BVIs – Peter Island, Deadman’s Bay – Fast, free WiFi

We left the anchorage at Salt Island and had a gentle sail past Dead Chest Cay to Peter Island and the beautiful sandy beaches of Deadman’s Bay.

The entire bay is dominated by a resort, but they welcome vessels anchoring in the southeastern corner, out from the buoyed swimming area, and even provide cruisers with loungers on the beach here.  But they do request that you do not stray from this area unless you have reservations at their restaurant.  Fair enough.

There is a sign on the beach saying ‘no pets’, but as I am a Bosun not a pet, I ignored that.

We do not want to upset the resort too much, as they provide free fast internet out into the anchorage.  This WiFi is so good I was able to catch up on the blog, correspondence and down load a couple of films.

You would think that a place like this would have a better name then ‘Deadman’s Bay’, but alas that is a long story:

(exert from crusing guide to the Virgin Islands)

Though there are few that haven’t seen the film Pirates fo the Caribbean, most are unaware of the identity of the real Dead Chest Cay, Dead Man’s Bay, and the actual hidden treasure chest full of ‘Pieces of Eight’.  The story began in the British Virgin Islands.

Just east of Peter Island is the cay named Dead Chest.  In the days of yore a ‘dead man’s chest’ was the name for a coffin, the outline of which you can make out when viewing the island from the northwest.  As long ago as the late 1700s the cay’s moniker was Dead Chest, clearly marked on Jeffrey’s 18th century chart of the Virgin Islands.

Folklore has it that the infamous pirate Blackbeard marooned fifteen men on the cay with nothing but a bottle of rum.  Some apparently tried to swim the half mile to Peter Island’s eastern cove but didn’t make it, giving this beautiful palm lined bay the ominous name, ‘Dead Man’s Bay’.

At a much later date author Robert Louis Stevenson researched events in the area, studying nautical charts, historical events and Caribbean lore.  The well documented piracy of huge treasure, much of which had been buried on Norman Island, mos likely provided him with valuable information the culmination of which resulted in the much-loved book ‘Treasure Island’.  Thus, Dead Chest Cay came to be immortalized in the famous refrain:

Fifteen Men and the Dead Man’s Cay,

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest.

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Perhaps the most captivating aspect of the many similar themes of the film Pirates of the Caribbean and the true story of the piracy in the Virgin Islands is that both involve treasure chests.  In the BVIs a daring act of piracy led to the burying of a cache of treasure on Norman island in the year 1750.  Some 160 years after the event a treasure chest of ‘Pieces of Eight’ was discovered in the southernmost cave on the leeward side of the peninsula that crests at Treasure Point.

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!