By Bill Keegan and Betsy Carlson

Mr. Christopher Columbus

Sailed the sea without a compass

Well, when his men began a rumpus

Up spoke Christopher Columbus

He said, “There is land somewhere

So until we get there we will not go wrong

If we sing a swing song

Since the world is round, we’ll be safe and sound

’Till our goal is found we’ll just keep the rhythm bound”

Fats Waller

Columbus' "toilet seat" was the bones of a large tortoise

We are writing this in October, a time when Caribbean archaeologists’ fancy turns to Columbus. But it’s not our fault. For some reason the press cannot get enough of him, even after more than 500 years. Columbus was resurrected in 1892 as a symbol of the American dream. A man of simple means, very religious, and of Italian birth who set out to overthrow the science of his day and who stumbled upon a New World. In those days, America (more correctly, the United States of America) was attempting to become the new world power. The legitimacy of this claim was embodied in the Columbian Exposition, the World’s Fair held in Chicago in 1893 (a great read is The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen, Vintage Books, 2004).

The timing of the Exposition is important. It was the eve of the Spanish-American War (the USS Maine was sunk in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898). The selection of Columbus as a symbol has infuriated Native American communities, but he was chosen to serve very particular political purposes. At the time the U.S. was attempting to deny all Spanish claims to the Americas. Columbus was an Italian who was forced to sail with a crew of prisoners and mutineers. Therefore, Spain deserved no credit for the “discovery” of America.

We should probably add religion to the mix. In his Papal decree ratified in 1498 as the “Treaty of Tordesilla” (or Tordesilha, if you prefer Portuguese), Pope Alexander VI ceded all of the lands 370º west of the Cape Verde Islands (east coast of Africa) to Spain. This gave Spain a “legitimate” claim to virtually all of the Americas. The fact that Spain’s claims were justified by the Pope did not sit well with the Protestant Christians who controlled the U.S. government. In their minds the Pope held no authority, and Spain also had no authority because an Italian was the responsible party. Scholars would later formalize this rejection of Spain by renaming Spanish America, Ibero-America or Hispanic America to “Latin America.”

With the exception of annual Columbus Day parades in New York (fueled mostly by Italian pride), the fire died to embers until just prior to the Quincentenary. The National Geographic Society stoked the flames in 1986 by proclaiming to the world that they had “discovered” the true place where Columbus “discovered” America. It was not modern day San Salvador as Samuel Eliot Morison had decided, but rather an island to the south known as Samana Cay. Not everyone was convinced. And after several years of public debates among proponents for San Salvador (Watlings Island), Samana Cay (National Geographic) and Grand Turk, the final debate was the Turks Island Landfall Conference held on Grand Turk in 1989. The Grand Turk protagonists — Robert Power, Josiah Marvel and Bertie Sadler — were loaded for bear. Unfortunately, none of the other main debaters (Mauricio Obregon for Morison and Joseph Judge for National Geographic) wanted to continue the show (“scheduling conflicts”).

Bob Power and Josiah Marvel deserve a lot of credit for putting their money where their mouth is. The crucial problem for the Grand Turk proponents was that no Indian sites had been found on Grand Turk despite prior archaeological surveys. They engaged an archaeologist to survey the island during the conference, and two Indian sites were found. “Champagne for everyone!” Unfortunately, further research has shown that the main site was abandoned centuries before Columbus sailed, and the site was in the wrong place. Minor details, especially when a new Indian site was found on the north end of Grand Turk thanks to the diligence of Brian Riggs, now Curator of the National Environmental Centre.

These extinct tortoise bones were found during excavations at Grand Turk.

We were conducting test excavations at the new site of GT-3, located on the west side of North Creek, on the eve of the Columbus Quincentenary when Josiah Marvel arrived with a crew from a fledgling Provo cable television station. They were making a film to show that Grand Turk was Columbus’ first landfall, and wanted to include our archaeological investigations. Digging standard 50 by 50 cm shovel test pits we had just exposed a circular arrangement of bone from the carapace of a large tortoise. As the crew began filming, Keegan reminded them that in the past week John Noble Wilford, science editor for the New York Times, had written about excavations by Kathleen Deagan at La Isabela, Columbus’s first colony in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Deagan (of the Florida Museum of Natural History) had identified a portion of a ceramic vessel as a fragment of Columbus’ chamber pot. Pointing to the circular arrangement of tortoise shell bone that completely filled the excavation unit, Keegan jokingly proclaimed, “If Deagan found Columbus’ chamber pot, then we have found Columbus’ toilet seat!” The size and shape of the bone ring were evocative. “But, how can you be sure?” was the response. Brushing aside some loose sand, a turtle arm bone (humerus) was exposed to the outside of the bone ring. Keegan continued, “Because here is the flushing lever!” For some reason journalists seem to think that scientists have no sense of humor, but this is rarely true of archaeologists.

On the subject of wilderness toilets, some years later while working on a very tiny cay off the north coast of Haiti (Île à Rat) we constructed a latrine in a remote location and built a frame on which we attached a toilet seat; a real, honest to goodness, wooden toilet seat. The fishermen who visited the island daily thought that this was the funniest thing they had ever seen — a toilet seat in the bushes! Through the entire month of excavation the seat and frame remained intact; the only thing that disappeared was a toilet paper roll.

In our last essay for “Talking Taino,” we talked about sloths in the Caribbean islands, which disappeared soon after the pre-Taínos arrived about 5,000 years ago. Similarly, Columbus’ “toilet seat” was the bones of a large tortoise (think Galapagos-type tortoise) that disappeared from the Turks & Caicos Islands at least 400 years before the Spanish arrived, apparently driven to extinction by human predation. This leads us to a discussion of another large reptile that used to commonly inhabit the Bahamian archipelago — the crocodile (which the Taíno called caiman).

On the fourth Bahamian island that Columbus visited during his first voyage he encountered a strange creature that fled into a saltwater pond. He described it as five palmas in length (about six feet), and reported that the natives killed it with spears and collected the carcass for Columbus to carry back to Spain. This “lagarto de las aguas” (literally, water lizard) was something that Columbus had never seen before. Based on its size and behavior he seems to be describing a saltwater American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). Crocodiles are today rarely found in The Bahamas, but they do still live in Cuba and Jamaica (take the “Black River Safari” when you are there, and bring chicken parts).

We do know that crocodiles lived in the Bahama Islands until fairly recently. Their bones have been found at Taíno (Lucayan) sites on Crooked Island and Acklins Island, and Daniel McKinnon reported in his 1804 travelogue that he was fed “alligator” meat at Lovely Bay, Acklins Island. The Caicos Bank would have been an ideal habitat for the crocodile, although no crocodile bones have yet been found in any archaeological sites in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Crocodile remains have even been recovered from remote Grand Cayman where there is no evidence that humans set foot there until Europeans arrived.

The remains of an extinct tortoise lie exposed in Sawmill Sink, Abaco.

Our knowledge of the past distributions of animals is changing as our ability to collect samples from previously inaccessible locations improves. One of the most informative new environments is blue holes because they frequently have submerged sediments that are not exposed to oxygen and thus facilitate the preservation of organic materials. Drs. David Steadman and Richard Franz (of the Florida Museum of Natural History) have been investigating the Sawmill Sink blue hole on Abaco Island in The Bahamas. In this underwater setting they recently recovered 18 crocodile skeletons, tortoises, birds, and other plants and animals that lived in the islands. These new discoveries will be highlighted in a forthcoming National Geographic television program on Bahamian blue holes. Blue holes were also important and sacred locations for the Taíno, where occasionally they buried their dead, and there is a sinkhole on Providenciales in which five Taíno burials were observed. According to the Spanish chroniclers, the Taíno word for sink hole or blue hole was xaguey.

It would be impossible for us to “talk Taíno” without the assistance of the Spanish. The Taínos had no written language, so only those animals that were observed by the Spanish in the presence of the Taíno have recorded Taíno names. The tortoise and many other species were extinct before the Spanish arrived. It is important to remember that written history has a funny way of tricking us into believing that we have all the answers about the past. However, often what we “know” was written by the victors and after centuries of unrecorded events. Some records even contain intentional misrepresentation, much like the story of Columbus and the tortoise shell toilet seat. The true stories (if we may be so bold) of history are complex, fascinating, and open to multiple interpretations. Fats Waller was right, “One never knows, do one?”

Dr. Bill Keegan is Curator of Caribbean Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Betsy Carlson is Senior Archaeologist with Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc. (SEARCH) in Jonesville, Florida, and affiliate faculty at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

They are the authors of Talking Taino, published by The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, ISBN – 13: 978-0-8173-5508-1.

Abundant “musket furniture” gave the Ft. George site a distinct military flavor.

Story, Photos & Illustrations By Dr. Donald Keith

The sheer variety of artifacts found during our work on Ft. George and in collections donated to the Museum is surprising: plain and fancy tableware, iron fasteners and hardware, brass and pewter buttons, glass bottles and drinking vessels, clay tiles and bricks, storage jars, scabbard tips, buckles, coins, smoking pipes, and fishing weights — you name it. Most of these can be found on any habitation site of the period, but it was the abundance of certain peculiar objects, collectively known as “musket furniture” that gave the site its strong military flavor.

Artifacts collected at Ft. George Cay

Muskets, in common use for almost 200 years until they were phased out at the end of the 1800s, were typically smooth-bore, muzzle-loading long guns manufactured with a bewildering variety of ignition systems, barrel lengths, and bore sizes. Environmental conditions on Ft. George are not conducive to the preservation of wood, so it is not surprising that all we found were the iron, lead, and brass components of muskets.  Still, there is a lot they can tell us if we listen closely.

