It is said that the island was named after a pirate who bought it or leased it at some point during the early 18th century,[2] although supporting evidence for this contention is difficult to find.[citation needed]
However, Norman Island also has a documented history of pirate booty being stowed upon the island. In August 1750, a Spanish treasuregalleon named Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe sought shelter from a storm on the North Carolina coast. The crew mutinied and the treasure, said to consist of (amongst other things) 55 chests of silver coins, was loaded into two bilanders, one of which was carrying Owen Lloyd. The first vessel was lost, but Lloyd escaped to St. Croix. After disposing of some of the money, he proceeded to Norman Island where the treasure was buried. Lloyd and his crew were later arrested in St. Eustatius, but word of the treasure spread, and residents of Tortola went to Norman Island and dug it up for themselves. Part of the booty was later recovered by Gilbert Fleming, Lieutenant-General of the Leeward Islands at the time, who travelled to Tortola with two companies of soldiers. Fleming persuaded Abraham Chalwill, the acting Lieutenant Governor of the British Virgin Islands (who had coincidentally led the search for the treasure on Norman Island) to issue a proclamation whereby the treasure would be returned and the people who had dug it up would receive a one-third share as a reward.[3]
There the historical record ends, but local rumours abound that a member of a well-known local family had been fishing near Norman Island and took shelter in one of the caves on the Western coast of Norman Island during a storm. The surge repeatedly banged his small boat against the walls of the cave, whilst the storm surge caused the water level to rise several feet. When the fortunate fisherman woke the next morning, a large number of rocks had broken off into his small craft, as had a small chest, supposedly filled with gold doubloons. The story cannot be verified as no legal application for treasure trove was ever made,[4] but it is known that members of the family ceased being fisherman and left Tortola at about the time to open some shops in Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas.
Rumours persist of more pirate gold to be found on Norman Island, although to date no applications have ever been made for treasure trove.[citation needed]
Today
The island is uninhabited and privately owned by Henry Jarecki. Its area is about 600 acres (242.8ha), and it is about 2.5 miles (4.0km) long. A large harbour known as the Bight offers one of the most protected anchorages in the area. It is one of the "Little Sisters", along with Pelican Island, Peter Island, Salt Island, Dead Chest Island, and Ginger Island. This group of islands is smaller, lower, and more arid than other islands to the north and west.
Snorkelling inside a cave at Norman Island, the island of Tortola is visible in the background
Norman Island is a well-known destination for cruisers and other tourists because of three water-level caves at the base of cliffs just outside the western edge of the Bight. The caves are ideal for snorkelling, and, if one goes deeply enough into the cliffs, darkness makes the experience like a night dive.
The island has no permanent inhabitants (other than wild goats), but there are two restaurants on the island, Pirates Bight and The Club. Previously anchored in the Bight was a modern copy of an old schooner named the Willy T, which operated as a bar and restaurant. In September 2017, the Willy T was destroyed by Hurricane Irma. The owners of the Willy T had a new ship built and in May 2018 it was announced that the BVI government would not let the Willy T anchor on Norman Island, but would instead be able to anchor in Great Harbour on Peter Island. The Willy T has since returned to its original location on Norman Island.
Norman Island has so many caves, hidden bays, and wrecks that many tourists still explore hoping to find treasure one day, and tourism operators in the British Virgin Islands have no interest in trying to discourage this.[citation needed]
Economic development
Joint Venture Agreement with the Henry Jarecki
On 22 November 2018, the BVI government, headed by Orlando Smith, entered into a Development Agreement with Audubon Holdings,[6] owned by Henry Jarecki, to develop Norman Island as an environmentally conscious, luxury residential and tourist destination.
Together with the island's owner, the BVI government expects to establish a model for environmentally sustainable development. After planning and environmental approvals have met, the government hopes that the first phase of the project starts in the course of 2019.
Footnotes
↑ "Where's Where" (1974) (Eyre Methuen, London) ISBN0-413-32290-4, Norman Island.
↑ See for example, Welcome Magazine, Vol. 36, No. 1: "The Real Pirates of the Caribbean"
↑ Under applicable British Virgin Islands law, the Government would probably have been entitled to a half share, depending upon the coroner's finding as to the circumstances of the treasure's coming to be in the cave.
The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, is 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.
Country Code: +1284 International Call Prefix: 011
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).
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".
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.
Jost Van Dyke is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, measuring roughly 8 square kilometres. It rests in the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Jost Van Dyke lies about 8 km (5 mi) to the northwest of Tortola and 8 km (5 mi) to the north of Saint John. Little Jost Van Dyke lies off its eastern end.
Dead Chest Island is an island located half a mile north east of Deadman's Bay on Peter Island, British Virgin Islands. It is uninhabited, has no fresh water or trees and only sparse vegetation. It was formerly used as a firing range by the Royal Virgin Islands Police, but the opening of the nearby hotel on Peter Island coincided with the decision to build a proper firing range on the island of Tortola. The island is now an uninhabited National Park, with several popular scuba diving and snorkeling sites.
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.
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.
Fort Charlotte is a fort built on Harrigan's Hill, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The fort was named after Queen Charlotte.
Piracy in the British Virgin Islands was prevalent during the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy", mainly during the years 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."
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.
Henry George Jarecki is a German-born American academic, psychiatrist, entrepreneur, producer and philanthropist.
Air BVI was an airline which operated and was based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Founded in 1971, by 1975 it had 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 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.
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.
Events from the year 2020 in the British Virgin Islands.
Events from the year 2023 in the British Virgin Islands.
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