Rum Cay

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Rum Cay is an island and district of the Bahamas. Lat.: N23 42' 30" - Long.: W 74 50' 00" - Size: 30 Sq. mls

Rum Cay, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of San Salvador Island, is mainly flat with rolling hills that rises to about 120 feet (37 m). Christopher Columbus called it Santa Maria de la Concepción. The island is believed to have acquired its more racy modern name from a shipwrecked cargo of rum. The main settlement is Port Nelson, a picturesque village lying among coconut groves.

First known as Mamana by the Lucayan Indians, the cay was later renamed Santa María de la Concepción by Columbus. Spanish explorers once found a lone rum keg washed up on a shore and changed the name again to Rum Cay (pop: 53 1990 census). In the north there is an interesting cave, which has Lucayan drawings and carvings. Various artifacts from the Arawak period have been found by farmers in the fertile soil, which the Indians enriched with bat guano. In common with other islands, Rum Cay has experienced a series of booms and busts. Pineapple, salt and sisal have all been important industries, but competition and natural disasters, such as the 1926 hurricane, have all taken their toll and today tourism is the main source of employment. Plantation boundaries known as ‘margins’ can be seen all over the island, which date from the beginning of the 19th century when Loyalists settled here. Nearly everybody lives in Port Nelson where cottages can be rented. Settlements such as Port Boyd, Black Rock and Gin Hill are now deserted and overgrown.

Deep reefs and drop-offs surround this former pirates’ haven. There is staghorn coral at Summer Point Reef and good diving at Pinder’s Point. At the Grand Canyon, huge 60-foot coral walls almost reach the surface. Summer Point Marina has dockage, moorings, bar and restaurant. There is a small guesthouse available from former Constable Ted Bain. The Last Chance Yacht Supply has groceries. Batelco office for phone calls closes at lunchtime. Yachts wait here before sailing to Mayaguana or the Turks and Caicos Islands, or before returning to Georgetown and points north.

Adventuresome divers can still find the shaft, anchor chains and hawser holes of the H.M.S Conqueror, Britain's first propeller driven warship. It sank in 1861 and can still be found in 30 feet of water in a staghorn gully near the breaking reef.

[edit] HMS Conqueror

The wreck of the 101-gun man of war HMS Conqueror, built in Devon in 1855 and which served in the Crimean War, lies in 30 feet of water off Rum Cay where it sank in 1861, is preserved as the Underwater Museum of the Bahamas. It is the property of The Bahamas Government and none of the contents of the ship may be removed.

In 1860 HMS Conqueror was one of the Royal Navy’s latest ships, and took pride of place in the British line of battle in that day. She was a 101-gun battleship, capable of throwing a prodigious weight of metal from a broadside, still very much a three-decker with the masts and full rig of a ship of the eighteenth century, but with the incongruous addition of a smokestack amidships and a vast, primitive, coal-burning engine driving one great screw. Still virtually on her maiden voyage, she was lost on Sumner Point Reef, Rum Cay, on December 13, 1861. Her crew of 1,400 all survived.

"She was 20 nm out in estimating her position and, after making her landfall, cut rounding the southeast point of Rum Cay too fine and went hard on the reef. Her captain, fearing that his crew (most of whom could not swim in those days) would drink themselves insensible when it became obvious the ship was lost, ordered all ale, wine, and spirit casks to be broken and their contents ditched. He then sent the two largest ship’s company unloaded everything they could salvage, and set about making a camp on the island. The captain remained on board with one midshipman and ten seamen until the ship broke up. Then all of them, less the boat parties, were marooned on Rum Cay. They were rescued soon after the news of the disaster was known."

"HMS Conqueror is still there. You can dive her, in some 30 feet of water." (The Bahamas Cruising Guide)

Before 1996 the island was part of a combined district of San Salvador and Rum Cay.