Like many of the neighboring islands, it is volcanic in origin and mountainous. The highest point on the island is Majohnny Hill at 321m (1,053ft).
History
17th-century Dutch privateer, Joost van Dyk,[3] an early Dutch settler and former pirate who used Jost van Dyke's harbours as a hideout, may be the name sake of the island. However, factual evidence for this is not available.
Although the English captured the BVI in 1672, it seems that Jost Van Dyke was mostly ignored until the mid-18th century. A map drawn of the BVI in 1717 by Captain John Walton does not depict either Jost Van Dyke or Little Jost Van Dyke.[4]
The remains of sugar works on the ridge above Great Harbour provide archaeological evidence that some sugar cane was under cultivation and processed, though probably not in any great quantity.
In 1815, 140 acres (0.57km2) were under cotton cultivation, producing 21,000 pounds annually. There was a population of 428 (25 whites, 32 free persons of colour and 371 slaves). By 1825, cotton production decreased to 17,000 pounds, while the population increased to 506 (34 whites, 76 free persons of colour and 397 slaves).
Similar to other islands in the region, JVD and the BVI saw gradual and irreversible economic decline throughout the 18th century. Curiously though, the population of Jost Van Dyke continued to increase (probably due to the freedom of travel enjoyed by the former slave population after Emancipation in the BVI in 1838). Thereafter, many BVI islanders regularly sought work at the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's coaling wharves in St. Thomas, (today- United States Virgin Islands). By 1853, Dookhan (1975) attributes a population of 1,235 residents on Jost Van Dyke, 196 of whom died of a cholera outbreak in that same year.
From the Emancipation Era forward, the community of Jost Van Dyke subsisted mainly on small scale fishing and subsistence agriculture. Charcoal-making was a practice that began during the plantation era when strong fires were vital for sugar and rum production, and charcoal making emerged as a primary industry for the BVI during the Post-Emancipation years. Between the 1920s and 1960s, an estimated 20,000 tons of charcoal were exported from the BVI to the US Virgin Islands. (1998. Penn-Moll, Verna, Coals of Fire: The Development of the Caribbean Fireplace Technology with Traditional Customs, Myths and Sayings.)
According to island residents, on JVD, people would work collectively to build charcoal pits, a practice that occasionally continues to this day. The pits were often a social gathering place, women might use the heat of the fire to bake bread or roast breadfruit while the men might play dominoes around the pit.
Maritime resources were also extremely important historically to the people of Jost Van Dyke, and the island has emerged as a fishing village. The desire for trade and social interaction with nearby islands stimulated the development of seafaring skills. Sailing, fishing, rowing and boat construction flourished. Small, locally constructed sailing vessels the "Tortola Boat" flourished in the BVI until about the 1960s when they were replaced with motorized craft.
Jost Van Dyke, like the rest of the British Virgin Islands, suffered catastrophic damage from Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm which struck the territory in September 2017.[5] The island's hillsides were stripped of vegetation.[5] Jost Van Dyke's primary school, health clinic, and two petrol stations were damaged, while most of the island's homes were destroyed.[5]
With little aid from the British or territorial governments during the week following the storm, Jost Van Dyke's 298 residents set up a recovery and command center Foxy’s Tamarind Bar and Restaurant.[5] Food from other restaurants and residences were brought to Foxy's, which housed the island's only major, surviving refrigerator and generators before others were repaired by the Royal Marines later that month.[5] Residents used a salvaged chainsaw to clear roads and connect remote parts of the islands.[5]
Demographics and tourism
As at the 2010 Census, the population of Jost Van Dyke was 298.[6] The population has grown strongly in recent decades, in line with the population of the Virgin Islands. Its recorded population in 1991 was 140. The island has a young population with nearly one-half (46%) of residents under the age of 35 and almost 70% under the age of 50.
Jost Van Dyke receives numerous visitors. The island is accessible by private boats and ferry service from Tortola, Saint Thomas, and Saint John.
The most frequent destination is Great Harbour (or Belle Vue). The beach strip around the harbour is lined with small bars and restaurants. Since the late 1960s, Foxy's Bar in Great Harbour has been a popular stop for Caribbean boaters. Foxy's and the other bars in Great Harbour now host a modest crowd year-round and are filled with thousands of partiers on New Year's Eve (locally known as "Old Year’s Night").
Great Harbour is one of the busiest ports in the BVI: in 2008, nearly 7,000 boats cleared through the island's port. Today, tourism, and particularly yachting tourism is the mainstay of the economy.
Soggy Dollar Bar
Located in nearby White Bay is the Soggy Dollar Bar, another famous beach bar on the island. It is reputedly the birthplace of the popular drink known as the Painkiller. The Soggy Dollar bar is appropriately named because when built there was neither road nor dock. (There is now a road from Belle Vue, but still no dock). To reach the beach where the bar is located, it is a common practice for boaters to anchor off the beach, swim to shore, and pay for their drinks with wet money. Today, White Bay is lined with beach bars and is a very popular stop for yachts and boaters from Tortola, St. Thomas, and St. John. Group tours from the USVI and even small cruise ships are also frequent visitors.
A dock is available for day boaters. Nearby, a natural rock formation called the bubbly pool is a popular attraction. It gets its name from the bubbles that form in the water when waves crash against the rocks.
The country music video for Kenny Chesney's 2002 recording "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" was filmed on and around Jost Van Dyke. Included in the video were several scenes at One Love Bar and Ivan's Stress-Free Bar where it is common for patrons to mix their own drinks and leave their payment in the register. Chesney also references Jost Van Dyke in his songs "Somewhere in The Sun" from his album Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair) and "It's That Time of Day" from his album "Life on a Rock".