Although the musket is no longer used, it lives on in everyday expressions such as “lock, stock, and barrel,” “a flash in the pan,” and “to go off half-cocked.” The familiar phrase “lock, stock, and barrel” describes the main parts of a musket, and has come to mean “everything.” Curiously, it omits a critical element without which the other parts have no purpose: ammunition. Although “flash in the pan” refers directly to the energetic burst of fire and smoke that occurs when a gunflint strikes sparks into the priming pan, the modern connotation is one of a misfire — an all-too-common occurrence with this type of firearm! “To go off half-cocked” is derived from the accidental discharge of a musket when set in the half-cock position — and the connotation is one of disastrous consequences.

By today’s standards, muskets look laughably primitive. The ridiculously long, heavy barrel gives the weapon an unwieldy total length of five feet. Then there is the crude-looking  firing system: pulling the trigger releases tension on a spring that causes an S-shaped arm (the “cock”), with a chunk of rock (the “flint”) thumb-screwed to it, to strike an iron plate (the “frizzen”) creating sparks that (usually) ignite powder in the “flash pan” and a moment later the powder in the barrel itself. Reloading was a multi-step process requiring the musketeer to ram a powder charge down the barrel, followed by a solid lead shot, followed by a wad to keep it all from falling out again — and don’t forget to slide the four-foot ramrod back into the tubes that carry it under the barrel! Then prime the flash pan, set the cock, aim, and fire. Range was impressive, but accuracy? How accurate can a long gun be without a rear sight?

But don’t be too quick to discount their usefulness. Unlike modern, breech-loading rifled firearms that use only one type of ammunition, smooth-bore muzzle-loading firearms can fire a variety of loads from tiny scattershot appropriate for hunting birds, to heavier scattershot for hunting game, to buckshot for hunting large animals, to a single ball for increased accuracy and penetration. Hence the different connotations for “birdshot” (multiple tiny pellets), “shot” (sized smaller than the bore maximum and fired several at a time), and “ball” (sized for a tight fit in the bore). Various historical accounts make it clear that loading several projectiles at once was quite common. In essence, a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading firearm can use any projectile that will fit down its bore, but its caliber is defined by the largest ball it can fire, sized for minimum windage (the difference between the diameter of the ball and the diameter of the bore) and therefore best range, accuracy and penetration.

Manufacturing tolerances were loose and the gunpowder available was not clean-burning. This caused residue to build up and significantly reduce bore diameter after only a few discharges. Under such conditions having access to a variety of ball sizes was essential. This may help to explain the wide range in shot sizes found scattered across Ft. George. While ammunition multiplicity was doubtlessly beneficial to the musketeer of two centuries ago, it is vexing for the present day archaeologist because it means we cannot use shot size to determine what types or calibers of weapons were present. In those days a musket was more likely categorized by its “gauge” than by its “caliber,” as firearms are today. A musket with a bore diameter of 0.6 inch — what we would call a .60 caliber — was called a 24 gauge piece because that’s how many spheres of lead of the same diameter as the bore it took to equal a pound. For some reason people thought that was a better way to conceptualize ammunition.

Ball and buckshot were cast in individual or “gang” molds that produced several shot at the same time.  Birdshot could be cast in molds, but their minute size made even gang mold manufacturing tedious, so clever alternatives were discovered. “Rupert shot” was made by pouring molten lead through a specially-designed colander, causing it to break up into small pellets of regular size that hardened after falling into a container of water. Some of the examples recovered from Ft. George seem to have been made using this technique.

Another method called the Watts patent of 1782 produced shot that was “solid throughout, perfectly globular in form and without the dimples, scratches, and imperfections which other shot, heretofore manufactured, usually have on their surface.” It required dropping molten lead from great heights into pools of water inside specially-built tall towers. Arsenic was added to help the lead flow more smoothly during manufacturing and to harden it. To this day there is no better way of manufacturing round lead shot in a wide variety of diameters.

Some of the shot we found had peculiar slits cut in them reminiscent of modern fishing weights that can be crimped onto a line. Shot may have had other uses as well.  The shot seen in the accompanying illustration bear what appear to be indentations caused by biting or chewing. Similar shot were recovered from other archaeological sites, and “biting the bullet” has often been advanced as the explanation. A commonly-held and widely accepted belief holds that lead has a sweet taste. If this is true, perhaps the indentations so frequently found on lead shot were made by hungry rats or other animals fooled into thinking they might be edible. Would people have done the same thing?

There is no doubt that the human jaw can produce the necessary pressure and that the teeth are up to the task; however, our ability to differentiate the impressions of human dentition from other types of marks on lead shot is questionable. Because we couldn’t find any volunteers to bite lead shot hard enough to leave indentations, we attempted to re-create the same patterns by biting frozen clay balls, but the resulting impressions did not match the archaeological specimens. In the past we sent photos of “bitten” shot and even the shot themselves to a forensic dentist and a forensic firearms examiner, but neither was able to state conclusively what caused the indentation patterns. Call me a sissy, but the idea of clenching a ball between the teeth to deal with intense pain strikes me as ludicrous. Common sense begs the question: Why would anyone risk fractured teeth or choking on a lead ball when clenching on wood or leather folds would seem more convenient and effective?

Gunflints were an essential component of every flintlock, and we found those, too. Flint is a type of chert having two properties that make it ideal for use as the ignition system for a musket. First, it can easily be “knapped” or split and shaped into thin, sharp blades that can be fixed to the cock of a flintlock. Second, it is hard enough to actually scrape minute particles off a steel surface, producing sparks. At the time when Ft. George was established, Great Britain had both large deposits of high-quality flint and skilled flint-knappers, some of whom could turn out between 7,000 and 8,000 gunflints a day — which gives you some idea of how great the demand was! Flints were secured between the jaws of the cock by a thumbscrew. One of the flints we found was still wrapped in the thin lead pad that improved the jaw’s grip on the flint.

One of the mysteries of Ft. George is why musket furniture and shot are so common and so widely spread across the island. We found shot in the shallows offshore, in and around every structure, in the middle of nowhere with no other artifacts around, and even in the lake that occupies the middle of the island. The musket furniture was slightly less widespread but was found nearly everywhere we looked. What could explain this? An explosion in the armory? Devastation by a hurricane? Simple vandalization after abandonment? These speculations lead naturally to an important unanswered question: when was Ft. George abandoned?

We know that it must have been built sometime after 1787 when the first Loyalists began to arrive. Documentary evidence suggests the Loyalists themselves may have established and manned the fort initially. Subsequently it was manned by a proper military garrison for a few years before being turned back over to the local militia. Then what? Could it have been damaged beyond repair during the great hurricane of 1813? History is silent on this point.

Our brief archaeological exploration reveals only the tip of the iceberg with respect to what Ft. George has to offer as one of the most important historical resources in the TCI, and musket furniture is but one of many artifact types we found. We sincerely hope our effort will not be seen as a “flash in the pan” with no need for continuation. To be sure, the forces of nature have taken their toll on the fort. Parts of it are eroding into the sea even as you read this. There is still time to save what is left and learn the rest of the story . . . but let’s not “go off half-cocked.” We must “bite the bullet,” consolidate our purpose, coordinate our efforts, and develop the political and social will to protect and preserve Ft. George as part of our national heritage.

Button artifacts provide clues to the tale of Ft. George Cay.

Story & Photos By Dr. Neal V. Hitch, Director, Turks & Caicos National Museum

Buttons. They are intriguing to me. There have been many buttons found on Ft. George Cay. Many of these are now in the collection of the National Museum. Some are still in private collections.

Buttons found on Ft. George Cay

I find myself drawn to the buttons. As an artifact category, they are a fairly high percentage of the Ft. George collection. They are more than artifacts. They are a human scale artifact that connects the human condition through history. We all still button our shirt, no differently than some soldier at Ft. St. George over 200 years ago.

Something as simple as a button represents an actual person in the story of Ft. George. The biggest part of the word “history,” after all, is “story.” Something as simple as a button should remind us that the history of Ft. George is the “story” of the individual people who served there. The buttons are also one of the the key clues to determining who served at the fort.

Buttons as artifacts

As artifacts, the buttons also offer clues to who actually manned the fort at Ft. St. George. This owes to the fact that the Royal Regiments of Foot, the military units of the British army, often wore buttons on their uniforms that were specific to their individual regiments. The buttons found on Ft. George Cay, then, should aid in determining the Royal military regiments that served at the fort.

The uniforms worn by British soldiers were strictly regulated by a series of official warrants. Regulations such as the Royal Warrant of 1768 and the 1802 Uniform Regulations specified the official form, color, pattern, and dimension. In other words, these regulations provided uniformity to the uniform each solider wore.

During the American Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the rough period when Ft. George was occupied,  the British Regiments wore the “redcoat” uniform. This basically consisted of a long wool coat dyed red. The cuffs, lapels, and collar were faced with a color distinct to each regiment. Soldiers wore the coat open revealing a buttoned waistcoat (vest) and breeches (pants). What is important here is that the 1768 Warrant specified that the labels and cuffs of the jacket were to be fastened with pewter buttons cast with the regimental number.

“Gaiters,” a black woolen cloth that wrapped the lower leg around the shoe and up to the knee (in pictures they look like boots) were also worn. These were held on by regimental buttons sewn onto the breeches above the knee. The gaiter also had small plain buttons set on equal distances.

Buttons found on Ft. George Cay

Buttons in the museum collection can be separated into two groups, buttons with no markings and regimental buttons. Plain buttons were worn on gaiters, breeches, shirts, and the waistcoat. These buttons were often small. Some were gilt plated, being gold in color. By official ordinance, back markings on these buttons are marked “GILT.” Several of these buttons have been found.

Plain buttons are very hard to date, but most of the plain buttons found certainly can be attributed as uniform buttons, and most were found in proximity to regimental buttons.

One button found during the survey in November, 2009 has the back marking “C Jennens London” and includes the small stamp of the Prince of Wales Plume. The Jennens company manufactured military buttons, but they only used the the plume stamp after 1860. This certainly is a puzzle.

