Cat Island is an island of Bahamas.
places
Other goals
Little San Salvador
This island is an excellent stopover for sailors en route from Eleuthera to Cat Island. However, it has been wholly owned by the Holland America line since 1997. For a mooring you should get the permission from the island manager.
The island has a size of 1,100 hectares, of which 24 hectares are developed. Under the name Half Moon Cay, this part of the island is called by cruise ships for day trips. The rest of the island is a nature reserve.
Cruise guests have 3 water sports centers to choose from, including kayaking and horse riding. There is a water slide for children. There is a craft market and souvenir shop at the port. From there a railroad travels to the restaurant. Guests can visit 4 bars. A cabana for 25 guests is available for events. 15 additional cabanas with butlers can be rented by a maximum of 4 people. * http://cruisecheap.com/holland_america_line
Half Moon Cay, Tel. 354-2200
background
On the way from Europe to India, Christopher Columbus is said to have set foot on the soil of the "New World" for the first time. Hence the southern tip of the island got its name: Columbus Point and Columbus Bay. There he met a large group of Lucaya Indians who lived on their island Guanima called. According to the historian Eris Moncur, this island has been called on different maps San Salvador and listed as such until 1926. The name Catt’s Island goes back to the pirate Arthur Catt, who regularly used the island as a hiding place. According to another tradition of Moncur’s, Columbus himself is said to have founded a settlement called Columba in 1495 near what is now Old Bight. Later settlers found only cats there.
In 1720 Cat Island was invaded by the Spaniards. They killed all the men, the other residents were kidnapped and sold as slaves. The first permanent settlement began in 1783, when loyalists moved from America and planted cotton plantations with their slaves. During the heyday of this economy there were over 40 plantations on the island. Slave revolts were still taking place there in 1831, but with the abolition of slavery in 1834 came the end of cotton cultivation. In the following years, a citrus industry was initially established. It was so successful that around 1880 around 5,000 people lived on the island and even a railway was built to transport the fruit to the port. This railway was dismantled during the Second World War.
Cat Island is about 170 km southeast of Nassau, 78 km long and between 1.5 and 6.4 km wide. 1,650 people live on the 388 m² island. It is one of the most beautiful and fertile Bahamas islands. In the past it was considered to be extremely wealthy with its almost 40 large cotton plantations, but today only weathered ruins bear witness to the former splendid mansions. The numerous dilapidated, small huts on the edge of the only major road that leads across the island are striking: former slave shelters. But also the traditional national houses, where the kitchen and baking house is always separate from the house, catch the eye. After the decline of the cotton plantations, these plantations were converted into arable and vegetable land. Citrus seeds came to the Bahamas via North America. As early as 1780, 12,000 limes, 347,350 limes and 46,500 oranges were exported from here. In 1819 America bought Florida from the Spanish. First cotton was grown there, but after the civil war also citrus fruits, which was a great competition for the Bahamas. Nevertheless, between 1870 and 1900, three million oranges were sold annually on the American market. After the grapefruit became fashionable, 300,000 of these fruits were also exported to America in 1900.
This island is home to the highest point in the Bahamas, Mount Alverina at 65 meters. The electrification of the island did not begin until the early 1990s, and the main road from north to south was not fully paved until the mid-1990s. The place New Bight is the administrative center.
Drug trafficking
Cat Island, especially the southern part of the island, was a drug hub in the past. Presumably the island authorities, police and judiciary are involved in these transactions or they receive money from the drug lords. For this reason, the OECD has blacklisted the Bahamas and the USA threatened sanctions. These activities had a negative impact on the island's infrastructure. Which reached its peak in 2000 when the Pigeon Cay Beach Club near Roakers in the north of the island was almost completely destroyed by arson and there were no arrests.
A Hawks Nest Club manager was murdered and the perpetrators sentenced to death. The previous owner of the facility was convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.
