Times of the Islands Summer 2024

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
As more vessels came from all parts of the world for
salt and for other reasons, more shipwrecks occurred.
Given that the Turks & Caicos Islands are remote and
that it was nearly two centuries before the first regular
newspaper was introduced here, it is understandable that
information about maritime disasters was hard to come
by and often incomplete or even missing.
It is principally for these reasons that, particularly in
the earlier years, many of the lost vessels were reported
without even a record of the vessel’s name, let alone
details of the disaster. Although it would be most desirable
to be able to identify by name each lost ship, that is
not possible, even though all sources of information have
been pursued.
The short abstracts of each loss (sometimes multiple
losses) are detailed using the reports of the time when
these have been discovered. Italics indicate the original
news reports and will include misspellings and sometimes
even errors in details of the loss. Where a date is shown in
italics, the actual date is not known. What appears is the
date of the reporting of the wreck.
The data is by no means a complete listing of all of
the wrecks in the Turks & Caicos Islands. That is an ongoing
study. What is presented is the only listing of wrecks
in the Islands that has been researched and published.
The series will be presented in two main parts, with
the first documenting the wrecks in the Turks Islands
followed by those in the waters of the Caicos Islands.
With these words of explanation, let us start the story of
the maritime history of the Turks & Caicos Islands at the
beginning.
August, 1500 — UNIDENTIFIED x 2
A fleet of explorers destined for the northern coast of
South America was made up of four caravels under the
command of Vincent Yanez Pinzon. In the summer of
1500, two of the vessels were caught in a hurricane and
lost. Although there are different opinions about where
these wrecks occurred, one possible location of the loss
was on a shoal called Abrajos (actually Abre los ojos which
translates in English to “Open Your Eyes”—undoubtedly
to advise mariners of its dangerous location). The shoal
is also known as Mouchoir Carre Bank (which translates
to “Square Handkerchief,” another name often associated
with shipwrecks). The shoal lies 45 miles southeast from
Grand Turk Island.
July 10, 1715 — UNIDENTIFIED x 6
Twenty-one days before the loss of the Spanish treasure
fleet off the coast of Florida, another fleet—this one from
Bermuda—met with a similar fate on Turks Island due
to a storm. According to a news report in the Boston
News-Letter of August 29, “ . . . we are informed that in
the great storm about the 10th of July last, there were
six Bermuda sloops cast away on Turks Island. The men
were all saved except one little boy . . . a seventh sloop
got away from amongst the rocks with great difficulty by
cutting her cable and came safe to Bermuda and gave
account of the rest that was lost.” It is probable that the
sloops traveled from Bermuda to Turks Island for a cargo
of salt but they were also known to travel here for “wrecking.”
March 15, 1735 — UNIDENTIFIED
The loss of a brigantine near Turks Island made it into a
Boston newspaper only because one captain Dyer mentioned
it in a letter to a friend. In part, his letter read, “a
wreck had been discovered near Turks Island about the
middle of March last, where there was drove on shore a
large quantity of boards, the mainmast of a brigantine,
and two hen-coops newly painted.” The letter was sent
while the captain was in Jamaica in early June.
September 13, 1747 — UNIDENTIFIED
A merchant brig under the command of Capt. Elberson
was lost on this date in a hurricane that struck Turks
Island. Most likely she was headed there to procure a
cargo of salt when lost. The exact location of this wreck
is unknown.
July 4, 1764 — LA-BOINARD
On June 1, 1764 French forces attacked the Turks Islands
and made prisoners of the British subjects living there.
According to Lloyd’s List, a few weeks later on July 4, this
French ship was lost on Turks Island. The two incidents
could be connected but there is no evidence of that.
August, 1765 — UNIDENTIFIED
One Captain Yorke, enroute from Jamaica, passed the brig
Francis. Captain Brownlaw, travelling from Turks Island to
Philadelphia advised, “that a sloop, Captain Russ, from
North Carolina, was lost at Turks Island, the latter end of
August; her rigging and cargo were saved.”
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