TravelWorld International Magazine Summer 2024

B
R
I
D
G
E
T
O
W
N
•
B
A
R
B
A
D
O
S
30
The Sentries & Corps of Drums
of Barbados holds a changing
of the guard ceremony on
Thursday mornings.
The Mount Gay Barbados Rum
distillery is the oldest licensed
distillery in the world. They offer
tours and an excellent lunch with rum
tastings and Bajan local foods.
Barbados Ladies
The view of Bridgetown, the
capital of Barbados, from the
Hilton Barbados Resort
The Richest Place on Earth
England missed out on the gold and silver of the New World, but they found
another treasure. Sugar. Britain introduced coffee in 1650, chocolate in 1657,
and tea in 1660. Sugar consumption quadrupled and then doubled again. It
was white gold. And then some genius discovered how to make rum out of a
worthless sugar byproduct, molasses. By the late 1600s, Barbados, a little coral
island off the coast of Venezuela, was found to be perfect for growing sugar and
it quickly became the richest place on earth with a population of 75,000 – larger
than all 13 American colonies combined. Of course, most of the population
were enslaved Africans. To oversee the enslaved and fight off pirates, Barbados
had to be defended. Unlike the Spanish, who built one huge fortress to protect a
port, Barbados constructed 42 different forts armed with 463 cannons. Pirates
never attacked it. But its rich merchant ships stuffed with sugar, slaves, and rum
became the pirate’s favorite target.
Today in Barbados, you can tour The Garrison which was the center of British
defense in the Western Hemisphere for 100 years. A UNESCO World Heritage
Site, it is the most authentic military garrison in the British empire with
cannons, tunnels, and a fun weekly changing of the guard. Rum was invented
in Barbados and if you want to drink like a pirate, there’s no better place than
on tours at Mount Gay, the oldest distillery in the world.
Conch is the national dish of the Bahamas and is as tasty as it is beautiful.
If you want it any fresher than found at Fish Fry, go and catch it yourself.
Actually, when you order, the restaurant will send someone out to an
underwater stockpile in the back of the restaurant to bring some in for you
The Pirate Republi c
One reason Barbados was not attacked was that during
the “Golden Age of Piracy” (1650-1725), the greatest
conglomeration of pirates in history assembled at Nassau,
the Bahamas, where the corsairs created their own country
-- an actual Pirate Republic that terrorized the Americas and
even challenged the European powers. All the famous pirates
made it to Nassau – 2,000 outlaws including Blackbeard,
“Calico Jack” Rackham, the women pirates Anne Bonney and
Mary Read, and Captain “Black Bart” Roberts, who said of
pirating, “It was a short life and a merry one.”
Today, Nassau is the pirate capital of the Americas. The
Pirates of Nassau Museum is a hoot - a bit like walking
(instead of floating) through Disney’s Pirates of the
Caribbean ride with a reproduction of Blackbeard’s ship,
the 130-foot-long, 16-gun corvette, The Revenge. The ship
creaks, seagulls squawk, and water laps at the stone quay.
How good the illusion is may depend on how many beers
you had at the nearby Pirate Republic Brewing Company.
But kids are sure to enjoy it and the museum does a fantastic
job of telling the true historical story of the rouges who once
ruled this town.
Eventually, England tired of the pirate nuisance and sent
Woodes Rodgers (a former pirate himself) to Nassau in
1718 with three warships and an ultimatum for the pirates to
choose: “Death or pardon.” In short order, Rodgers cleaned
up the pirate den. He described his actions as Expulsis Piratis
– Restituta Commercia, words that still adorn the official seal
of the Bahamas – “Pirates Expelled – Commerce Restored.”
Woodes
Rodgers
statue in the
parking lot
of the British
Colonial Hilton
Hotel, Nassau.
He looks
better here
than he must
have in real
life. When he
was a pirate,
he got shot
in the face,
blowing away
his jaw and
many of his
teeth.
Nassau maintains its colonial tropical feel and the nation's
official seal, still displayed on government buildings, is
Expulsis Piratis -- Restituta Commercia -- Pirates Expelled,
Commerce Restored
The Pirates of Nassau Museum tells the story of the actual
Pirate Republic that existed here in the Bahamas and
includes a life-size replica of Blackbeard's ship, the Revenge,
and many dioramas of from the Golden Age of Piracy.
The pink colonial atmosphere of Nassau
A life-size replica of Blackbeard's ship
N
A
S
S
A
U
•
F
L
O
R
ID
A
31