{"id":57549,"date":"2018-07-30T10:30:32","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T14:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/caribbean\/fact-lore-of-half-moon-cay-the-history\/"},"modified":"2022-11-11T15:38:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T21:38:30","slug":"half-moon-cay-bahamas-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/travel-inspiration\/half-moon-cay-bahamas-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact & Lore of Half Moon Cay: The History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Half Moon Cay<\/a> is Holland America Line\u2019s award-winning private island in the Bahamas. Know for its pristine beaches, abundance of family-friendly activities, private villas and cabanas, and unparalleled beauty, there\u2019s a reason why it\u2019s our most popular port in the Caribbean. This series of \u201cFact & Lore\u201d blog posts about Half Moon Cay takes you deeper into the island\u2019s history, geography and more. Remember that all Caribbean cruises<\/a> out of Fort Lauderdale include a call at Half Moon Cay, so there are plenty of opportunities to visit this memorable destination.<\/em><\/p>\n

THE HISTORY<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s likely that sometime before 800 AD, the Lucayan Arawak people (also referred to as Taino) arrived in the Bahamas from South America in canoes. They may have come to Half Moon Cay to fish in the lagoon. Island staff have re-created huts in the style that the Lucayan Arawak people would have occupied, tents made of poles and thatch, and these can be viewed on shore during eco-lagoon boat tours.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The story of Half Moon Cay is an intricate one that dates back centuries and includes long periods when the island was uninhabited. Much of the history has been forgotten. Did pirates roam the shores, drawn by the abundance of bonefish in the lagoon and perhaps seeking places to bury their treasure? In unexplored territory of the island, their secrets remain hidden.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lucayan Taino people were the first to inhabit the Bahamas. Related to the Arawak people, they likely arrived by canoe from South America, and may have fished and farmed here as early as 600 to 800 AD. The island\u2019s Lucayan name is Guateo, meaning \u201cdistant land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Christopher Columbus landed in the vicinity (the exact whereabouts is subject to intense debate) on October 12, 1492, the first time he set foot in the New World. Oral history, passed on through the generations but unverified by evidence, even has him and his crew stopping by Half Moon Cay. <\/p>\n

\"Christopher<\/a>

Photo from Travel Addicts.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 There may have been as many as 40,000 Lucayan Arawak people in the Bahamas islands by the time of Columbus. The Spanish enslaved the Lucayans and within 25 years of the arrival of the Europeans, the Lucayan people were wiped out, either through diseases such as small pox or harsh treatment in captivity.<\/p>\n

\u2022 English settlers came to the uninhabited islands of the Bahamas in the 1640s. They were Puritans seeking religious freedom, and the resided in places including Eleuthera. Great Britain claimed possession of the Bahamas in 1670. In 1718, Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas, and they became a British colony.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s believed that Half Moon Cay (Little San Salvador) was uninhabited for centuries up until the 1700s, or possibly in the early 1800s, when the land was granted by the British monarch at the time (perhaps even Queen Victoria) as a reward of sorts. Crown land grants were given to upstanding citizens but also to pirates to encourage them to reform and use their \u201ctalents\u201d as privateers or buccaneers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 England granted land as well to British loyalists who left the new United States of America after the Revolutionary War ended in 1783. Some arrived on Eleuthera, from New England and New Jersey to start a new life farming on the islands. Loyalists from North Carolina and Georgia arrived in places including Cat Island. Some plantation owners brought with them their slaves. Slavery was abolished on the islands in 1838.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the 1700\u2019s or early 1800\u2019s there was a small settlement on Half Moon Cay, evidenced by the ruins of old limestone huts on Lighthouse Point, a hillside visited by guests on nature tours. The inhabitants were likely farmers from nearby Cat Island who came seasonally to tend crops and fish in the lagoon \u2013 and enjoy the natural beauty of the island. They planted sisal, a species of agave with a fiber that can be used as twine, as well as subsistence crops such as corn. They may have used salt from the island\u2019s two saline ponds to preserve fish.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The island was uninhabited and without running water or electricity when Holland America Line signed a 99-year lease agreement for the land in 1996. The $6 million purchase price was split between more than 150 individuals, descendants of the original land owner (or owners) \u2013 who likely received the land as a crown land grant, from the British monarch. Holland America Line renamed the island Half Moon Cay.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The name Half Moon Cay was chosen by Holland America Line because it is the name of the ship on the cruise line\u2019s former logo \u2013 English explorer Henry Hudson\u2019s Halve Maen (Half Moon). Hudson sailed on that ship to the northeastern U.S. and Canada for the Dutch East India Company. His legacy includes New York\u2019s Hudson River as well as Hudson Bay in western Canada and the Arctic. The two-mile, white sand beach at Half Moon Cay is also half-moon-shaped.<\/p>\n

\u2022 When Holland America Line purchased the island, it was without any facilities. The cruise company renamed the island Half Moon Cay and immediately spent more than $16 million, building mechanical systems such as electrical generators and water and sewage treatment plants, adding a marina for a safe tender operation and creating the infrastructure to turn the island into a private beach resort for the exclusive use of cruise passengers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Half Moon Cay was officially opened as a port of call on December 12, 1997, by Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. He returned to the island in 2008, and again in 2012 to celebrate Half Moon Cay\u2019s 15th anniversary. Ingraham praised the care the line had taken in developing an environmentally sensitive cruise port on a historically significant cay. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From left: Half Moon Cay Property Manager Tony Black; Vice President, Caribbean Relations Matt Sams; Holland America Group CEO Stein Kruse and Resort Coordinator Carlos Forbes on Half Moon Cay for the opening of the 2014 season.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 Since opening the port, Holland America Line and its parent company, Carnival Corporation, have made significant investments to maintain Half Moon Cay as a premier port of call, including the recent addition of a children\u2019s waterpark and luxury cabanas (available to rent). The island experience is Holland America Line\u2019s top-rated destination.<\/p>\n

Next in the \u201cFact & Lore of Half Moon Cay\u201d series is about the nature of the island. Stay tuned\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Half Moon Cay is Holland America Line\u2019s award-winning private island in the Bahamas. Know for its pristine beaches, abundance of family-friendly activities, private villas and cabanas, and unparalleled beauty, there\u2019s a reason why it\u2019s our most popular port in the Caribbean. This series of \u201cFact & Lore\u201d blog posts about Half Moon Cay takes you deeper into the island\u2019s history, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1876,"featured_media":57550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,31],"tags":[118,4192],"class_list":["post-57549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-inspiration","category-where-to-travel","tag-caribbean","tag-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67753,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57549\/revisions\/67753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollandamerica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}