The regimental buttons known to have come from Ft. George also present a mystery. Archival documents have been found indicating at least three regiments on Ft. George. These include the 67th of Foot, the 63rd of Foot, and the 47th of Foot. One of the objectives of the archaeological survey was to find uniform buttons that would confirm archival evidence. In fact, no buttons have been found for these regiments. Buttons that have been uncovered suggest additional regiments that are not mentioned in historical records found to this point.

Regiments at Ft. St. George

Royal Artillery

Three Royal Artillery buttons are in the Ft. George collection. These copper alloy buttons have a shield with three cannon balls above three field cannons. This type of button was only used on the uniform of a member of a Royal Artillery detachment.

By 1771, the Royal Regiment of Artillery had expanded to 32 companies. Often, when regiments of foot were on garrison duty or in the field, they were augmented by individual members of Royal Artillery. For instance, 10 gunners from the Royal Artillery were stationed in the batteries on Bermuda while the 99th of Foot was on garrison there.

In 1803, Thomas Brown wrote that a contingent of the “63rd and Royal Artillery” arrived at Ft. George in 1797. There were batteries on Ft. George. The buttons show that the cannons on these batteries were manned by members of the Royal Artillery.

47th Regiment of Foot, Lancashire Regiment

In 1801, Lt. Col. Paulus Aemilius Irving wrote a letter seeking a land grant in the Caicos Islands owing to his six years of service there with the 47th of Foot. Irving, the son of the deputy governor of Quebec, had served with the 47th during the American Revolution at the battle of Lexington, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and had been captured and interned for the duration of the war with most of the 47th at Saratoga.

In 1790 the regiment was dispatched to the West Indies for garrison duty on several islands throughout the Caribbean. Beginning in 1793, detachments of the 47th Regiment of Foot manned the forts in Bermuda. A history of the Royal Military in Bermuda suggests that when they were ordered back to England in 1802, they returned with other members in the Turks Islands and Nassau.

No buttons for this regiment have been found at Ft. St. George. The connection of the 47th to Bermuda and the Bahamas, however, might be important. The 7th Royal Fusiliers replace the 47th after their departure. Five companies of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, the London Company, were on garrison from 1802 to 1806 and a 7th Royal Fusilier button has been found on Ft. George.

7th Royal Fusiliers, City of London Company

One 7th Royal Fusiliers button has been found on Ft. George and is currently in a private collection.

There is some indication that companies may have been on station in the Bahamas in 1802 and 1803. One of the puzzles with the Ft. George buttons is that there is a 7th Royal Fusilier button in a private collection. Is it possible that garrison duties at Ft. George were tied into the garrison duties in Bermuda?

99th Regiment of Foot

Three buttons have been found on Ft. George from the 99th. One is in the collection of the National Museum. Though all of the buttons are very deteriorated, under magnification the “99” on the button is  clear.

In 1807, the 99th Regiment of Foot replaced the 7th  Royal Fusiliers in Bermuda and may have been in Bermuda until 1815. The 99th had possibly already been serving in the Bahamas. It is very difficult to accurately track this regiment as six different regiments operated under the number. The 99th of Foot, Jamaica Regiment, was raised in the 1780s and disbanded in 1784. A second 99th of Foot was raised in 1804 and served until 1816, when it was renumbered.

18th Regiment of Foot, Royal Irish

Four buttons in the collection of the National Museum seam to be associated with the Royal Irish regiment.

The 18th of Foot was the Royal Irish Regiment. During the 1790s, the regiment was fighting in Corsica and Gibraltar. In 1805, however, the regiment was dispatched to Jamaica, where it served until being recalled in 1817, after having last 50 officers and 3,000 men to sickness.

2nd West India Regiment

Two buttons in the collection of the National Museum have been identified as the 2nd West India Regiment. Both of these buttons have back marks indicating they were manufactured by Nutting and Son, which means they were produced after 1802.

The 2nd West India regiment was raised in Jamaica in 1795. The regiment had British officers, but recruits were slaves or free blacks. British losses in the Caribbean eventually resulted in the establishment of 12 regiments, owing to the thought that seasoned local troops would last longer than English soldiers.  There is some indication that by 1807 all outposts in the Bahamas were manned by troops raised in the West Indies.

Conclusion

What all of the above suggests is that we have just scratched the surface of the story of Ft. St. George. The story may be much more detailed than first thought. The button evidence to this point suggests that perhaps many regiments of the British army served garrison duty on Ft. George. Perhaps the fort is garrisoned for a much, much longer period of time than previously understood. One thing is for sure. The buttons of several regiments have been found. This means that there were many different uniforms on Ft. George. More than likely there were soldiers in these uniforms, and more than likely these soldiers were part of a garrison regiment and not a random event, such as someone in the wrong uniform. More research will be necessary to flush out the story of who served on Ft. George, but the buttons are a good place to start.

Although recent field work revealed more Ft. George history, will time run out?

By Dr. Donald Keith, Trustee, Turks & Caicos National Museum & President, Ships of Discovery

November 7, 2009 marked the end of our two weeks of field work on Ft. George Cay. It was a little sad to backfill the test excavations, take down our base camp, and shuttle everything back to Pine Cay. We didn’t accomplish as much as I hoped, but there’s nothing new about that. I’ve always been suspicious that meeting all your goals may mean that they weren’t set high enough to start with.

The remains of Fort George Cay are rapidly eroding into the sea.

There is still a lot of Ft. George Cay to explore. We did not set foot on every square meter of land or comb the shallows offshore as thoroughly as I intended. Clumps of really dense bush discouraged us from testing many promising areas. But we managed to accurately map the locations where we found evidence of habitation and put them on geo-registered high-resolution digital aerial photos of Ft. George Cay using a program called Ozieexplorer. This is important because the part of the cay currently protected by legislation is only one acre. The maps now irrefutably demonstrate that structures and artifacts belonging to the fort cover at least eight acres and probably much more.

That same night we gave a brief presentation at the Meridian Club. For us it was an honor and a privilege because many of the people who pioneered the exploration of Ft. George decades ago were in the audience. We owe them a lot. They have been the custodians of the fort for more than 30 years. They are the ones who brought Ft. George and its history to our attention, the ones who first voiced alarm at how rapidly it is eroding into the sea, and the ones who made this expedition possible. They initiated research in Great Britain and elsewhere to pick up the wispy historical threads that reveal who built the fort, when it was constructed, and why. One Pine Cay couple has already donated their collection of documents, maps, and artifacts to the Museum and another collection is pledged. A very accurate and highly detailed map of the principal ruins that they made in 1998, when compared with ours, furnishes incontrovertible evidence of the rate of erosion experienced by the part of the fort closest to shore. At least 40 feet of it has fallen into the sea in the last 11 years!

Researchers on Ft. George Cay screen soil from the test excavation site.

Although the field work portion of our archaeological exploration of Ft. George is finished, the project is far from over. We have artifacts and samples to clean, conserve, and analyze, articles and reports to write, and exhibits to prepare. This issue of the Astrolabe features the first research efforts on the artifacts in the Ft. George collection. They are brief, but the articles represent information that has been put together in just the last four weeks. This represents a very good beginning.

We hope that our efforts will engender a greater awareness of the historical importance of Ft. George, how rapidly shore erosion is destroying parts of it, and how time for efforts to protect and preserve it is running out.

Seed banking protects native plants from future perils.

By B. Naqqi Manco, Senior Conservation Officer, Turks & Caicos National Trust

Deep inside an underground fortification, with thick concrete walls, little light, and frigid temperatures, something sleeps. The slumbering one lies with others of its kind, waiting . . . and they may wait for a year, or ten, or hundreds. Theoretically, they may sleep for several thousand years. Most ideally, they will never have to be awakened, but if they are, their work will be vital to the survival of their kind.

The sleepers are the amazing distance and time travellers of the plant world — they are seeds. The deep fortress that defends their sleep is the Millennium Seed Bank in West Sussex, England. Founded by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, at their Wakehurst Place site, the Millennium Seed Bank was developed with the aim of long term conservation of 10% of the world’s plant species by the year 2010. Comprising laboratories and offices on the ground level and seed vaults below ground, the facility receives seeds from all over the world and cleans, tests, and stores them for the future protection of thousands of plant species.

Cockspur tree

The Seed Bank has sent several representatives to the Turks & Caicos Islands over the years that the Turks & Caicos National Trust has worked with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on collaborative projects. In 2008, with a grant from the Millennium Seed Bank, the Turks & Caicos National Trust embarked on a six month seed collection project aiming to collect and bank 75 species of plants native to the Turks & Caicos Islands — less than 20% of our native plant species, but still ambitious.

Humans have been collecting and storing seeds for millennia. Seasonal crops are stored between growing times as seeds. Seeds are kept as medicines, talismans, jewellery, and even toys. Seeds that we eat as staples, which we call grains, must be protected from insect pests, water, light, mould, and other damage. Modern agriculture has adapted to the fragility of seeds, and agribusiness now makes sure that seeds are kept in     vacuum-sealed light-proof pouches, treated with fungicide, and distributed at the proper growing times. The survival of our food plants is ensured, long-term, by our very own need to survive.

But humans have not yet unlocked the helpful potential of most plant species. Many, due to our own ignorance, are considered useless. While about 80% of our modern medicines are plant derivatives, we find it easier to produce them in laboratories and manufacture them into capsule form than to grow, harvest, and process the raw plants. Before the Industrial Revolution, most of our colouring agents were plant-sourced, but modern chemical dyes have made many plant-sourced dyes fall from popularity. And even though scientists ever discover new, and potentially life-saving, alkaloids in plants, we often ignore the plants under our feet without thinking that they may have a use far beyond our scope of understanding.