Education
The British Virgin Islands operates several government schools.[7]
Jost Van Dyke residents are served by Jost Van Dyke Primary School which offers both primary and secondary education. As of 2011[update], after students graduate from primary school they attend secondary (high school) for two years on Jost Van Dyke. After completing two years of high school on Jost Van Dyke, students travel daily from Monday to Friday to the main island of Tortola to attend the Elmore Stoutt High School. Students must catch the 7:00 am ferry (NEW HORIZON FERRY SERVICE) and return to Jost Van Dyke on the 4:00 pm ferry.
The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the US 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.
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) are one of three political divisions of the Virgin Islands archipelago located in the Lesser Antilles, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. The BVI are the easternmost part of the island chain. The land area totals and comprises 16 inhabited and more than 20 uninhabited islands. The islands of Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda and Jost van Dyke are the largest. Maritime claims include 12 nmi territorial sea and a 200 nmi exclusive fishing zone. In terms of land use, it is 20% arable land, 6.67% permanent crops and 73.33% other as of a 2005 figure. It has strong ties to nearby U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The history of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:
Virgin Gorda is the third-largest island and second-most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
Road Town, located on Tortola, is the capital and largest town of the British Virgin Islands. It is situated on the horseshoe-shaped Road Harbour in the centre of the island's south coast. The population was about 15,000 in 2018.
Tortola is the largest and most populated island 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.
Cruz Bay, U.S. Virgin Islands is the main town on the island of Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands. According to the 2000 census, Cruz Bay had a population of 2,743.
Peter Island is a 720 hectares private island located in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). It is about 5 miles (8.0 km) south-west from Road Town, Tortola. The island was named after Pieter Adriensen who was the brother of Abraham Adriensen, Patron of Tortola under the Dutch West India Company in the early 17th century. Pieter Adriensen and Joost van Dyk built a fort and slave pens at Great Harbour on Peter Island to facilitate privateering and the nascent trade in slaves from Angola.
Road Harbour, located in Road Town, Tortola, is the commercial seaport of the British Virgin Islands. There are a number of smaller marinas around the harbour, such as the Road Reef Marina and the Fort Burt Marina, an overnight small boat anchorage, customs and immigration offices. Inter island ferries stop at the ferry dock on the NW edge of Road Harbour next to Customs. Road Harbour is deep and large enough to handle many of the cruise ships that make Tortola a port of call.
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.
Joost van Dyk was a Dutch privateer who was one of the earliest European settlers in the British Virgin Islands in the seventeenth century, and established the first permanent settlements within the Territory. The islands of Jost Van Dyke and its smaller neighbor Little Jost Van Dyke, as well as Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda island, are named after him.
John Coakley Lettsom FRS was an English physician and philanthropist born on Little Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands into an early Quaker settlement. The son of a West Indian planter and an Irish mother, he grew up to be an abolitionist. He founded the Medical Society of London in 1773, convinced that a combined membership of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries would prove productive. As the oldest such in the United Kingdom, it is housed in London's medical community at Lettsome House, Chandos Street, near Cavendish Square. Lettsom was its mainstay, as founder, president and benefactor.
In common with most Caribbean countries, slavery in the British Virgin Islands forms a major part of the history of the Territory. One commentator has gone so far as to say: "One of the most important aspects of the History of the British Virgin Islands is slavery."
Little Jost Van Dyke is one of the British Virgin Islands. It is a small island on the east end of the island of Jost Van Dyke. Like Jost Van Dyke, it takes its name from the Dutch privateer Joost van Dyk. It is the location of the Diamond Cay National Park, which includes the nesting grounds of wild boobies, terns and pelicans.
Sandy Cay is an uninhabited island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It is located between Tortola and Jost Van Dyke. The island was owned by the Laurance Rockefeller Estate. On 1 May 2008, ownership of the island was transferred to the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands. In 2002, International NGO, Island Resources Foundation led a project to eradicate invasive black rats from the island.
Education in the British Virgin Islands is largely free and is a requirement for children ages 5 to 17. The British Virgin Islands has a total of 15 public primary schools and 4 secondary public schools. In addition to the public schools, there are 10 primary private schools and 3 secondary private schools. The school year is from September to June. The British Virgin Islands is a part of the British Overseas Territories and therefore the educational system is very similar to the traditional learning system in the United Kingdom. Primary schools are focused on establishing the basics of an academic curriculum and host students between the ages of 5 and 12. After the completion of primary school, students move on to secondary school and pre-university. Secondary school is for students between the ages of 13 and 17. Following the completion of secondary education, students may write their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate. There are approximately 2,700 students who attend primary school for the first 7 years of their required education; however less than 1,800 students successfully finish the following 4 required years of secondary school and complete their certificate exam. Students who chose to continue their education after the secondary education certificate may move on to an additional 2 years of schooling. Passing the exams entitles students the right to continue their studies even further at the University of the Virgin Islands. At the university, students can obtain associate, bachelors, and master's degrees in the departments of business, education, liberal arts and social sciences, or science and mathematic.
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.
The effects of Hurricane Irma in the British Virgin Islands were significant in terms of both human and socio-economic impact on the Territory. Hurricane Irma struck the British Virgin Islands as a Category 5 hurricane during the daylight hours of Wednesday, 6 September 2017. It caused widespread destruction, and killed a total of four people. The eye of the hurricane traveled over the three major islands in the group: Virgin Gorda, Tortola and Jost Van Dyke.
↑ That is, beginning with a Y sound and rhyming with 'host'.
↑ "Jost Van Dyke". BVI Tourism. Retrieved 30 August 2016. Named Jost Van Dyke runs deep with rugged scenery and colorful folklore.
↑ "Our Islands". BVI Government. Retrieved 30 August 2016. A map drawn of the BVI in 1717 by Captain John Walton does not depict either Jost Van Dyke or Little Jost Van Dyke.
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