Great Stirrup Cay is a Sloan, Gene (June 24, 2017). "Norwegian Cruise's private Caribbean isle gets a serious spruce up". ''Times-Colonist'' (Victoria, British Columbia). p. D5. island that is part of the

Berry Islands The Berry Islands are a chain of islands and a district of the Bahamas, covering about of the northwestern part of the Out Islands. The Berry Islands consist of about thirty islands and over one hundred small islands or cays, often referred t ...

in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the List of cruise lines, fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, ...

purchased the island from the Belcher Oil Company in 1977 and developed it into a

private island A private island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and som ...

for their cruise ship passengers. The northern part of the island has a sandy beach surrounded by rocks with snorkeling areas. The southern part features a helicopter airfield (with a sign reading "Great Stirrup Cay International Airport"), a large area without vegetation, and numerous concrete blocks. These are all remnants of a previous U.S. military installation and satellite tracking station. The island's lighthouse was originally constructed in 1863 by the Imperial Lighthouse Service. Great Stirrup Cay is adjacent to

Little Stirrup Cay CocoCay or Little Stirrup Cay is one of the Berry Islands, a collection of Bahamian cays and small islands located approximately 55 miles north of Nassau. It is used for tourism by Royal Caribbean Group exclusively. Little Stirrup Cay is adjacen ...

, Royal Caribbean Cruises' private island.

History

Great Stirrup Cay, along with the rest of the Bahamas, was formed by tectonic and glacial shifting. The first known settlers to the Bahamas were the Lucayan people, relatives of the

Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greater ...

s who populated the Caribbean around 600 A.D. Great Stirrup was a

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

hideout while the British settled in Nassau and the larger islands until 1815. This time marks the first documented settlers of Great Stirrup, and many of the structures from this settlement still stand today. Charts of this era show simply "Stirrup's Cay". "Stirrup's Cay" remained active during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, as the Confederates wished to continue to export cotton to Europe. The island was used as a landfall for provisioning while Federal warships patrolled the area to thwart their efforts. After the abolition of slavery, the British began to slowly withdraw from the out island colonies, and the plantation at Great Stirrup was abandoned. Great Stirrup is the northernmost island in a chain of islands known as the Berry Islands, and is situated in an area along the Northwest Providence Channel.

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...

fished off the reefs of Great Stirrup Cay in 1935. During World War II the United States, in an effort to protect its eastern shores, came to the Bahamas and Great Stirrup with a wide array of observational and defensive equipment. Among these were submersible cables, which were run along the ocean floor to listen for enemy submarines. Two "cable houses" still stand on the southeastern shore of the island, now overgrown by jungle. The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

later constructed a LORAC (LOng Range ACcuracy) radio-navigation station for use during the early space shuttle launches. This facility was later leased to

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

and other private sector companies as contractors to the United States Air Force out of Patrick AFB near Satellite Beach, Florida. New, more accurate

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

technology made the station obsolete. It was closed in 1991 and the antenna, equipment and radials were removed. A cruise liner, Yarmouth Castle, traveling from

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...

to Nassau, burned and sank off the coast of Great Stirrup Cay on November 13, 1965. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, ...

's board of inquiry determined that the captain and ship's officers were to blame on the ship's fire and sinking. Belcher Oil Company of

staked claim to the north section of the island for many years. Their interests there included real estate speculation, oil exploration, and a possible site for a corporate retreat. In 1977, Norwegian Caribbean Lines (later Norwegian Cruise Line) leased this section from Belcher Oil,Cruz, Georgina (December 8, 1991). "Private Ports Offer Ship Passengers an Exclusive Good Time". ''Sun Sentinel'' (Fort Lauderdale, Florida). p. 6J. the first time a cruise line had exclusive control of a private island. Norwegian Caribbean Line bought the island in 1986. In 1990, Norwegian Cruise Line spent $1 million on upgrades to the island and, for a few years, it started marketing the island as Pleasure Island. In 2017, Norwegian Cruise Line built new food and drink areas, rebuilt cabanas, and expanded the beach areas. Norwegian Cruise Line plans to build 38 private villas with up to two bedrooms each, a two-story restaurant, a swim-up bar, and a spa area.

Lighthouse

In 1863, the Imperial Lighthouse Service erected the

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark ...

on Great Stirrup Cay. The lighthouse site was manned for many years, but it is now fully automated and solar powered, making it self-sufficient. The structure stands nearly 80 feet, and its light is visible for over 20 miles.

Graves

Two people are buried on the island, both in a fenced grassy area near the visitor's center. Allan Bertram was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

captain who owned the island and when he died in 1834 requested burial there. The main swimming area, Bertram's Cove, is named after him. Elizabeth Wright Braden Hixson was a passenger on a passing ship who died in 1838. She was then interred on the island.Elizabeth Wright Braden Hixson
/ref>

Flora and fauna

The most common tree on the island is the

coconut palm The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

, which produces a cloudy milk and a sweet meat used in many island recipes. Another fruit-bearing tree is the Sea Grape.

Wildlife

Some of the creatures found on the island include several different varieties of

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of Squamata, squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbae ...

and land

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

Gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st centur ...

frigates A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

, and

sanderling The sanderling (''Calidris alba'') is a small wading bird. The name derives from Old English ''sand-yrðling'', "sand-ploughman". The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloure ...

s are the most prevalent bird species. Great Stirrup Cay is a protected marine life sanctuary, and removal of anything from the water is strictly prohibited.

Climate

Great Stirrup Cay has a tropical climate. The daytime average temperatures from December to April are around , while the average daily temperature is between from May to November. The average rainfall is per month from November to April and per month from May to October. The average sea temperature from May to November is ; it averages from December to April. July averages the most hours of sunshine, while September through February averages the least hours of sunshine, with 7 to 8 hours per day.

Gallery

File:GreatStirrupCayHelipad.jpg, A Helipad at Great Stirrup Cay File:GreatStirrupCayCubes.jpg, Numerous concrete blocks along the shore of Great Stirrup Cay File:GreatStirrupCayBlock.jpg, Giant concrete block in the trees of Great Stirrup Cay File:GreatStirrupCayHut1.jpg, An abandoned hut on Great Stirrup Cay File:Pano 10-Great Stirrup Cay.jpg, Panoramic view of GSC beach from sea

References

{{Lighthouse identifiers , qid2=Q28376331 Berry Islands Norwegian Cruise Line Private islands of the Bahamas Lighthouses in the Bahamas