Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

The Bahamian islet known as Green Turtle Cay is named for the hundreds of sea turtles which once inhabited the island’s many Atlantic coves and the shallow waters of protected natural harbors.

Lucayan Indians once lived on Green Turtle Cay, but they were enslaved by Spaniards and forced to relocate to different islands. After they were gone, pirates inhabited those harbors, and referred to the turtles as belly timber, because they were so plentiful, and made for good eating on long voyages.

Now, few sea turtles inhabit the waters off Green Turtle Cay, and even less pirates, but when you arrive on this island, usually by ferry from nearby Treasure Cay, you are likely to enter at New Plymouth, the northernmost town in the West Indies, a harbor town of 450 whose eighteenth and nineteenth architecture is largely preserved.  Because New Plymouth has changed so little, its original architecture is a living document of New England fishing village architecture, painted in Bahamian color.

Next

12345