[Music] [Music] it would probably be one of the most sought-after private islands in the caribbean if it were on the market today its size at 136 acres location roughly 200 meters south of charlotte amalie st thomas u.s virgin islands and landscape which is mostly undeveloped makes hassel island a perfect buy for an investor looking for the ideal resort location but far from becoming the ideal vacation destination and to the disappointment of would-be investors hassel island remains mostly undeveloped due to the fact that almost 90 percent of the island is federally protected while there are a handful of private homes on the island what stands out most are the ruins that dot its landscape ruins that allow many to reconnect with the rich history of the island of saint thomas ruins that tell stories of occupation innovation and separation and stand as a reminder of the significance of a harbor and of an island that for centuries was considered the doorway to the rest of the world so today we're taking a short trip over to hassel island to see some of the historic sites that are still there today and joining us is going to be our good friend mr lassie davis [Applause] good to see you again i'm looking forward to going to hasa island today what should we expect to see many historical structures on hustle island the fort as you know it was built by the danish during the 1700s i reclaimed by the british during the 1800s and also the marine facilities was built in 1800 and so you may see great things over in hassel island well i'm excited let's go let's go all right hassle island sits um just south of st thomas and it was it's probably probably say it's about it's about 500 500 yards hassell island is only accessible by boat as you know the st thomas historic trust uh will give provide guided tours um contact the trust and they will set that up um you actually can come to hassell island by private boat but you have to remember that this is national park territory so you don't leave anything behind and you don't take anything with you what people should know about hassel island first off is that hassel island was not always an island it was actually attached to the mainland of saint thomas by an isthmus of land called haulover okay and that isthmus was about 30 yards wide and eight feet tall there are many many historic ruins here on the island some of them in various states of repair on the south side of the island you have fort frederick that was built in 1777 renamed by the british in 1807 fort willoughby also on the south side of the island you have cowell battery that was built in 1801 heading south to north you have the british enlisted barracks area you have the british officers quarters area on the north side of the island at the very top you have fort shipley you have the remnants of the old leprosarium you have the remnants of the royal mail yacht packet company the bronsted culling company the hamburg american line you also have creaky marine railway and the ruins of the creeky marine facility is where we will start today's journey of rediscovery wow oh wow this is huge this is what the quickie marine railroad facility correct could you tell us a little bit about it what what was it used for what was it well back in the the 1840s was established the this facility and basically established for ships that come in this particular area i noticed that's the steam indian rider and the ships come down this area here and they pull the ship up here to for repairing this this is the oldest one in the western hemisphere and this is the oldest surviving one in the world this is how the facility would have looked in the 1800s a large ship cradle built out of wood that ran on four rails down a shallow incline into the water vessels would be floated into the cradle then drawn up the railway by a winch once on dry land repairs or maintenance could be done on the hull of the ship the marine railway was originally called the saint thomas marine repair facility it was the project of five businessmen from charlotte to mali that realized the amount of boat traffic that was coming into charlotte and molly harbor have to remember there were about 2000 ships a year that pulled into this harbor to do trade a majority of those ships after a long sea voyage needed repair this facility were repaired about 50 ships a year average tonnage was between 400 and 800 tons the largest ship pulled out here was 1200 tons which is a good sized ship in about 1910 a gentleman by by the name of henry creeky bought the facility updated it from steam power to diesel power reopened it in about 1912 and continued to operate until it finally went bankrupt in about 1965. these are some of the tools and artifacts from the facility that remain today where we're standing right now is the machine shop for the creaky marine railway okay back in the day all of these machines that you see here were actually run by steam you had a rod that ran across the top of the building up here which is this rod down here and you had belts that ran from these rods to the various machines and they would use a clutch system to tighten up the belt turn the wheel on the machines and they get the machine stick to turn you've got a drill press over here you've got a lathe over here you've got a pressing machine over there uh one of my favorites over here is a is a hacksaw there are also these diving bells which were used in the process of getting ships onto dry land the diving bells were actually used to give the divers in the water oxygen they would lower the bell in the water think of it as taking a piece of tupperware and putting it in water and you've got that air pocket up underneath okay and then they would connect hoses with a bellow system to provide water so they can come up get breath of air and then um go back down during the hurricane and the earthquake and the tsunami uh in the 1860s here those diving bells were used extensively to recover a lot of the cargo and stuff that was on the bottom here in charlotte molly harbor in addition to housing several boat repair facilities hassell island also served as a calling depot also in this particular area during 1871 you're right here with the call carrier the call carrier yeah there were some these people from saint thomas from here they carry coal quality deposit in this particular area the area we're standing right now in right now was the coaling station area for the royal mail yacht packet company okay the royal mail yacht steam package company was a shipping line that set up operations here in about 1830. as ships turned over more and more to steam engine instead of sales coal and fresh water became a priority it wasn't until the mid 1800s