the Caribbean from its base at Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport on Beef Island, using a fleet of three aircraft.
