Acul Bay, also known as North Acul Bay, is a bay on the northern coast of
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
north of the city of
Acul-du-Nord and west of the city of
Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien (; ; "Haitian Cape") is a List of communes of Haiti, commune of about 400,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Departments of Haiti, department of Nord (Haitian department), Nord. Previously named ''Cap‑Franà ...
.
Geography
Acul Bay is open to the ocean on the North. It extends from the tip of
Labadee to the East of Cape Balimbé West. Acul Bay gradually slopes and is nearly in length and in width, with a bottleneck in the middle of a width of about .
Out from the bay, many
shoal
In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...
s emerge, forming numerous
islet
An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...
s that are dangerous to
navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...
. Many shipwrecks dating back several centuries are stranded or lying at the bottom of the water. Among these islands, ''Rat Island'' was also named ''l'île La Amiga'' (Friendly Island) by
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...
because it was where he first encountered
GuacanagarÃx
Guacanagarix (alternate transcriptions: GuacanacarÃc, GuacanagarÃ) was one of five TaÃno caciques of the Caribbean island henceforth known as Hispaniola at the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. This was contemporaneous with the first of the v ...
, who was a
cacique
A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the TaÃno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...
of the indigenous
Taino people, and established the settlement
La Navidad
La Navidad ("The Nativity", i.e. Christmas) was a Spanish fort that Christopher Columbus and his crew established on the northwest coast of Hispaniola (near what is now Caracol, Nord-Est, Caracol, Nord-Est (department), Nord-Est Department, Hait ...
.
References
External links
Google Maps
{{Authority control
Bays of Haiti
Shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea
Geography of Haiti