One such plant whose uses have largely evaded global culture thus far is the National Flower of the Turks & Caicos Islands, the Turks & Caicos heather Limonium bahamense. Small, tough, and understated, this plant displays a subtle, stoic beauty to anyone who looks close enough. It stands out in its habitat only because it grows where other plants cannot — on rocky, salt-encrusted mud along the salinas and salt marshes of several islands in the Turks & Caicos. These few spots, many threatened by development of the constant dredging and filling of swamps for human use, comprise the entire worldwide range of this species. It exists nowhere else on Earth. Populations are known on Grand Turk, South Caicos, and Big Ambergris Cay; more recently it has been found on Middle Caicos as well. Salt Cay is certainly its centre of distribution, where it takes advantage of both the salina walls and low, salt-sprayed rocky hills of the island — habitats that stunt and kill most other plants. Turks & Caicos heather lives where it lives because it can tolerate salt, drought, and low nutrient levels; it also lives where it lives because it cannot compete with larger plants in other habitats. It also cannot compete with human development, which is rapidly reducing its available habitat.

Many plants, like the Turks & Caicos heather, face threats from human activity. People over-harvest trees for charcoal, burn vegetation for agriculture, introduce exotic pests and diseases that kill native plants, and bulldoze or bury plants that are simply in the way. Plants cannot relocate themselves — the price they pay for the ability to derive energy directly from sunlight is their locomotion.

Endemic Caicos Orchid is found nowhere else on earth

Individual plants have no ability to run away from danger, but they do have a way to move. Most plants produce seeds as their progeny. Seeds are typically small, well-protected, and contain everything needed to make a new plant. Seeds come in all shapes and sizes. The smallest seeds belong to orchids, and consist of very little besides a genetic code in a papery husk — they can float on the slightest air current to travel thousands of miles (the common monk orchid Oeceocades maculata, originated in Madagascar but travelled, on its own, to the Caribbean — including the Turks & Caicos Islands — on hurricane winds through the past century). The largest seeds belong to the palms, and while they cannot fly, they can float on sea currents for thousands of miles. Seeds have wings, parachutes, floats, sticky barbs and spines, hooked hairs, droplets of gluey resin, and other adaptations that help them travel to new locations by wind, water, and animal power. Some plants produce seeds in fruits that are explosive or ballistic — the Mediterranean squirting cucumber can blast its seeds in a jet of juice several metres away.

Many seeds not only travel physically, but also have the ability to travel temporally. If conditions are not suitable for the seed to grow, it simply lies dormant and waits until the right conditions occur. But in today’s world, seeds are almost as likely to land on a paved road and get washed into a drain to their demise as to end up somewhere ideal to grow. Wild habitats are shrinking as humans consume more land for development. Pests and diseases from far-off lands, accidentally imported by human activity and against which native plants may have no defence, threaten a sprouting seed. Drawing on an idea as old as agriculture, scientists around the world began working collaboratively several decades ago to create seed banks — repositories for seeds that would hedge against the extinction of plant species should disaster befall the growing plants.

Storage can be done with any seed that can dry out and be triggered back to life by the right conditions. Such seeds, which comprise most plant species, are called orthodox seeds. Orthodox seeds can be put through the necessary processes for seed banking, and survive in the seed bank conditions — some have estimated dormant lifespans of thousands of years. Orthodoxy is one of the first determinations that must be made before seeds are collected, a process that begins in the native range of plant species.

Collecting seeds from the Turk's Head Cactus

To start the collection process, botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Turks & Caicos National Trust teamed up to create a target list of species to collect. Using the master plant list of the Turks & Caicos Islands, the team first removed species of plants which are known not to produce orthodox seeds. The Agave century plants, Zephyranthes rain lilies, and most palms bear seeds that are recalcitrant, meaning they must be planted while still fresh and moist, and so were not included as targets. The team then focused on priority plants — most notably, plants endemic only to the Turks & Caicos Islands and southern Bahamas. These were classed as high priority collection targets, as were ecologically important native plants. Some native plants were made a lower priority simply because the numbers needed to bank seeds — 10,000 seeds is the ideal — would just not be available due to some plant species’ determined lack of fecundity or their rarity in the Islands.

The collection process begins with locating an appropriately sizeable population of plants producing seed (or fruit containing seed). The seeds are examined by hand for ripeness (to make sure they’re mature enough to collect), damage (to make sure they’re not filled with beetle grubs or mouldy inside), and fertility (to be sure they’ll actually grow). This is usually done by slicing a few seeds open and checking for healthy food reserves and plant embryos; this also gives the collector a chance to estimate how many seeds are in each fruit and thus how many fruits must be collected for the target amount. Unripe seeds are noted for later collection. This can be a tricky proposition, as some fruits ripen by bursting open, scattering the seeds hither and yon, impractical to harvest. In other cases, a plant may ripen its fruits perfectly, but the team may return to discover that the entire harvest has already been made by birds and lizards!

When the right conditions for collection are found, seed collector Melanie Visaya and team members first collect an herbarium specimen of the mother plant. This pressed, dried plant acts as a voucher for the team’s identification in the future. The location of the population is logged by GPS, and its size is estimated. Seeds are then collected into bags, but the team will strive to remove no more than 20% of the available seed from the plants. This ensures that plenty of seed is left behind to interact with the ecosystem’s food web as intended by nature.

Seed collection itself is simple. One team member likened it to the primeval practice of the “gathering” aspect of hunter-gatherer peoples. The practice is very natural-feeling and after several minutes becomes almost soothing and mesmerising. I’d choose fruit-picking over throwing a flint spear at a woolly mammoth any day.

When bags of fruit or seed are collected, they are transferred to the Middle Caicos Conservation Centre, where the herbarium specimens are dried and the fruit is laid out in cardboard trays to dry it as well. Fleshy berries, which go mouldy quickly, are sometimes cleaned by hand by squashing and washing in water. Fruit capsules that dry and pop open are covered with newspaper to prevent the all-too-familiar “ping” of seeds flinging forth from ballistic capsules, rattling across the laboratory floor. Some fruits, such as those of the southern Bahamas and TCI endemic Britton’s Hibiscus Hibiscus brittonianus, are covered with highly irritant hairs and are cleaned outdoors with protective clothing. Other fruit, due to its irresistible flavour to insects or rodents, must be dried inside the lab to prevent predation. A few offer pleasant surprises — the TCI and Bahamas endemic “stinky bush” Eupatorium lucayanum fills a room with a deliciously gentle minty-lavender scent as its fruiting heads dry. Others, such as the sea lavender Argusia gnaphallodes, created such a stench of rotten fish that they had to be exiled to an outdoor patio.

When the seeds are fully dry, they are packaged for shipment to the United Kingdom. After TCI export permits, UK import permits, and other paperwork is in hand, the seeds are shipped by courier, with their respective herbarium specimens and collection data, to the Millennium Seed Bank. There, technicians will clean the seed professionally in laboratories. Many fruit juices inhibit germination (the plant doesn’t usually want its seed growing while still inside the fruit) so they are cleaned thoroughly of juices and fleshy parts. Husks and capsules are removed, and parts are fully dried in special dry rooms so that all that remains is clean, dry seed.

The seeds then go through a quality control process that literally weeds out the unfit. Some are cut open to re-check fertility and pest damage. Groups are X-ray scanned to reveal hidden flaws or pests. A selection will be sterilised and planted on sterile agar in a clean room to test their germination rates and ratios. Meanwhile, the herbarium specimens are reviewed by plant family experts to verify the identifications. Most amazingly, while all of this work is happening, it is being observed by Wakehurst Place garden visitors. The entire Millennium Seed Bank workspace is bisected by a large exhibit hall with glass walls, so that all parts of the seed banking process are fully visible to school groups and garden visitors.

When a batch of seed passes this series of examinations, it will be sorted into containers, labelled, and taken down to the Millennium Seed Bank’s lower level. There, it will be filed into one of the many cold storage facilities which are held at a constantly low humidity and below-freezing temperatures. Here, the seed sleeps. It is only awoken if its country of origin needs it. The Millennium Seed Bank does not sell, trade, or gift seed without the expressed permission of the country of origin.

There, as of November 2009, collections from over 100 native Turks & Caicos Islands plants are held in conservation storage. The Seed Bank has been compared to Noah’s Ark; a time-travel ship with a hold of precious reproductive cargo intended to safeguard species against extinction. The seed bank now holds collections of all known island populations of Turks & Caicos heather, as well as several other endemic plants such as Britton’s buttonbush Borreria brittonii. Another national symbol, the Turk’s Head cactus, is protected there. In a dizzying regret of hindsight, the project began after the attack of the pine scale insect on the Caicos pine, and pine seeds have not yet been banked. This is exactly the sort of future threat, though, against which numerous native plant species are now protected due to their seed having been banked.

Not all seeds can be banked. Some seeds must be planted while they are still fresh and moist. A coconut is a seed, but try planting one that has lost its water reserves or has been frozen, and you would be wasting your time. Many palms and other plants are similar — their seeds cannot grow once their insides have dried through. These non-bankable seeds, which are referred to as recalcitrant seeds, pose a special conservation challenge that seed banking cannot meet. They remind us that while conservation storage of seeds is an excellent safeguard against extinction of some species, it is the wild habitats that must be preserved to prevent extinctions on the long term scale. Noah’s Ark is a good analogy for seed banking, but we must assure that there is somewhere for the ark to come ashore for its sleeping splendour to grow, thrive, and bloom for the future.

The Caicos Pride seafood plant takes proactive steps to stay competitive.

By Tara Malcolm, Quality Assurance Manager, Caicos Pride Ltd.

The spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) is an important resource for the Turks & Caicos Islands and even more so for South Caicos. The “Big South,” as the island is affectionately known, is known as the fishing capital of the country, with approximately 75% of its working population in some way connected to the fishing industry.

