"In the Footsteps of Lord Nelson " a Antigua and Barbuda Travel Page by seagoingJLW

This is a picture of Lord Nelson"s Dockyard.

History

Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1493 and named it Antigua after the Santa Maria la Antigua church in Seville, Spain. Less than a century and a half later, English planters from St. Kitts successfully settled the area. Antigua became a British possession in 1632, and a year later King Charles II of England officially granted the island to Lord Willoughby. French raiders claimed the island in 1666, but the Treaty of Breda in 1667 restored it to the British.

In 1684 Sir Christopher Codrington came to Antigua to see if the island would support large scale sugar cultivation. For the next 50 years sugar cultivation flourished on the island with more than 150 cane processing windmills. Codrington's original estates, <font color=blue>Betty's Hope</font> is open to tourists these days.

In 1784 Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed to Antigua and established Great Britain's most important Caribbean base.

In 1834, the British abolished slavery in the Empire.

In 1967, with Barbuda and Redonda as dependencies, Barbuda became an associated state of the Commonwealth. On November 1, 1981 Antigua's status changed from Associated State of the British Commonwealth to independent country with Barbuda.

<font color=red>Miscellaneous Information</font>

We were there during a pouring rainstorm, with few breaks. We were lucky in that a British warship was in port at the same time and we got to talk with the sailors and see the ship.

Antigua is a coral island known as the island of 365 beaches. It is the largest of the British leeward islands, 14 miles long and 11 miles wide. The area totals 108 square miles (281 sq km). Barbuda's area is 68 square miles (161 sq km). There is also a tiny uninhabited island called Redonda with an area of 0.6 square miles. The total area is 442 sq km. The islands are located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocea, east southeast of Puerto Rico.

The climate is tropical marine, with little temperature variation. Temperatures range from the mids seventies in the winter to the mid eighties in the summer. Annual rainfall is only 45 inches. I think most of those inches fell the day we were there.

There are warm, prevailing Trade Winds. There is an expansive, winding coastline in Antigua. There are powdery, soft beaches and coral reefs. Barbuda has a magnificent bird sanctuary.

The population is approximately 66,970 as of July, 2001. The ethnic groups are black, British, Portuguese, Lebanese, and Syrian. The Anglican religion predominates with some other Protestant and some Roman Catholic.

The official language is English, but there are some local dialects.