 |
| View from the Brimstone Hill Fortress toward the Dutch islands of St. Eustatius (r) and Saba (l). While we tend to learn that the American Revolution ended at Yorktown, fighting between the British and French continued in the Caribbean afterward with the French liberating the two Dutch islands and capturing St. Kitts itself in the months after Yorktown. The fortress was upgraded after the British regained St. Kitts after the war ended. |
I have another trip coming up in a few weeks, but I'll go to a trip from few years for this post. After posts centering on Europe and Africa, this one is closer to home: the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, home to about 55,000 people (which is 188th out of the 195 sovereign nations recognized on Wikipedia) and birthplace of the wonderful
Joan Armatrading. We visited St. Kitts on a cruise in 2011(?), and so only had part of a day on our visit.
 |
| One of two Carib petroglyph sites on the island (or, at least two that tourists visit). The meaning is unknown. As is likely obvious, the white was added to make the petroglyphs more obvious rather than being original. |
While small (the smallest country in the Western Hemisphere by area and population), St. Kitts had a long colonial history. As a history buff I wanted to see the
Brimstone Hill fortress, and since neither Jen nor I are big beach folks we decided to go on an island tour run by
Thenford Grey.
 |
| Berkeley Memorial in The Circus |
 |
| Ruins of a 17th-century building at Wingfield Estate |
We began in
Basseterre, the capital of the nation. St. Kitts was home to both the first British and first French colonies in the Caribbean, with Basseterre founded in 1627 (between the foundings of New Amsterdam and Boston). The Europeans went from sharing the island (and sharing the effort to wipe out the indigenous population, of whom little physical evidence remains but some petroglyphs) to competing to dominate it, with the British winning out in the end. St. Kitts was the political center of the British Leeward Islands from the early 1800s on, and Basseterre retains many hints of its Victorian-era status. For instance, "The Circus" was modeled after Picadilly Circus and contains a
clock and memorial to one of the local legislators from the 1880s. Similarly,
Independence Square was once Pall Mall Square (and site of the slave market).
 |
| Independence Square. Note the British-style phone booth. |
Other colonial-era structures we visited included
Romney Manor and the nearby
Wingfield Estate, both near Old Road Town (the first British settlement in the Caribbean, founded a few years prior to Basseterre), and both once owned by Sam Jefferson (Thomas' great great great grandfather). The Brimstone Hill Fortress is also nearby, dominating the western part of the island of St. Kitts. That was our next stop and we happily stomped our way along the walls, enjoying the views and trying to imagine the history.
 |
| View down the South East Peninsula of St. Kitts, toward Nevis |
 |
| A fine spot to relax with a beer and enjoy the stunning view! |
After our time there we swung back south to see the South East Peninsula, which narrows impressively to a half a kilometer or less in width before widening slightly, giving the impression that the island as a whole is pointing toward its neighbor Nevis. We spent much of the remainder of the tour relaxing at
South Friar's Beach with a couple of beers, and taking it all in. We made it back to the ship with no issues, and thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the island. We currently plan to take another cruise this December, which will bring us back to St. Kitts. We have no concrete plans for our time there, but I suspect whatever we do will eventually be reported here. :)