Fishing for the spiny lobster has seen a downturn since the passage of Hurricane Ike in 2008. While current scientific analysis on the status of the lobster industry is still pending, the experienced fishermen have concluded that finding lobster is now more difficult than it was before.

While suggesting a number of reasons for the downturn in the industry, the fisher folks are positive that lobster fishing now takes more effort, but results in diminishing return. The use of more gas and oil (at a higher price!) to travel further distances out to sea and the necessity of more time spent harvesting the lobster should result in more money for the landed product. Unfortunately, economics does not always strictly dictate market price.

Seafood plants in the TCI and elsewhere purchase lobster from the fishermen at a price that is dictated by the selling price of the product in its primary market. The United States is the main purchaser of lobsters from the Turks & Caicos Islands. With the recession hitting the US hard, there is less demand and falling prices for lobsters. In fact, the 2009 lobster season started off shakily with poor prices and little demand. Seafood processing plants like Caicos Pride Products Ltd. buy and process lobsters only with faith that there will be a future market.

Caicos Pride seafood plant in South Caicos.

Caicos Pride Products Ltd. is a locally owned seafood processing plant located on South Caicos. It processes lobster, conch, and scale fish. The company started operation in 1999 under the leadership of Jimmy Baker. After eight years of working in the seafood industry, first as a fisherman and later as plant manager for one of the processing plants in South Caicos, Jimmy became the general manager of Caicos Pride. With an eye for detail and a commitment to quality, Jimmy knew from the start that he wanted to take seafood processing to another level in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Under Jimmy’s command, Caicos Pride has evolved to become the leading seafood processing plant in the country.

Caicos Pride is a modern facility with a product flow that ensures food safety and quality. Products are processed by highly skilled, educated and diligent staff.  The majority of Caicos Pride’s workers have been with the company for over three years and some have even been with the plant since inception. The Caicos Pride management team has over 60 years combined experience in seafood processing and a staff member who is the recipient of the “Longest Serving Seafood Worker Award” presented by the TCI’s Department of Environment and Coastal Resources.

Jimmy Baker is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the seafood industry but is buffeted by many challenges. The price of lobster in the marketplace has decreased but the processing overhead has increased. The price for electricity, water and demands from suppliers have significantly reduced the profitability of the processing sector. However, Caicos Pride has been proactive and keeps positioning itself to meet the needs of its local and international customers. In 2008, Caicos Pride marked another milestone when it became the first local seafood plant to employ a quality control manager in its drive to maintain the provision of quality seafood for its customers. According to Jimmy, in difficult times such as the current recession, it is critical that Caicos Pride maintains the quality of its products to ensure that customers get the best for their hard-earned money.

Caicos Pride’s desire to protect their valued customers and the seafood industry led them to implement the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. HACCP is the premier food safety system that was first developed by the Pillsbury Company for NASA in the 1960s, in an effort to prevent astronauts from getting foodborne illness while in space. It was adapted in the US by the food industry in 1973 in response to a number of botulism outbreaks associated with canned products. In the mid-1980s, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that the HACCP approach be adopted by all regulatory agencies and that it is mandatory for all food processors.

Caicos Pride Products is the only HACCP certified seafood plant in the Turks & Caicos Islands. HACCP is an internationally acceptable technique for ensuring food safety. The HACCP system allows food operators to assess hazards to food safety throughout the food flow and to put measures in place to assure the safety of the end product. An establishment that is HACCP certified signifies that the company is taking all reasonable steps to provide product of the highest standard. It enhances a company’s image, boost customers’ confidence and conforms to regulatory requirements.

Caicos Pride sees its employees as its most important asset and they, too, are also faced with challenges during this recession. In order to keep workers motivated and to help them through this difficult time, Caicos Pride has implemented a number of staff incentive programs, one of which is the Staff Member of the Quarter Award. Each quarter, one worker is selected for their contribution to the company and is given a cash award and other memorabilia.

Caicos Pride also believes in lending a helping hand to the community. Over the years, Caicos Pride has constantly supported educational and social programs in South Caicos and has been involved in philanthropic activities. They recognize the need to give back to the community as an important role of the company.

What’s next?

Caicos Pride packs local lobster tails for international distribution.

Caicos Pride wants to expand its base in the scale fish industry and be able to satisfy the demand in the local market. In addition, Caicos Pride wants to be able to provide employment for workers during the closed seasons.  Lobster season runs from August 1 to March 31 and conch season from October 15 to July 15. In addition to the closed season, conch also has a quota and in some instances (such as the 2008 season), the quota was exhausted as early as March resulting in the plant being closed for four months. During the closed season, processing and exporting of these products are prohibited and therefore many persons are out of work.

According to a 1990 report, the TCI fin-fish fishery is believed to be underutilized, and is therefore considered to be robust with a potential yield of 70–140 kg/km off the shelf perimeter of the Turks & Caicos Islands. Sustainable fishing in this area will therefore allow for the expansion of the economic base of South Caicos. Caicos Pride is working to take advantage of this opportunity,  which will allow restaurants to provide visitors with authentic local cuisine and provide an opportunity for locals to get jobs during the closed season, thereby, contributing to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

Caicos Pride has also diversified its marketing strategy. Cleaned, packaged, frozen Gold conch, tenderized conch and conch trimmings, along with lobster tails in a variety of sizes can now be ordered on-line at www.caicoslobsterandconch.com for shipping worldwide.

According to Jimmy Baker, “surviving this recession requires you to diversify, be innovative and see the opportunity in every situation, while at the same time, having a vision of where you want to go.” There’s no doubt that Caicos Pride, “King of Quality Seafood,” plans to provide quality seafood to the people of the Turks & Caicos Islands and the world far into the future.

For more information on Caicos Pride, visit www.caicoslobsterandconch.com.

This Loyalist likely lived on North Caicos and helped build Ft. St. George.

By Dr. Charlene Kozy, former professor and president of  Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee

The master's house at Wade's Green, North Caicos.

In my previous article, “Follow the Chimneys”  (Spring 2009 Times of the Islands), local plantations were described as to content and their relation to a new community. To further learn and understand this early history, the individuals that immigrated  and built the community should be studied. Each has an unique and fascinating story. Let’s begin with Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown of His Majesty’s Kings Rangers.

Thomas Brown was born in the seaport town of Whitby in Yorkshire, England. His father Jonas Brown was from a distinguished and titled family and his mother was the granddaughter of Isaac Newton. He received a classical education and sailed on his father’s ships to the New World transacting business from Nova Scotia to Barbados. He spoke of the cordial treatment from the American colonists and decided to settle there, specifically in Georgia.

Unfortunately for Brown, he arrived in America when a movement for independence from England was strong, although it seemed far away in Boston. Brown attended one of the “Sons of Liberty” meetings where he spoke freely of allegiance to the King and refused to sign a document known as the “Continental Association” which declared allegiance to a rebellion. Brown had been honored with a magistracy appointment and had taken an oath to uphold British law.

After the meeting, he was followed home by “a hundred or so” men. After a vigorous defense, he was brutally assaulted, tarred and feathered, partially scalped and tied to a tree with fire under his feet that caused the loss of toes. The greatest harm was a blow to his head that came from behind and left him unconscious for two days and  with headaches for the rest of his life. He even submitted to brain surgery to remove any bone fragments that might have lodged in his brain. Nothing stopped his headaches. His feet were so damaged that he was known as “Burntfoot Brown” throughout the war.

The mistreatment of Brown brought the Loyalists one of their ablest leaders who would repay the “Sons of Liberty” in full measure. In a letter to his father he said, “I do not wish to take up arms against the country that gave me being.” He understood commitment and his five years in the American Revolutionary War gave him experience.

A new home on North Caicos

Following the unsuccessful war in America, the British government began aiding the banished Americans in finding new homes. Surveys in 1782 and 1783 established which islands in the Bahamas were uninhabited and the kind of soil each had. The Caicos Islands were found as uninhabited and “having the best soil.”

Claims were made systematically relating to losses in America. Considerations were given to those who had performed “exceptional services,” and those who had borne arms. The total acreage granted on North Caicos was 10,090 acres and on Middle Caicos 4,814 acres.

The military grantees were obviously favored over the non-military grantees and were high-ranking commissioned officers. Although the number of actual grants to the military was approximately one in four, the average acreage per grant was approximately 680 for military and 189 for non-military. The largest percent of the grantees were from Georgia, South Carolina and East Florida with the exception of Stephen De Lancey, a high ranking officer from New York. His plantation is noted on present day maps by its name “Greenwich” on North Caicos. William Farr was the only grantee who was originally from the Bahamas. The grants were issued between 1789 and 1790. The planters built homes, roads, planted crops and were beginning to be a community.

Thomas Brown received eight grants of land in 1789 and one in 1790. The grants totaled 4,560 acres and some sources have his acreage as high as 8,000. Many grantees named their plantation as Brown named Brownsborough in Georgia. The location of his plantation home has not been identified since no appraisal was made and a name not recorded. A clue might be that his future father-in-law, William Farr, received 380 acres “on the southward of the salt pond between Pumpkin’s Bluff and three rocks bounded on the north by the said salt pond and on the east by Thomas Brown’s.” Farr called his plantation “Cottage.” Mr. Farr died in l800 and it is likely that Brown’s house was nearby since it became a familial household with widow Farr, her sister and Charles Fox Taylor (an Indian Loyalist from Georgia) living there. The coastal town of Whitby, North Caicos was undoubtedly named for Brown’s birthplace, Whitby, England.

The West Indies had been described as a virtual money-box to both the British and French for over 100 years. After a short ten years of peace, the humiliated British Navy set out to re-establish sea power and acquire the entire French possessions in the West Indies beginning in 1793. The proximity of the Caicos created a threat to the fledging Island settlement.

Protecting Fort St. George

“The water is clear and cannons are easily seen lying partially buried in the sand.”

