Abstract
The Bahamian archipelago is strategically located between the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea. However, the hidden reefs and shoals, the changing sandbanks, and the unpredictable winds and currents, especially in the hurricane months, all conspired to make Bahamian waters the terror of navigators and the delight of wreckers during the age of sail. This article explores the wrecks of four emigrant ships in The Bahamas in the early 1850s. The European passengers were leaving poverty-stricken Europe to pursue the ‘American Dream’ but did not reach their destination without enduring the combined perils of weather and the hazards of Bahamian waters. Fortunately, they were rescued by humane Bahamian wreckers and assisted by inhabitants of Nassau and Governor Gregory, who organized their onward journey. In particular, the wreck of the William and Mary exposes the greed and lack of care that ship owners and captains showed in attempting to carry hapless passengers from Europe to the United States of America.
Highlights
The entire Bahamas archipelago is strategically located at the gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the entire Central American region
Captain Sands and five of his crew remained on board to help the remaining passengers pump out water that was rushing into the sinking ship (CO23/143/321, Governor Gregory to Duke of Newcastle, 28th May 1853)
Governor Gregory praised the wreckers and boat builders of Abaco: The wrecking vessels are a fine class of sailing schooners, many of them beautiful models, the most superior of them built at Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, where the genius of the people is manifested in their shipbuilding, the timbers being principally of native cedar or horse flesh mahogany of a very durable nature and the planking of a beautifully grained yellow pine from North Carolina, one of the southern states of America
Summary
The entire Bahamas archipelago is strategically located at the gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the entire Central American region (see, for example Lawlor, 2018). On March 29, 1851, the American ship Cato, carrying 300 English and Irish passengers from Liverpool to New Orleans, was wrecked on the Moselle Shoal off Bimini (CO23/138/131, Governor Gregory to Earl Grey, 14th April 1851).
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