Joost van Dyk (sometimes spelled Joost van Dyke) was a Dutch privateer (and, reportedly, sometime pirate) 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 ("Little Jost"), as well as Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda island, are named after him. [1]
The early colonial history of the British Virgin Islands is not especially well documented. However, it is known that during the early years of the seventeenth century, Van Dyk had created a small settlement at Soper's Hole on Tortola's West End, leading a largely unremarkable career as a privateer or pirate, and that he was trading with the Spanish settlers in Puerto Rico in breach of a Papal concession to the Spaniards. Between raids, Van Dyk and his crew farmed cotton and tobacco. By 1615 Van Dyk's settlement was recorded in Spanish contemporary records as having expanded, and consisting of Dutch, French and English pirates, who had constructed some small defences. At this time the Spanish Governor in Puerto Rico began to regard Van Dyk less as an irritation and more as a potential threat to Spanish trading interests in the region. However, at the time the Dutch Republic and Spain were subject to a binding truce. When the truce came to an end in 1620 Van Dyk perceived his potential vulnerability, and built a more substantial earthen fort at what would later be named Fort Recovery.
By 1625 Van Dyk was recognised by the Dutch West India Company as the private "Patron" of Tortola, and had moved his operations to Road Town (at that time, simply known as "The Road"). During the same year Van Dyk lent some limited (non-military) support to the Dutch Admiral Boudewijn Hendricksz, who sacked San Juan, Puerto Rico (although he was unable to take Fort San Felipe del Morro). In 1628 Dutch Admiral Piet Heyn plundered the Spanish treasure fleet, and these two attacks stung the Spanish to retaliation.
In September 1625 the Spanish led a full assault on the island of Tortola, laying waste to its defences and destroying its nascent settlements. Joost van Dyk himself escaped to the island that would later bear his name, and sheltered there from the Spanish. [2] He later moved to the island of Saint Thomas until the Spanish gave up their attacks and returned to Puerto Rico.
Despite their limited economic importance, the Dutch West India Company still considered the Virgin Islands to have an important strategic value, as they were located approximately halfway between the Dutch West India Company's colonies in Brazil and New Amsterdam (now New York City). Under the orders of Peter Stuyvesant, the director of the Dutch West India Company, Van Dyk built large stone warehouses at Freebottom, near Port Purcell (just east of Road Town), with the intention that these warehouses would facilitate exchanges of cargo between North and South America.
Fearing a repetition of the recent attack, Van Dyk erected some small earthworks and a three-cannon fort above the warehouse, on the hill where Fort George would eventually be built by the English. He also constructed a wooden stockade to act as a lookout post above Road Town on the site that would eventually become Fort Charlotte.
He also stationed troops at the Spanish "dojon" near Pockwood Pond, later to be known at Fort Purcell, but now ordinarily referred as "the Dungeon".
In 1631 the Dutch West India Company expressed an interest in the copper which had been discovered on Virgin Gorda. Joost van Dyk set up another settlement on that island, which came to be known as "Little Dyk's" (now known as Little Dix).
Notwithstanding the strategic location of the settlements, or the discovery of copper, the settlements were not an economic success, and the evidence suggests that Van Dyk spent most of his time more profitably engaged in privateering (or piracy, depending upon one's perspective). The lack of prosperity of the territory mirrored the lack of commercial success of the Dutch West India Company as a whole.
The company changed its policy, and it sought to cede islands such as Tortola and Virgin Gorda to private persons for settlement, and to establish slave pens. The island of Tortola was eventually sold to Willem Hunthum at some point in the 1650s, at which time the Dutch West India Company's interest in the Territory effectively ended.
In September 1625, Joost van Dyk's recorded involvement with the British Virgin Islands came to an end. He is believed to have died in or after 1631. [3]
Named for an early Dutch settler and former pirate, Jost Van Dyke runs deep with rugged scenery and colorful folklore.
Captain 'Joost van Dyk' was a 17th Century Dutch pirate who used its harbours as a safe hideout and to attack ships passing North of the island on way to Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Cuba.
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.
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:
The Netherlands began its colonization of the Americas with the establishment of trading posts and plantations, which preceded the much wider known colonization activities of the Dutch in Asia. While the first Dutch fort in Asia was built in 1600, the first forts and settlements along the Essequibo River in Guyana date from the 1590s. Actual colonization, with the Dutch settling in the new lands, was not as common as by other European nations.
Virgin Gorda is the third-largest island and second-most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
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.
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.
Fort Purcell is a ruined fort near Pockwood Pond on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
Fort Charlotte is a fort built on Harrigan's Hill, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The fort was named after Queen Charlotte.
Fort George is a colonial fort which was erected on the northeast edge of Road Town, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands above Baugher's Bay. The site is now a ruin.
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."
Fort Recovery is a fort on the West End of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. In historical records, the fort is often referred to as Tower Fort, and the area around the fort is still referred to as "Towers" today. A hotel is now built around the Tower.
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.
Scrub Island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean is a part of the Lesser Antilles, a group of islands that are young volcanic or coral islands. It is home to the Scrub Island Resort Marina and Spa.
Virgin Islander culture reflects the various peoples that have inhabited the present-day British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands throughout history. Although the territories are politically separate, they maintain close cultural ties.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the British Virgin Islands:
The Whelk Point Fort was a colonial fort erected on the southeast part of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The fort fell into disrepair and ruin, and relatively little of the original structure remains. In 1992 a house was built over the original foundations of the fort, but the remains of the barracks can still be seen on the land behind the house. The ruins are on private property and are not generally accessible to the public.
The Dutch Virgin Islands is the collective name for the enclaves that the Dutch West India Company had in the Virgin Islands. The area was ruled by a director, whose seat was not permanent. The main reason for starting a colony here was that it lay strategically between the Dutch colonies in the south and New Netherland. The Dutch West India Company was mainly affected by the competition from Denmark, England and Spain. In 1680 the remaining islands became a British colony.