Dr. Donald Keith,  2007

Crumbling remains of fort on Ft. George Cay

This is what we see now, but let’s drift back in time to the 1790s and visualize Fort St. George Harbor. In letters written in 1805 by Thomas Brown to the Earl of Camden and the Under Secretary of State he tells how he met the threat of a French invasion in an area “totally out of the protection of government and is daily exposed to capture or destruction.”

With this daily reminder of what could happen, he states that “he (the petitioner) also constructed two forts,  barracks for soldiers at his own expense and provided the same with fourteen cannons, ammunition, and other military stores for the defence of the Island and provided the same with and equipped and manned 14 guns from the last war for the defence of Saint George Harbor.” He mentioned in the last paragraph that a furnace was constructed for “the heating of shot.”

The letter continues, “that for the security of his  property on the Caicos, as will be more fully appear by documents delivered to the Lord of the Treasury, he armed, clothed, and disciplined . . . all of his Negro men during the whole of the last war and never had a cause to repent of the trust in their fidelity.”

There is no account of the fort being tested by a French invasion but one rousing activity was reported in the Bahama Gazette of August 21, 1798:

“A ship bound for Grand Caicos was wrecked on West Caicos. Brown and other planters sent their boats to retrieve goods belonging to them. As the supplies were being transferred into the small boats, a French privateer came up under full sail. Four vessels made a run for it, but Brown’s men decided to fight for their possessions. The all-black crew was armed with only a two-pounder cannons and muskets, but they drove off the Frenchmen repeatedly. The heavier armed privateer stayed out of range of Brown’s defenders and used its cannons to sink Brown’s boat. The valiant crew swam ashore.”

A letter from Brown to his father Jonas Brown in Whitby, England told of the battle and wrote, “I was so proud of my men, I did not mind the loss of the goods.” For slaves to be armed without fear of a rebellion or running away is more than unusual, it is unheard of on American plantations. The attitude of slave owners was to keep watch and severe punishment was inflicted for any suspicion of disloyalty.

He shows his understanding of the efforts in the West Indies by suggesting that the troops going to Jamaica be sent to the Caicos “for seasoning” to reduce the mortality rate. He further proposes the establishment of “a naval and military camp hospitals on Pine Key . . . For the people with contagious disorders might have a chance of recovery in pure air.”

In a later letter Brown offers to “with pleasure (if deemed necessary) embark with 100 armed Negroes . . . or any service I am capable from my local or military knowledge” to aid in the war.

In the several letters recorded in the Colonial Office, Brown repeats his concern for the safety and welfare of the inhabitants of the Caicos Island and that Ft. St. George was a vulnerable place because of its deep harbors, and urged that it be strengthened to withstand any attack.

Happy days

Thomas Brown’s ten year stay on North Caicos was perhaps the happiest time in his life. He received land in March, 1789–90 and in October 1789, the Gazette announced his marriage to Ester Farr of Nassau, the 16-year old daughter of Captain William Farr and his wife Sarah “on the Caicos.” Projecting, it is possible that the two met in Nassau, fell in love and with Brown’s influence, Farr received land on the Caicos. Her young age would support the desirability of her parents moving with her. Thomas and Ester (Hetty) had four children born on the Caicos. Mary Frances, Thomas Alexander Murray, Charles Susan Baring, and Susan Harriet — who was her father’s favorite.

Since there was no appraisal, the contents of his household are not known as it is with other plantations;  however, the structure of property and management of the plantation is known and in comparison to other plantations is most unusual.

In a petition written to the Earl of Camden requesting land on St. Vincent, Brown describes his plantation as having 643 Negro slaves (he did not own slaves in America, his servants were white indentured) and 15 white overseers and their families situated on 13 cotton plantations and one sugar estate. He allowed each slave (or family) to live on an acre of land. Mathematically, this would encompass at least 300 acres and would spread the slaves’ living quarters instead of slave row houses found on other plantations.

With the acreage he owned, he could support these large numbers and still show a profit. He recorded, as being cultivated, 3,000 acres in cotton, 1,000 in grapes, and 700 in corn to feed his people. Trees were used as wind barriers and fences. This eliminated the laboriously built stone fences found in other plantations. For profit, he claimed his estate made 20,000 pounds each year.

A unique feature of Brown’s plantation goes beyond “arming and disciplining” his Negro men. It is the total lifestyle he created for “his people.”

He wrote more than once about the treatment of his slaves; i.e. not asking his people to do tasks that animals could so such as turning heavy wheels of grist or sugar mills. He would buy a slave from another plantation for marriage at his plantation and his policy was to not sell his people. His relationship and trust in his slaves are exemplified in the arming of the men, allowing them to have land of their own and respecting their tasks performed and family life.

The death of his father on March 28, 1799, the proximity to rebellious islands, and the slowing of profit on the Caicos caused Brown to return to Whitby, England. The danger of the seas and an illness delayed his departure until June 1802. He gathered his children, now age 11 and younger, Hetty’s mother Sarah Farr and Black Nancy, the housekeeper with her mulatto son George to make the trip.

It is speculated that George was Thomas’s son. In his will that was written at St. Vincent he gave a certificate of freedom for some “faithful Negroes who had given unequivocal proofs of affection for him and pay to Nancy  Browne, his eldest and most faithful servant £10 annually during her life and give her a house and grounds upon his estate and in case of sickness or any casualty to demand the plantation allowance and medical attendance.” Cyree Browne and Maurice Moore Browne of the Caicos were mentioned in the will with similar gifts. They stayed on the Caicos to manage the cattle ranch when Brown moved to St. Vincent. (The will is courtesy of Joan Leggett, great-great-great-great  grandaughter of Thomas Brown.)

In Yorkshire, Brown bought Newton House from family members and moved his family there. A fifth child, George Newton Brown. was born at Yorkshire. Brown’s war record and fortune opened society’s doors and he was generally welcomed as a hero.

Brown’s plantation on the Caicos operated for a few years with overseers until he could clear his way to St. Vincent. King George III granted Brown’s request for 6,000 acres on November 10, 1804. He moved his family (with the exception of the younger children in school) to St. Vincent and in 1805 he procured a ship to transport his 643 Negroes and 15 white overseers. It was estimated that four or five trips would be necessary. It was in 1806 before the transition was complete. Brown returned to England and stayed until 1817 due to legal problems. The estate in St. Vincent would operate under the management of Tom Cayley, Brown’s nephew.

Upon returning  to St. Vincent, he built a mansion for his family. It was at this time that he added an “e” to change the spelling of his surname to Browne. He  named his house Montague House, honoring his ancestor Sir Anthony Browne, Viscount Montague, master of horse for King Henry VIII. Thomas Browne died on St. Vincent  on August 3, 1825 at the age of 75.

Conclusions

The only visible legacy of Thomas Brown on the Caicos Islands would be Fort St. George at St. George Harbor. Evidence of British soldiers has been found, which leads us to question the authenticity of Brown’s claim of constructing the fort. A study of the war with France which began in 1792 and was fought bitterly in the West Indies is necessary, along with the capability of Thomas Brown.

Thomas Brown was a soldier, a British soldier. He entered service for His Majesty George III when he was 25 years old in America. He fought with Cornwallis against George Washington in the southern arena during the American Revolution. He developed the “Southern Strategy” that lengthened the war. Thomas Brown took part in all the major engagements and many minor skirmishes over a five year period and lived to tell it.

History chronicles the bloody war in the South with Brown a major player. General Henry Lee asked Brown to surrender at Fort Cornwallis which stood near a river. Lee described it as “judiciously constructed, well finished and secure from storm.” The second fort was Colonel James Grierson’s house or Fort Grierson. The Americans attacked Fort Grierson and Brown covered the men there with a cannonade and led them to Fort Cornwallis. The ability of Thomas Brown to construct and properly man  them is supporting evidence of his construction of the fort with possibly the help of other inhabitants of the Island.

The war in the Caribbean and the British need to win there must be considered. The Caicos Islands were uninhabited until the land grants were made in 1789–1791. The war between the French and English began in 1793. Three years was not enough time to establish the importance that the sugar plantations in the West Indies had.

In addition, the old rivalry between the French and English heightened after the French and Indian War in America when the French lost all their lands to the English. The French were not hesitant to support the rebellious colonies in America in getting their freedom from England.

The renewal of war after only a ten year peace alerted the British to protect their maritime and commercial interests. It was decided by the British Secretary of State for Home and Colonies that the West Indies was “the first point to make perfectly certain.” The main crops were sugar, coffee and cotton, with sugar by far the largest commodity for over 100 years. France enjoyed the same productivity but on a slightly smaller scale. England was addicted to tea with sugar added.

Thus, the mission in the West Indies was to re-establish British sea power and a hope of acquiring the entire French overseas empire. In May 1797. Britain’s offensive military resources were exhausted. At least 20,000 deaths in the army in the Caribbean were recorded in 1797. By 1801, it is reasonable to assume that 43,750 white men died both in the Caribbean and en route. Men ready to fight were demoralized by diseases of malaria and yellow fever more than by the French soldiers or rebel slaves.

The British changed their strategy in 1796–97 to safeguard their possession admitting “the climate of the West Indies . . . has destroyed the armies of Great Britain.” After 1797, military operations in the Caribbean were subordinate in nature.

It was after 1797 and the evacuation of British armies in Saint Domingo that Thomas Brown made the plea for protection of the Caicos Islands and the description of  forts built by himself/inhabitants of the Caicos Islands. At the same time it is documented that

“young Neil Campbell entered the Army in 1797 . . . and in October 1798 we find him stationed at Jamaica as ensign in the 67th Regiment. In consequence of evacuation of St. Domingo by the British at that period and its delivery to Toussaint L’Ouverture the Negro Chief, the colonist of the Caicos, or Turks’ Islands, were apprehensive that an attack might be made upon them by the Blacks . . . a small detachment of the 67th Regiment, and a party of Artillery with guns and stores under the command of Ensign Neil Campbell. . . . the whole encircled by a reef of coral excepting in one part. Where there is deep water and anchorage within the reef.  . . . on a small bank opposite to this anchorage, Ensign Campbell placed his detachment and then proceded to construct fences, barricades and storehouses. . . . Neil Campbell returned to England in 1800.”