The Greenwood Inn's own plane was vandalized and there were no arrests. A former manager of the Greenwood Inn was murdered and there were no arrests.
The owner of Fernandez Bay Village was arrested for drug trafficking, after his release he was almost killed in a traffic accident, the driver escaped and there were no arrests.
Several foreigners' cars were set on fire.
An American's plane was shot at at Hawk’s Nest airfield and there were no arrests.
The Cutlass Bay Club on the south coast, near Bain Town and Port Howe, was raided. There was arson there. The previous owner was convicted of drug trafficking in the United States. Since the last owners could no longer guarantee the safety of their guests, they decided to close this facility.
Sidney Poitier
Arthur’s Town is the birthplace of this famous Bahamian. He was born in 1927 while his parents were in Miami selling their tomato harvest. In 1938 the family moved to Nassau to give the children a better education. There he attended Eastern Senior High School, but left it after two years and worked in construction. His parents quickly realized that the boisterous, quick-tempered youth would have problems with the law in the dark parts of Nassau. In Nassau, in contrast to Cat Island, there were also significant racial problems. So the boy was sent to his older brother in Miami. There he earned his living as a delivery boy and dishwasher and also saved some money. With the money he saved, he bought a ticket to New York and ended up in Harlem, where he met Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. He found a job with the American Negro Theater. After a short time he got bigger roles there. In 1950 he made his first film appearance. He then played with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. In 1963 he was the first black man to receive an "Oscar". In 1968 he was ennobled by the British Queen. In 1997 he became the British Commonwealth Ambassador to JAPAN. Four years later he was named a UNESCO ambassador.
getting there
by plane
The flight time from Nassau to Arthur’s Town is 35 minutes, with a stopover in San Salvador the flight takes 90 minutes.
- Arthur’s Town, IATA Code - ATC, 7,000 x 150 feet (2,310 x 50 meters) runway, Tel. 342-2016, 354-2046, regional traffic only.
- Cutlass Bay Airstrip, 2,450 x 60 feet (809 x 20 meters) runway, Tel. 359-3534, private
- Hawk’s Nest Airstrip, 4,600 x 100 feet (1,518 x 33 meters) runway, Tel. 342-7050, 357-7257, private
- New Bight Airstrip, IATA Code - NET, 5,000 x 100 feet (1,650 x 33 meters) runway, Tel. 342-2016, passport and customs authorities
by boat
Mail boat:
The mailboat Laddy Eddina runs from Bennett’s Harbor via Arthur’s Town, Orange Creek and Dumfries to Nassau. Travel time is 14 hours and a one-way fare is $ 40. Depart from Nassau on Thursday at 6 p.m., return from North Cat Cay on Sunday at 2 p.m.
The mailboat Sea Hauler drives from Smith’s Bay via Old Bight and New Bight to Nassau. Travel time is approximately 12 hours and a one-way fare is $ 40. Departures from Nassau on Tuesday at 3 p.m., return from South Cat Cay on Monday at 7 a.m.
mobility
There is no public transport on the island. Some rental cars and taxis are available.
Tourist Attractions
- Columbus World Center Museum, Knowles. This is a small private museum. It is run by the historian Eric Moncur, who was born here, and tells the island's history.
- Mount Alvernia. Main attraction of the island, at 63 meters the highest point in the Bahamas. A way of the cross leads to the summit, on which "The Hermitage”, A mini monastery with a Celtic round tower, Byzantine vault and Gothic windows, which the Franciscan monk Father Jerôme built in the 1940s. Father Jerôme was born John Hawes in 1876. He built two more churches on Long Island and the Saint Augustine’s Monastery in Nassau. The effort of the ascent is rewarded with a magnificent view of the green land to the dark blue Atlantic on one side and the turquoise sea of the gulf on the other. The father lived up here all alone until he died in 1956 at the age of 80. This is where he found his final resting place.
literature
Web links
- An official website is not known. Please open Wikidata add.
