Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-10-28
Culebra Island in the Virgin
Passage to be Strongly
Fortified.
ONCE HOME OF PIRATES
Is Only Seven Miles Long and Has
an Ideal Harbor With a Long,
Narrow Entrance.


About the Island.
The Navy Department is preparing
to establish a powerful naval station
in the West Indies, and has selected
the little island CT Culebra (Koi-la-
bra), or Passage Island At first it
was thought that a navy yard or some
sort of station would be located on our
new possession, Porto Rico, but a
close examination has shown that
there are no really suitable places on
its coast for even a safe anchorage for
our vessels.
The water in the harbor of San
Juan, Porto Rico, is shallow and not
deep enough for a battle hip. The
north coast of the island is also exp )sed
to the prevailing high winds, so that it
would be almost impossible to secure
safe harbor there and as the bot
tom is mostly coral, the thought of
digging a canal sufficiently deep for
our heavy draught warships was aban-
doned.
For years it has been the desire of
the United States to build butt"ess
fead our extremee southern coast and
in case of war act as base of supplies
SANTANA Bay AMI Mole St. Nicolas
have both at different times been
sought for, but without success. As
soon, however as the island CT Porto
Rico and its depondenc es We're cap
tured a point in he Virgin Passage
was one of the first things the Navy
/ Department looked for, and Captain
/ Chester, of the Cincinnati, was ordered
to make a survey and report to the
/ department, not alone as a place
adaptable for Il naval station, but in
regard to its value IS a strategic stand
point
Captain Chesters report was in due
tine handed to the department, and
! it shows Culebra to be one of the most
important of the many bits of land
that dot the south Atlantic and Carib-
bean Seas.
The island is only seven miles long,
but lies directly in the Virgin Passage,
with the east coast of the island of
Porto Rico to the west, and with St
Thomas to the eastward, guards the
passage.
In his report Captain Chester writes
that Culebra has an ideal harbOr, with
long. narrow entrance which is we'll
protected by a reef which faces the
channel for a width of one hundred
yards The harbor possesses a Lepth
of twenty-uine feet which is more
than sufficient for the largest ship in
our navy.
The island Of Culebra is said at pres
ent to have 700 inhabitants, all negroes,
and is one of the oldest isllnds in
the Virgin group 1t was controlled
by the governor of Porto Rico, but the
army consisted Of but two soldiers
No harbor duties were collected, and
the natives were required to shi all
their goods to Porto Rico.
To the average West Indian of to-
day the island is scarcely known but
seventy-fve years ago its name alone
was terror to commerce. from the
Gulf to the Spanish Main. In the har-
Dor in which Old Glory will float over
our battleships, Congress willing,
there tloated the skull and crossbones
of the mos, daring crews of pirates
that ever swept the Caribbean Sea.
Then. as now, its commanding position
was perfectly we'll known to the ven
turesome Corsairs, and hundreds of
richly ladened merchant vesseis, COM
ing and returning from Europe, have
been boarded, looted and scutted
while attempting to slip through lie
Virgin Passage.
One of the old stories current in St.
Thomas then, showing that Cuebra
had Captain Kidd possessed Of more
fabulous wealth than the Captain Kidd
of the North, is told to the present day.
II tells of an old Scotch ship builder,
Marshall by name, who was accosted
in his yard by a strange youth, well
dressed and we'll educated, who said
he loved the shipbuilding trade, and
wanted work Marshall employed him
in his office, and after a time became
very fond of him. After the lad had
been with him for year, he went to
his house one evening and told the old
Sctotchman that he was the son of
Bouanger, the pirate; that his mother
lived in Italy, where he was educated,
and that when he was a full grown boy
he was told that his father was dead
The mother, who had previously been
well supplied with money, was re-
duced to taking in washing, but final
" moved to Constantinople, where she
was employed by rich Turk
one uay an old sailor made his ap-
pearance, and, after a conversation
with his mother, left a sealed package
to be delivered to the son when nc
reached his eighteenth year.
This occurred a few month; before
he came to st. Thomas and saw Mr.
Marshall. The letter contained naut-
ically correct description of an island
in the Caribbean Sea, and an elaboratf
guide as to where Captain Boulang'
has buried his treasure.
"You have a yacht" said the la
GO with me-you and l alone-an
Won shall share my fortune"