No mention is made of cannons or furnace for heating shot in the documentary. It is logical to assume, since his stay was barely one year, that he refurbished the living arrangements for soldiers in the existing fort.

In view of the global situation with England and France and a careful study of the encounters between the French and English in the West Indies exacerbated by malaria and yellow fever, logic and fact would strongly suggest that the British government did not build the fort (or two forts) on St. George Harbor; however, they did occupy it when Neil Campbell was sent as a reinforcement after Brown’s plea for support at the existing forts.

Sources

PRIMARY SOURCES

Bahama Registry

Colonial Office, British Public Record Office, 260/19

Letters from Thomas Brown to his father Jonas Brown

Joan Leggett, private collection

BOOKS

Cashin, Edward. The King’s Ranger. Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier.

Duffy, Michael. Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower. The British Expeditions to the West Indies and the War against Revolutionary France.

The Bahama Almanac and Register for the Year 1801. Memoir of Sir Neil Campbell.

NEWSPAPER

Bahama Gazette. Nassau, Bahamas. 1784–1800.  Microfilm copy in P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History, University of Florida.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Terry Smith

Lee Smith

Dr. Donald Keith

Editor’s Note: Dr. Donald Keith from Ships of Discovery and Dr. Neal Hitch of the TCI National Museum plan an expanded archaeological exploration project on Ft. George Cay from October 23 to November 6, 2009. We’ll keep you informed of the results.

Middle Caicos proves itself as “the little island that can.”

By Sara Kaufman ~ Photos By Claire Parrish

View of Mudjin Harbour from top of bluff in Middle Caicos

It has been a year since Hurricanes Hanna and Ike rampaged through the Turks & Caicos Islands, and despite the physical reminders of debris, broken infrastructure and fallen trees it seems a long time ago. Middle Caicos was comparatively fortunate, with damages to houses minimal and no injuries to residents — but the causeway between North and Middle Caicos was almost ruined. Memories of the storms are distant now, but the energy at the time was blazing!

Oddly, although Middle Caicos is the largest island in the Turks & Caicos at 48 square miles, the population is only about 300 people which makes for a very familiar and close community. Both during the storms and afterward, everyone pulled together to make sure supplies were available to those in need. In the pause between the two storms we had two days to ensure everyone was in shape to handle Category Five Hurricane Ike bearing down on us.

Hurricane Hanna had pummeled us with rain for days, trapped us in our homes for most of a week, ripped apart the asphalt, guardrails, lights and much of the causeway surface (making the causeway connecting Middle Caicos and North Caicos totally useless), toppled trees and flooded all the ponds and low areas. The rain and tidal surges turned the channel between North and Middle Caicos brown with runoff and bottom churn, showing a power none had expected from Hanna! On Thursday morning we hurried to take advantage of the respite before Ike was due Saturday afternoon, repairing leaks, hustling those stuck on Middle back to their islands, checking supplies, and ensuring neighbours were safe. Hanna had been long but kind in a strange sort of way, with no one hurt, no homes lost and no vehicles swept away.

Without the causeway — to which we had all grown quite accustomed — we were an isolated island once again and back to the old routine of trucks to the Pine Barrel ferry landing on Middle Caicos, across to Toby Rock landing on North Caicos by small boat, then trucks on the other shore to run up to Bottle Creek for food, propane, water and other supplies . . . then all in reverse to get the goods home to Middle Caicos. This shuttle system ran non-stop in the quiet two days after Hanna and before Ike.

Although flooding from Hanna’s monstrous rains cut off each village for normal vehicles to pass, major construction equipment could travel through the flooded road areas and keep us all in touch. While many residents were in the shelters, most preferred to remain at home, so ensuring all were taken care of in that short time span was a huge task. But by Saturday afternoon everyone was huddled down safely as Ike slammed into the country. Throughout the endless night the cell phones continued to work, making for heartbreaking conversations with folks in Grand Turk as their roofs lifted off and ours creaked ominously. Everyone was awed by the power of the storm.

Walking out of our burrow on Monday morning, peering through my fingers to see how much was left of our restaurant and office near the shore, afraid maybe all had been blown away, sent me to my knees when I saw all the buildings intact. Amazingly, the combination of Hanna with major rain and low winds, then Ike with major wind and no rain kept damages down for all.

One of our best advantages on Middle Caicos is the little power plant based there. Whereas normally electricity comes all the way from Providenciales, the local plant can run all power for Middle Caicos by itself. This emergency power plant ran flat out for weeks, keeping us in light, with running water and working refrigerators. As the causeway remained unusable for weeks, a steady stream of barrels of diesel fuel had to be manhandled across the water in small boats by volunteers, then hand pumped into the tanks at the plant — a fantastic effort.

Each day we moved forward, reaching out to each other and to friends and family in trouble on other Islands, offering whatever we could. Middle Caicos has five churches and a very devout population. Praise and thanks to a loving God echoed constantly in conversation, and an earnest appreciation of the simple life we share was much in evidence.

By early October the worst of the flooding was over, shingles had been replaced, schools reopened, the causeway debris bulldozed away and a rough bumpy roadway re-connected us to North Caicos. The fall passed as momentum was slowly regained for projects underway on Middle Caicos. Remarkably, these projects included four residential homes, two private commercial buildings, the ongoing government complex, a major study of the “pine yard” and the revival of a development agreement in Half Creek. We had four different contractors on their jobs, workers coming in from North by day and a current of optimism palpable as the projects grew toward completion. The local cable company restrung lines and the local realtor office remained open throughout! While the world economic outlook grew dim, great activity was in progress on Middle Caicos, the “little” island that can!

Daniel's Cafe in Conch Bar, Middle Caicos

As the 2008/9 tourist season moved forward, we met it head-on. The annual Valentine’s Day Cup festival in February proved the point — life on Middle Caicos was vibrant, healthy and happy. Day trips were promoted including the unique Conch Bar caves, local lunches, traditional handcrafts and a dazzling day of wide open scenery. In March, 2009 a well beloved eatery re-opened in brand-new premises on the seashore, and Daniel’s Café continues to serve mouthwatering cracked conch to those in the know. In April, 2009 the Middle Caicos Co-op opened its own shop, returning to Conch Bar ten years after it began! (The hurricanes had destroyed the shop in Providenciales and the co-op used the opportunity to re-claim its original home.) Middle Caicos, now and always, offers much to explore, along with a literal “breath of fresh air” and aura of peace, whether for a day or for a week and both tourists and TCI residents find a warm welcome.

Middle Caicos is a unique place, with those choosing to live there following their own rhythm, their own drummer, their own dreams . . . and building a modern lifestyle and sustainable economy in their own way. The future path of Middle Caicos is firmly in their capable hands.

The Middle Caicos Co-op Studio and Outlet sells traditional straw-work, modern art and a variety of handcrafts from a network of 60 island artisans. Wholesale, retail and custom orders are welcome. The store in Conch Bar is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM.

For more information, call 946-6132 or 231-4884 or visit www.middlecaicos.biz.

Preserving Turks & Caicos’ historical archives.

By Dr. Neal V. Hitch, Director, Turks & Caicos National Museum

Photos Courtesy Turks & Caicos National Museum

This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists on August 15, 2009, as part of a symposium on sustaining Caribbean archives. The theme of the symposium was the difficulty of sustaining archives in an area of the world where the climate is harsh and heritage preservation is not a cultural priority.

Remains of Turks & Caicos Government archives in 1997

For many years, there has been an idea of a government archives somewhere on Grand Turk. It was housed in the post office, and then moved to the old prison after the new prison was completed. When the old prison was restored for a cruise ship visitor attraction, the archive was moved to the fire truck garage behind the old police station on Middle Street. This is now a restaurant. Many people on Grand Turk tell stories of seeing archive materials shoveled into the back of a pickup truck. Others tell stories of large personal collections that a few individuals have. What is known for sure is that the archives people remember have become smaller, and smaller, and . . .

Government archives

In 1983, James H. Neal, under the auspices of the Caribbean Research Foundation, completed a partial inventory of the government archives that were located in the basement of the post office. The inventory was carried out by 14 volunteers, who paid their own way to get to Grand Turk and who worked for six weeks with no compensation. The intention of the project was to arrange, prepare, and appraise the records for a national archive, which was to be organized at the end of the project.

The project had two goals: 1) “to give the Government access to records of permanent value which are no longer maintained in active files;” and 2) “to make available to the citizens of the Turks & Caicos as well as to the broader scholarly community, the raw material for historical writing and teaching.” (Neal, p. 4)

When work began, it soon became apparent that the Government archival collection was too large for the goal of conservation and appraisal. What was accomplished was the survey of open records on the basement shelves. Canvas bags filled with records were left for a future survey. At the end of the project the archivists created an inventory of what was surveyed.

Included in this inventory are over 2,000 titles, representing thousands of records. These included: Presidential Correspondence 1862, 1878; Damage to Waterloo when President Campbell left: 1873; Appointment of President Misick; American Seaman vs. Crown, Wreck of the Frigate “Severn,” 1858; Blue Hill Inhabitants; Puerto Plata Fire; references to Grand Turk in 1865: 1870-71; Question of doubloons as legal tender: 1881-1882.  This is just a selected few. The list of records that were here is impressive.

The conclusion of the project offered insight to the quality of the collection. Dr. Neal recommended that permanent storage for the archives should be found, an archives committee be established, and a professional archivist be hired by the Government to manage the vast collection of historical documents.

