In 1733, the Danish West India-Guinea Company acquired St. Croix from the French for 750,000 Livres. To comprehend its value today, we need to convert this amount into present-day dollars. The Livre tournois, serving as the French Pound in medieval France, predates the French Franc introduced in 1795. In 1720, the Livre was valued at […]
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When you wish upon a starYour dreams will take you very far,But when you wish upon a dreamLife ain’t always what it seems [Earth, Wind & Fire] In a thought-provoking piece, F. D. Flam, a columnist for Bloomberg, highlighted that “Follow the science” is more of a slogan than a concrete policy. This sentiment is
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On the Estates page, I delve into the intricate process of mapping and surveying St. Croix to formally define estate boundaries. Reflecting on the modern ease of land observation through Earth Observing Satellites, I am struck by the remarkable task of surveying and demarcating estate boundaries on St. Croix with such apparent precision. The method
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On 31, August 1772, a devastating hurricane hit St Croix. On September 6th of that year, Alexander Hamilton wrote a letter to his father James Hamilton on St Kitts which was later published by The Royal Danish American Gazette. Hurricanes are a common occurrence in this region, with many of us having experienced multiple instances.
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Julius von Rohr (1735-1793), became a surveyor in the Danish West Indies in 1757 at the young age of 22. He created two maps of Christiansted which predate the Oxholm map of 1778-1780 (referred to in the post The Road Not Taken). These two maps which the Danish Archive number as 337.216 and 337.228, were
I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken” – 1915 Odd, the above image may look, but it is a fragment of the Oxholm map of the
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“Give intoxicating drink to one who is perishing,And wine to one whose life is bitter.Let him drink and forget his poverty,And remember his trouble no more.” Proverbs 31:6-7 [NASB] The history of fermented beverages dates back to ancient times. Evidence from the late Stone Age suggests that intentionally fermented drinks were already in existence during the Neolithic
This post is about print newspapers that have contributed to the heritage of St. Croix. In today’s world of electronic media, there is a plethora of digital news – both extant and passed. The Royal Danish American Gazette, Volume 1, Number 1, was published by Daniel Thibou on July 7th, 1770, and was the first
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“A popular misconception in tourist lore is that St Croix was formerly a volcano.” That’s the opening line of FIELD GUIDE TO THE GEOLOGY OF ST. CROIX, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS, written in 1966 by John T. Whetten, and presented to the 5th Caribbean Geological Conference in 1968. I came across his paper while researching the Kingshill
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This photo shows the inside the Estate Bodkin sugar windmill, focusing on the arrangement of vertical slots around the top and the operation of the mill cap. A tour guide’s explanation during a Tan-Tan tour, suggested that the cap was mounted in these slots, and raised, rotated and lowered, for trimming the sails, a notion
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