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 Virgin Islands are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, While the British Virgin Islands are officially designated as “The Virgin Islands”, the name is most often used to refer to the entire international grouping of the British and United States Virgin Islands together with the Spanish Virgin Islands, which, contrary to their name are in fact officially part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, itself an unincorporated territory of the United States. Geographically, the northern islands lie along the Puerto Rico Trench. St. Croix is a displaced part of that same geologic structure. Politically, the British Virgin Islands have been governed as the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, and form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago is separated from the true Lesser Antilles by the Anegada Passage and from the main island of Puerto Rico by the Virgin Passage.
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.
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, U.S. Virgin Islands. Little Jost Van Dyke lies off its eastern end.
Beef Island is an island in the British Virgin Islands. It is located to the east of Tortola, and the two islands are connected by the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. Beef Island is the site of the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, the main commercial airport that serves Tortola and the rest of the British Virgin Islands.
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.
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."
Eustatia Island is a 30-acre island of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in the Caribbean. The word "Eustatia" is a Greek derived word meaning, "good place to stay." The entire island, and a small neighboring island, Saba Rock, are under the same long term lease. The island is regularly featured and photographed for several publications and was listed as one of the top 20 most beautiful islands in the world in the December 2004 issue of Islands magazine.
Nanny Cay is an island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It is made up of three cays originally known as Big Cay, Little Cay and Miss Peggy Cay. In the 1970s these were consolidated into a single land mass for a marina and resort development. It is connected to Tortola by a short bridge. A marina, hotel, restaurants, condominiums and townhouses have now been built on Nanny Cay.
Cooper Island is a small island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It is one of the "Little Sisters" islands.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the British Virgin Islands:
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.
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.
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.
Atlantic Air BVI (AABVI) was an airline based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in the Caribbean which started up in 1992 with one Short 330-200 (VP-LVR) commuter turboprop aircraft. AABVI ran a service between Tortola, BVI and San Juan, Puerto Rico, with five round trip flights a day operated seven days a week. On 6 May 1993 the Short aircraft experienced an aborted take off from Tortola and ran off the end of the runway into Trellis Bay. There were no serious injuries.
