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| Caribbean Property Magazine Home / June 2008 / 'The Unspoiled Queen' | SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND  |
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JUNE  2 0 0 8Issue 17
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THE UNSPOILED QUEEN  Saba was born of the violence of the sea and settled even though living there should have been impossible. It was a Saba of struggle, of faith. Once settled (by Dutch, English and Scots), its population survived because of and in spite of the sea. Life was simple: If it could not be grown on the island, it had to come in by boat and be hauled up long ladders. Saban’s had to be tough. Christ Church contains many memorial tablets, many bearing witness to the stark realities of those years. One commemorates the deaths of four members of the Simmons family--ages 16 to 52. All lost at sea, all in 1918. An adjacent marker shows that a fifth member of the same family had been lost at sea only two years earlier. "Lost" at sea--what an inadequate euphemism to signify the sea's awesome power to hurl a man's body to the ocean floor and his soul to Heaven, in one terrible crash of a wave. Tiny Saba (SAY-ba) island is so unique it's known as the Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean. What makes it special? For one thing, you won't find your typical white sand beaches here. Instead, as the tip of a huge underwater mountain, Saba rises straight up out of the ocean, offering beautiful scenery, great hiking and pristine diving - but no beaches. For another, Saba's capital, The Bottom, is in the crater of a volcano. THIS TOUGH OUTPOST OF THE CARIBBEAN WAS THE FIRST ISLAND TO OUTLAW SLAVERY Saba's uniqueness affects every aspect of its history and culture. Despite being claimed by the Dutch since 1632, the Dutch government allows the school system to use English as the principal classroom language. Very few islanders are of Dutch descent and a third of them are named either Hassell or Johnson. There are less than 1,500 permanent residents. This tough outpost of the Caribbean was the first island to outlaw slavery. | ||
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| There's only one major road - called, simply enough, The Road. Until the 1940s, Saba's four villages were connected by footpaths. When Dutch engineers told residents their steep terrain prohibited road building, Josephus Lambert Hassell took a correspondence course in civil engineering and for the next 20 years lead island crews in building the 9-mile concrete road by hand. The first car arrived in 1947. The Road runs from the airport at the northeastern side of the island through the villages of Hell's Gate, Windwardside, St John's and The Bottom, then down to Fort Bay, the island's main port. The Road is secured to the mountainside with hardy stone walls but driving can be an adventure: many of its curves are extremely tight. A second road completed in 1958 connects The Bottom with Well's Bay on the island's northwestern side.  Despite its tiny size of five square miles, Saba is home to more than 60 species of birds, while 200 kinds of fish swim near its shores. Saba's highest peak, Mt. Scenery, stretches over half a mile into the sky, and the thousand stone steps hand-carved into the mountain beckon climbers up to the highest peak in this outpost of the far-flung Kingdom of the Netherlands. Manually carving steps into mountains - they also carved 800 stone steps from Ladder Bay to The Bottom -- and hand-building roads have given Saba islanders a well-earned reputation for being hard-working and resourceful. If you're looking for casinos, white beaches and a rollicking night life, keep looking. But if a majestic, secluded haven in peaceful and friendly surroundings is on your wish list, Saba can make your dreams come true. The island is a monument to the best nature has to offer above and below the ocean's surface. However, Saba remains relatively untouched by tourism as compared to the majority of islands in the Caribbean. | ||
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History In the 16th century, many famous explorers, such as Sir Walter Raleigh, Piet Heyn, and of course Columbus, sighted Saba from afar. These European adventurers thought better of trying to land on the island's perilous shores, which are impossibly rocky, and simply passed the little island by. The first settlers to land on the island arrived by accident. In 1632, a group of English explorers were shipwrecked on Saba, which they claimed was uninhabited, though the sailors found the island abundant with fruit trees. In those days, it was a tradition among sailors to plant fruit-bearing plants on an island, just in case someone became shipwrecked. Additionally, some traces indicate that either Carib or Arawak Indians once occupied the area.  Many Saban citizens are descendants of African slaves who were brought to the island to work on plantations during colonization. Other members of Saban society include people of Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian backgrounds, who can trace their lineage to early European settlers. Although Saba is governed by the Dutch, very few people on the island are of Dutch descent. However, Dutch is the island's official language, but most islanders speak English in their homes. Because English is so widely used on Saba, the Dutch government has had to revise its educational curriculum to include English as one of the languages taught in classrooms. During the English Reformation, unemployed and "undesirable" people were deported from England and sent to colonies in the Americas. Many were sent to Jamaica, but eventually African slaves outnumbered the outcasts and were considered more useful than the destitute English exiles, who had to turn to piracy in order to survive. Since being colonized by the Europeans in the 17th century, Saba has seen several changes. Sabans have dabbled in many enterprises, including the trade of shoes and boots and the cultivation of sugar. Ultimately, they were renowned for their sailing and maritime expertise. In the 19th century, the men of Saba set out for the seas and were in high demand by many shipping lines. Saban sailors captained ships that sailed all over the Americas. Author: Leilani Gerstel is a hospitality industry professional who frequently travels within the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. She has a strong interest in environmental and eco- tourism issues and frequently writes of her travel observations and adventures. PHOTO THANKS © Saba Tourist Bureau, 1996-2003 | ||
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Saba was a difficult island to land on because it has no beaches and its coastal area is steep and rocky. So for many years, the islanders faced very few threats from opposing forces. The Saban people protected themselves by causing man-made avalanches and constructing platforms on the top of ravines that they loaded with boulders. When enemies approached, they knocked away the platforms' supports. 
Because of Saba's steep and perilous coastline, early European explorers generally avoided this little island. When English settlers finally arrived around 1632, they believed the island was uninhabited, but archaeologists have discovered evidence indicating that either Carib or Arawak Indian tribes lived here thousands of years ago. 
Saba has been rapidly developing both socially and economically in recent years. The island has seen a great increase in tourism although Saba is relatively new to the tourism industry in comparison to other vacation destinations in the Caribbean. The island's airport, for example, wasn't constructed until 1963, and its pier wasn't built until 1972.
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