Page 558 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles
P. 558
hough many sites are close together Charles Brown, one of the longest wrecks After emancipation, the legend says the
in the Caribbean (328 feet (100 meters) ex-slaves gathered at the cliffs and threw
T the terrain is varied depending whether long)..Many of these wrecks are surrounded their beads in the sea to celebrate freedom.
by hundreds of schooling snappers, horse This is probably the reason that most of the
you are diving on top of a lava flow, in one eye jack fish and turtles. Large barracudas blue beads are found by divers in the dive
of the trenches or over basalt blocks and in guard the upper waters while spotted mo- site called Blue Bead Hole. The best tech-
some areas the substratum looks so much rays and southern stingrays patrol below. nique to find them is somewhere between
as if it has been hewn by human hands that There are quite a few wrecks that lie on the swimming close to the sandy bottom and
it is hard to imagine that it results from bottom of the sea and occasionally a diver a few meters above the bottom for a wide
natural phenomena will make a discovery that makes his heart angle view. The moment you spot some-
beat faster; a perfectly intact bottle, the vi- thing blue, you feel your heart pounding,
U ntil recently the wrecks that divers sion of an anchor lying on the sand or even but don’t get too excited as you may end
were visiting were so old that they a blue bead that were once given to the up with a small shard and they don’t count.
were barely distinguishable as ships. All of slaves as salary - their only wealth. You never forget the moment you find your
the wood had long ago rotted away and first blue bead and the atmosphere on the
only the ballast stones remained. But before T he origin of the famous blue beads boat when the trophy is examined by fellow
the wood disappeared, the ballast stones goes back to the 17th century when divers. According to the legend you don’t
were cemented in place by coral action, so the Dutch West India Company used these find blue beads but the beads find you,
you can still see the outlines of the ship’s beads for trading. The pentagonal shaped and if you’re found, you will return to St.
hulls. They are interesting archaeological beads were made in Amsterdam and trav- Eustatius again and again. Blue beads are
sites and tremendous fish magnets. More elled the world wherever the Dutch went. the only artifacts that are allowed to leave
recently, the marine park has been creat- Thirty blue beads were used by the Dutch the island.
ing an artificial reef with sunken ships. Two to purchase New York’s Manhattan island
tugs, two barges and even some old oil from the native Indians. The beads in St.
pipes are now available for diver explora- Eustatius were given to slaves as wages.
tion. The shipwrecks located in 60 feet to 70
feet (18 to 21 meters) of water, such as the
