Island Life - Rum Cay Style

Rum Cay is a beautiful, quiet island, like nothing else in the Bahamas. Visiting there is like going back in time. The locals live in a quiet, small community, and the streets are free from noise and traffic. The rest of the Island is totally uninhabited, leaving acres of unexplored land and deserted beaches just waiting to be discovered.

Rum Cay is a small sparsely populated secluded island with rolling hills and spectacular views of Caribbean harbors, inlets, sandy beaches and undisturbed natural beauty. Rum Cay has a rich history, serene sunsets and provides memories that last a lifetime. You will not find shopping malls or crowded marketplaces or bazaars here. Just a private beautiful tranquil environment. Real Estate prices here are substantially less than places within an hours reach.

As you begin the journey to fulfill your dream of owning a private, secluded retreat on the Island of Rum Cay, we believe you will enjoy the peacefulness of every wave that washes ashore on the splendid white sandy beaches. Choose from the calm and private feel of the south beaches, or the ruggedness and seclusion of the cliffs and towering waves of the north shore.

History

Rum Cay’s history is rich with swashbuckling tales of pirates, treasure and discovery. Historians note that Christopher Columbus made his second stop in the New World on Rum Cay, giving it the name Santa Maria de la Concepcion. The modern name, Rum Cay, is said to be in memory of a shipwreck, destroyed with a cargo of rum, which foundered off the coral reefs surrounding the island's shore.

When Columbus reached the Bahamas, they were inhabited by indigenous people known as the Arawaks. His crew described them as a peaceful people. Columbus noted in his captains log “the natives brought us balls of cotton thread and parrots and darts and other little things and exchanged everything for whatever we offered them...I kept my eyes open and tried to find out if there was any gold. I saw that some of natives had little pieces of gold hanging from a hole in their nose." On the north shore of Rum Cay there is a cave, which still to this day, has Lucayan drawings and carvings detailing their history on the island.

In the 17th and 18th century, pirates periodically called Rum Cay home. According to island lore, it was once the home of buried treasure which was pilfered from ships travelling to and from Europe. The British Empire eventually deployed its naval forces to the Caribbean to rid the region of the “bloodthirsty pirates and to restore order to the seas.” Rum Cay was eventually settled by British subjects who were provided land by the government for their loyalty to the crown.

In 1861 the warship HMS Conqueror sank off the coast of Rum Cay in 30 feet of water. The ship still remains today, serving as one of the most spectacular wreck dives in the Caribbean. Historians note, “She was a 101-gun battleship, capable of throwing a prodigious weight of metal from a broadside, still very much a three-decker with the masts and full rig of a ship of the eighteenth century, but with the incongruous addition of a smokestack amidships and a vast, primitive, coal-burning engine driving one great screw.” The warship was lost on Sumner Point Reef on December 13, 1861. Her crew of 1,400 all survived. Read More.

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