To this day, most of the Bahamian residents of New Plymouth trace their roots back to the original colonizers of this town - New Plymouth is one of the many settlements where Americans loyal to the British, living beforehand primarily in Florida and New York, came to escape their shunned existence in America. For one reason or another, they chose allegiance to the British Crown over the new republic.

Some of these small island settlements flourished, and some perished in the century after the revolutionary war. Green Turtle Cay in its earliest days, adjacent to the shipping routes to and from the New World, was lucky enough to face a continuous stream of wrecked ships. This Bahamian stretch of water could prove perilous in rough seas, and wrecked ships became giant salvage sites to those brave enough to wipe clean the abandoned vessels' wood, metal, rations, oils and cargo.