Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
too, since the ship's stern is in shallower water. Back on land, a stone wall to the west of
the old island settlement surrounds the graves of nine of the 124 souls who perished on the
Rhone
.
A lot of people come to the wreck aboard charter boats that either anchor off the beach
at Salt Island Bay or pick up one of the moorings placed by the park at Lee Bay near the
wreck. Almost every dive shop in the Virgin Islands offers trips to the
Rhone
.
WRECK OF THE
RHONE
On the sun-washed morning October 29, 1867, the captain of the RMS
Rhone
thought the hurricane season was over. He was at Peter Island picking up fuel and
cargo and preparing to depart for England with 147 passengers.
Built just two years earlier, the
Rhone
was one of a new, faster class of British
steamships, 310ft long and 40ft abeam. She had been designed and built to run the
Union blockade of the South during the American Civil War, but she launched too
late for that service.
Around 11am, the sky grew leaden, and hurricane-force winds began to blow. The
Rhone
struggled to pass Salt Island, but the waves and wind drove her ashore.
Seawater burst in and hit the hot boiler. Instantly, it exploded, and the ship broke in
half and sunk. Only 23 people survived.
The stern with its propeller now lies in 20ft to 40ft of water. The forward half lies
nearby and intact under about 80ft of water. Divers salvaged copper, cotton, liquor
and $20,000 worth of money and gold. The BVI National Parks Trust moved in to
preserve the wreck in the 1970s, long after divers had picked it clean.
Marina Cay
Lying just northeast of Tortola's airport, Marina Cay is the perfect little isle centered on a
groovy beach bar-restaurant. Writer Robb White immortalized the 8-acre knob as the set-
ting for his classic 1953 memoir
Our Virgin Island
(later a film with Sidney Poitier and
John Cassavetes). The place remains ideal for sunset gazing.
The anchorage on the cay's north side offers exceptional shelter. It is almost always
packed with about 50 yachts, whose crews come ashore for drinks, entertainment and din-
ner. There is a small beach off the west end and good snorkeling on the shallow reef.