Further, it was concluded that the documents presented a truly unique history. It was understood that “records in various repositories in the United Kingdom might be used to document the story of the Turks & Caicos politically . . . the records on Grand Turk tell the story of the people of the Turks and Caicos.” These records represented the “story of schools and hospitals, storms and drought, families and churches, merchants and workers, a mosaic of generations of people of different walks of life which is responsible for what the Turks and Caicos are today.”  (Neal, p. 18)

The most valuable archival materials found in the James Neal survey were removed from the basement of the post office and “placed in the Victoria Public Library for safekeeping.” This included 96 file folders of material from the “Presidential era” which were stored in eight archival document cases. The library is not set up to be an archive nor do they have facilities for conservation or preservation of historical material. These archival boxes were stored in the attic where they got wet, were infested with bugs, and eventually disposed of.

Barry Dressel, then-director of TCI's National Museum, moves the archives in 1997.

In 1997, Barry Dressel, then director of the museum, moved the collection from the post office basement to the old prison and completed work trying to stabilize what was left of the collection. The archive consisted of plastic bags full of ledgers, letter books, and miscellaneous records. The collection has never been part of the museum, but from 2001 to 2005 Nigel Sadler, director of the museum, tried to monitor the remaining documents. Sadler also wrote several reports on the prospects of creating a sustainable archive. In 2002 he issued a report entitled “Development of the Old Police Station, Middle Street, Grand Turk,” which discussed a plan for renovating this unused government building into the archives. This report was widely circulated, but still today this building sits unused and neglected.

As a British colony, meticulous records were kept in the Turks & Caicos. It seems that recent local governments have not valued this historical record to the point of investing in its preservation. The Turks & Caicos are not unique in this loss of historical archives. The problem, however, is that because the country is so small, when a record or manuscript is lost it is usually the only one of its kind. Certainly, the management and storage of the government archives has not resulted in a sustainable archive.

Other historical records throughout the country are in the hands of private individuals. This is also not a sustainable situation for historical records. I have heard of records being found on the dump in Salt Cay and removed to the United States by a private individual. Archival records may have been saved like this, however, they typically will not survive through the next generation. People are very unwilling to part with their “treasures” no matter how they might have come by them.

To illustrate I will tell a story. Two years ago, a gentleman came to see me at the museum. He told me of important historical documents that he had that “he would never give to the museum.” Then he talked about a slave registry for the Turks & Caicos listing the names and occupations of every enslaved person in the country. He said he had seen this and knew the person who had it, but it had been gone for several years and no longer existed. Unless historical documents are placed in a public institution where they can be preserved, they will most certainly eventually be lost.

Though there has been talk about it for many years, today there is no national archive in the Turks & Caicos Islands and there is great doubt whether there is enough archival material left to create one.

The National Museum and archives

More of the TCI's archives as left in 1997.

The Turks & Caicos National Museum is the only national institution with a mission, mandate, and a collections management plan that is aimed at the long-term preservation of archives and archival material. Though we are not a government entity, we have a small amount of historical archives that have trickled into the museum since 1991. The museum has not necessarily collected this material, but when it comes into our hands it is conserved, stored, and preserved.

On September 6 and 7, 2008, the island of Grand Turk was hit by a category 5 hurricane. This is where the exhibits, offices, archives, and storage facilities of the museum are located. Over 80% of the buildings on Grand Turk sustained damage. The museum and archives building sustained minimal damage. Not a single collections piece or any archival materials were lost. To a large degree, this owed to the design of our facilities and the successful implementation of our hurricane plan.

The major issue dealt with from a conservation standpoint was the lack of electricity for nine weeks. Humidity levels were very high but staff opened the buildings to get as much air flow as possible through the labs and storage areas.

Archives at the museum

Archival collections at the National Museum that do exist are made more valuable by the fact that so much has been lost. Many of the collections, however, are uncataloged and consist of multiple and often random letters and documents.

One of the best collections of historical correspondence is titled: “A List of Documents found Outside the Old Prison on the Ground. July 2005.” This uncataloged collection was rescued and conserved by Nigel Sadler. The collection contains two boxes of miscellaneous official correspondence during the 1850s and 1860s. The collection includes letters and affidavits about shipwrecks, references to military defenses, and letters about the salt ponds on Grand Turk.

As part of the Pine Cay Project “Be Your Own Curator” grant, many of these letters were scanned and transcribed as part of a new museum exhibit entitled “Read Your Own History.” Some of the letters in the collection turned out to be gems.

A letter dated 17th May, 1850 addressed concerns from the United States Consulate about the “urgency of the immediate erection of a light-house on the Northern Bluff of Grand Turk.” The Consul had been informed that the insurance on vessels coming through the Turks Passage had increased dramatically in Boston and New York. The Consul also pointed out that several wrecks had “taken place at night in remarkably fine weather.” The lighthouse would be erected two years later. (Forth, 1850).

Another document, dated 1862, is a petition for increasing the defenses of Grand Turk. The letter states “that these islands were many years ago in a good state of defense by having a number of Forts or Batteries on various advantageous points along the seaboard.” It also references “the six serviceable 24 pound cannons at present at Grand Turk.” (Report, 1862). These must be the cannons that now sit in front of the post office, which with their trunnions and light holes intact could still be considered serviceable.

The petition was put together in 1862 at the beginning of the American Civil War. The reason for the petition was to keep merchant ships from the “Federal states of America” safe from a “ship of war” that might be stationed in the Turks Passage. This owed to the fact that since the lighthouse was erected, hundreds of ships were now using the Turks Passage each year.

These stories are in the histories told by cab drivers and tour guides as they drive cruise ship passengers around Grand Turk. These few letters in the collection at the National Museum are the real historical record. They are the proof of the stories.

The few records that are left from the government archive are an indication of the strength of the archive. They may also be an indication of what has been lost in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Even if the archives still exist somewhere hidden in a dark corner, the loss is that they have not been publicly accessible for the last few years when tourism has become a dominant portion of the economy. A sustainable archive is directly related to the heritage tourism portion of a sustainable tourism economy.

Sources

James H. Neal, Colonial Archives Project: Grand Turk Island, Summer 2003. The Caribbean Research Foundation, Washington, D.C., 2003.

Nigel Sadler, Development of the Old Police Station, Middle Street, Grand Turk: Providing a Valuable Asset, Turks & Caicos National Museum, Revised September 2002.

Frederick Forth, Grand Turk, 17th May 1850, TCNM.

Report of a committee of officers on the defense of Turks Islands, 17th January, 1862, TCNM.

TCI’s premier professional center opens.

By Kathy Borsuk ~ Photos By Claire Parrish

It’s hard to travel on Leeward Highway and not admire the attractive new three-story professional complex (across the road from Central Square) that sets the stage for Providenciales’ own “Miracle Mile.”

The Courtyard Plaza is TCI's premier professional center.

Completed on schedule early this year, The Courtyard Plaza — designed by local company Conservative Architects — is one of the island’s most attractive properties, an intriguing combination of cornices, arched windows and entryways and hexagonal lines, with the appealing two-toned facade crisply accented with gold-brown shutters, white frames and wrought-iron light fixtures. Bright bursts of colorful landscaping and stately palms complete the picture. The building embraces a peaceful garden courtyard at the back, the ideal spot for enjoying a quiet break from a busy day.

With this first phase nearly sold out, The Courtyard Plaza offers a number of benefits for the astute business professional.  Jeffrey Miick, developer, explains, “Our plan was to create a positive, professional atmosphere in which to conduct business, whether retail or commercial. Everything was designed around this goal. The suites, which come in a variety of sizes from 862 to nearly 3,000 sq. ft., are strata-titled, so you can either own your own space, building equity as you grow, or purchase a suite as an investment and lease it out, taking advantage of our rental management program. Each suite has a built-in kitchenette and restroom and zoned air-conditioning. Hurricane-impact windows eliminate the need for shutters and the security/fire safety system is already in place. Units on the ground floor are ideal for retail businesses, with large storefront windows and easy customer access. Elevators service the second and third floors and we’ve designed the parking area for good traffic flow, with ample, extra-wide spaces. I’m really proud of how well this has turned out and the response of our owners had been overwhelmingly positive.”

The Courtyard Plaza is anchored by the home offices of Norstar Group Ltd., the project builder; Palm Ventures, its developer and several of the development’s partners — virtually guaranteeing the importance of a good impression and well-managed property. Other spaces are occupied by a wide variety of local businesses that serve the Turks & Caicos Islands.

The Courtyard Plaza scores high in accessibility and practicality. On the main (and only) highway between the airport and most tourist destinations, its position is highly visible and heavily travelled, with all-important access from both sides of the road. A large lit sign lists all the businesses. And for those who have to do business, it is central to the main branches of all banks, South Dock, customs, many government departments and major grocery stores.

As I toured the complex, I admired the solid, well-built construction apparent throughout . . . along with the breathtaking views from most offices, especially those on the third floor, from which I could see all the way to the south ocean shore. Amy Thiel, marketing manager, explained other advantages that make a Courtyard Plaza investment a wise decision, “We’re eager to help both resident businesses or overseas investors finish their suite to perfection. We have in-house architectural services to design the floor plan that best suits their needs and have special build-out price incentives.”

A mirror-image of the existing building is planned for the cleared space next door. When completed, the twin buildings will embrace a large central garden courtyard — complete with another magnificent fountain and walkways — to add to the pleasant, open space. Interested parties are encouraged to ask about special pre-construction pricing and financing options. Spaces for purchase or lease in the original building are also available.

It’s said that success builds on success. The Courtyard Plaza’s track record ranks a blue-ribbon; its future as the country’s premier professional center seems assured.

For an appointment to view the property, phone 649 941 8958 or email info@CourtyardPlazaTCI.com. For more information, visit www.CourtyardPlazaTCI.com.