Dead Chest Island, British Virgin Islands
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Dead Chest Island is little more than a large rock outcropping located just under one half mile north east (0.4 miles at 27 degrees true) of Deadman's Bay on Peter Island, British Virgin Islands.[1] It is uninhabited, has no fresh water or trees and only sparse vegetation. It was formerly used as a firing range by the Royal Virgin Islands Police, but the opening of the nearby hotel on Peter Island coincided with the decision to build a proper firing range on the island of Tortola.
Deadman's Bay earned its name from a story where the infamous pirate Blackbeard left several of his crew on this island with nothing except a bottle of rum as punishment. When the sailors tried to swim off of the deserted island to Peter Island, they perished.
It has also been suggested the island's name is related to the sea shanty "Dead man's chest", probably first written by Robert Louis Stevenson for his novel Treasure Island. Stevenson found the name "Dead Man's Chest" in a book by Charles Kingsley and said "Treasure Island came out of Kingsley's At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies (1871); where I got the 'Dead Man's Chest' - that was the seed".[2][3]
The island is now an uninhabited National Park, with several popular Scuba diving and snorkeling sites.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nautical Publications GmbH. C13 Caribbean Yachting Charts, Tortola to Virgin Gorda [map], 1997 edition.
- ^ David Cordingly. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. ISBN 0679425608.
- ^ Robert Louis Stevenson. "To Sidney Colvin. Late May 1884", in Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. Page 263.
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