Cat Island
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- Cat Island-Underwater
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- Armbrister Loyalist House-Cat Island
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- Cat Island-Aerial
Cat Island is perhaps my favorite place in The Bahamas. The island is remote and sparsely populated yet there’s a half dozen little resorts to meet guests from all over the world and 100 miles of untouched beach to explore. The people who live on Cat have always been relaxed, peaceful and accommodating. The island is roughly 50 miles long from the northern tip at Shanas Cove Resort to the southwest point at Hawks Nest, with the only marina on the island. I love driving from one end to the other stopping for meals, walking the beach and visiting landmarks like the historical “Hermitage” on Mt Alvernia, the highest point in the Bahamas (200’+). In the early 1980s I met a young guy building rooms at Fernandez Bay Village, a place I still send people to experience the romantic charm of the out islands. He was the property owner, Tony Armbrister. Tony’s forefathers were British Loyalists who came to Cat Island after England lost the Revolutionary War. The Loyalists had stayed true to King George and were rewarded with large land grants in the Bahamas where they tried to recreate the plantation lifestyle they knew in America. Unfortunately the rocky soils in the Bahamas didn’t cooperate and most of them gave up, leaving their land and former slaves behind who were freed by British emancipation in 1834.
The Bahamas was first discovered by Christopher Columbus upon his 1492 landing in the new world. The generally accepted landing site is San Salvador to the east, but don’t try to convince anyone on Cat Island of that! For over a century Cat was considered the proper spot and was labeled on maps as “San Salvador” or “Guanahani”, the native Lucayan Indian word for San Salvador. I own a number of antique maps that show those names where Cat island is located, it’s interesting how the site moved around randomly and there’s even a Columbus Point on the southeast corner of Cat. The controversy ended in 1923 when the British Admiralty assigned today’s San Salvador as the official landing site.
Cat Island was likely named after pirate Arthur Chatt, though some believe it was because it was home to lots of feral cats. Like all the larger Bahamian Islands, Cat Island was populated by Lucayan Indians until the Spanish arrived and took them into captivity as slaves. The Spanish may have made an attempt to colonize Cat in the 1600s with a settlement on the southern end of the island. During the early 1700s Spanish ships were constantly attacked by pirates who were based in Nassau. The Spanish would in turn attack Nassau. Since Cat Island was far removed from Havana, Spain’s main base, and closer to the pirate’s base in Nassau, it’s logical Spanish defense of a small colony on Cay became untenable and they gave it up.
The pineapple industry was once important on Cat Island and it’s a prominent feature on the island’s coat of arms (see right). The “pines” would be shipped to New York or London along with fruit from other islands in the Bahamas. The plants used to start the Hawaiian pineapple industry reportedly came from Cat. There is no longer any commercial cultivation on the island but you can still see the remains of people who once tried and for a while succeeded with cotton or other crops. Two hundred year old plantation ruins dot the island, hidden in the bush where they’ve been largely forgotten.
Academy-award winning actor Sir Sidney Poitier grew up in Arthur’s Town in the north of the island. He starred in acclaimed movies like Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in 1965. The movie was on the forefront of racial acceptance in America where Sidney had emigrated from Cat Island as a young man.
There are endless beaches on either side of the island with large coral reefs off the east coast facing the open Atlantic. Cat Island is indeed a wonderful place to visit if you appreciate quiet, unspoiled places and friendly people.
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When I was working on Rum Cay as a young Ocean Engineer and pilot in the early 1980s it was about as quiet and serene as you can get. My client was David Melville, an heir to Thom McAn shoes who owned the Rum Cay Dive Club. There was the Club, a short gravel airstrip, Kaye’s Bar, a few dozen natives and some feral cows in the bush - that was about it. My job for David was to stop erosion on the beach in front of the Club and investigate doing a marina in the old salt ponds around Port Nelson, the only settlement. David was a good man, he really cared for the islanders and spent a lot of money trying to help out the dwindling population. Every time I flew in to do engineering work he turned me into a charter pilot flying people in need of a ride on my way out. The airstrip was rough and short with an annoying, slightly dangerous palm tree at one end. The reefs were pristine and full of fish and the beaches long, beautiful and deserted.
Rum Cay was the second island Christopher Columbus landed on in 1492 naming it Santa Maria de la Concepcion. He encountered Lucayan Indians as with his first stop on San Salvador to the east. What are believed to be Lucayan Indian petroglyphs can be seen in caves on Rum but the Indians themselves were exterminated throughout the Bahamas by the Spanish in the early 1500s. Once the people were gone there was nothing else to take and the island remained uninhabited until a large group of settlers arrived in the late 1700s, the British Loyalists. King George granted large tracts of land to the Loyalists on Rum Cay and they came on sailing vessels with seeds of cotton and other crops along with their African slaves, building supplies and livestock including the cows who’s descendants are still there.
It’s hard to believe that Rum Cay once boomed with thousands of residents and a number settlements including Port Boyd, Carmichael, Times Cove, Gin Hill, Black Rock and Port Nelson (the only one still populated). Salt production was once an important industry throughout the Bahamas and salt pans for solar evaporation were constructed on the southern end of the island east of Port Nelson, these are still visible from the air today. Salt and agricultural exports included cotton, citrus fruits, vegetables, pineapples and sisal (a long-leafed, cactus-like plant whose fibers were used to make rope). These crops led to a sustained population on Rum Cay with miles of still existing slave walls marking off properties and pastures. The rocky soil turned out to be unsuitable in the long term and British law freed the slaves in 1834, many of the Loyalists who hadn’t already gone packed up and left. The former slaves who were left behind continued to survive but the population has dwindled for generations.
In more recent years The Bahamas government completed a much larger and safer airstrip. A new marina was also built on the southwest end of the island by the Little family who developed Sumner Point and the island’s first and badly needed safe harbor. Unfortunately a hurricane damaged the marina’s entrance channel proving that life can still very tough on Rum Cay.
Scuba diving off Rum is some of the world’s best. Dive sites with names like The Chimney and The Grand Canyon foretell of the beauty to be seen underwater. Besides spectacular walls plunging off into the abyss, there are shipwrecks to explore including the 1861 wreck of HMS Conqueror on Sumner Point reef. Rum Cay will always be a nice place to visit and a good memory for the author.
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