that companies like the braunstead company calling company came in the asiatic calling company came in the hamburg american line calling company came in and hassell island was a was one of these centers for culling and and re-um stocking ships for fresh water and coal in the caribbean this is one of the coal shoots that was actually used to uh to load or unload ships you have to remember that ships came into the harbor carrying coal carrying coal from england carrying coal from south america those ships had to be offloaded okay so the women would have to offload those ships the ladies women call calling ladies were the women were the people that actually loaded coal aboard the ships they would carry coal on their heads in 85 to 95 pound baskets and they would get paid an equivalent of a penny a basket ships that were light on coal would sit high out of the water so in order for the women to get up into the ships they would have to build scaffolding and they'd have to transfer back and forth on the scaffolding to get up into the ship and and load the call if the ship uh if the ship's draft was shallow enough that it could pull up to the dock over here they would offload the ship directly off this calling dock okay if the ship couldn't get into the dock then it would be anchored out in the harbor and then they would use what was called a coaling lighter and we do have a a one that's on the beach over here at careening cove where we are right now is careening cove the original name for careening cove was called oak and hullett and that was the danish name for hurricane hall and as you may be able to tell it sits in a pretty um reclusive area which is a good spot to weather a ship in a storm all right behind me here we have the remnants of what's called a coal lighter this was a small vessel pointed at both ends that would be used to offload coal from ships in the harbor loaded into these smaller vessels smaller vessels would bring the coal to the wharf and then offload coal would be offloaded to be stored and then the coal would be loaded on chips at a later date careening cove at one time was the home of the bronsted culling company and the hamburg american line over here the the bronsted calling company around the coast corner over here used to advertise that their calling ladies could recall a ship in five hours or less so that's that's a lot of work [Music] in fact my great grandmother was wonderful carrier uh that that carried a call between the island so shinto were different compared to saint chris it was really good for important and exported yeah is it more like a commonwealth for example um when it dean came in 1771 72 and he started agriculture and then he realized that the half of is the cameras so it changed from agriculture into a campus until today a comparison quest was mostly agriculture because topography and everything like that yeah now center is very unique but in those days it's both from all over the world we're going to understand i'm sure we called flag hill i would a world coming to this house it's one of the best harbor in this part of the world in fact the harbor was so popular that in 1900 author and journalist william drysdale wrote that mariners refer to st thomas as the place that is on the way to every other place he went on to write to call the island the gateway to the caribbean is not mere poetic fancy the original name of the town was called tophouse which was the danish word for pretty much bar and this has always been a stopping off place for sailors because when you look at the way the trade winds blow this is the natural place to stop from ships coming to europe that's what made this harbor so successful was the fact that ships would naturally come here and the danes were very smart in signing non-aggression treaties meaning that they had open and free ports that any flagship of any nation could trade here without fear of reprisals but this popularity would prove to be detrimental to the harbor so much so that the danish government had to alter part of the island's coastline to rectify the problem back in the 1800s the harvard symptom was polluted remember prior to the 1800s hassel island was not an island but a peninsula attached to saint thomas this peninsula created a pool-like condition where there was very little to no sea current and circulation this caused waste and pollution to settle and ultimately contaminate the harbor solid of molly harbor would actually be pretty well stagnant what didn't flush very well you had the effluent coming from the town the effluent coming from animal waste stuff coming off of ships made a the harbor here very unhealthy typhus cholera yellow fever smallpox it wasn't until the the haulover cut was made in 1860s that the bay actually started to had a flushing action which made it a little more sanitary this move not only saved the harbor but also created what is now hassel island the channel was widened in 1919 by the u.s army corps of engineers you could see it where it was connected if you look out it's still very shadow out there you can see the point and it's connected so now what happened this basically kind of cut off you could walk from center and come right over here and because the the harbor was basically a pool placed surrounded by hustle island and they made the major island so when the house was polluted the human race would not go out out to the caribbean city this is the caribbean city this is the atlantic area so the detail was dredged to get the wish to go out but as so it was for ships to come in in the area and then they dressed again and we parked ricardo in that middle school with the cancun school that was filled in for some of the squads on this particular site so besides the marine facility what else is unique about maybe well hustle island tour we're going to the other side we've got a little more detail and we talk about the food because people won't know about um for christian but he's at fort hurston island as well from the remains of the creaky marine facility we travel a few minutes south to see another ruin the remains of fort willoughby this fortification was originally named the prince frederick battery at megan's point now this fort rests on roughly a half an acre of land it was strategically placed on the south side of hassel island so that any boats coming into the harbor would pass right in front of it so you can see the structure of the foster standing here so we we have two fort in in this in um saint thomas but i forgot about this particular one here because it's kind of off could you tell us a little bit about the characteristics of this floor i know we have a sister in here you see the characteristic d was this was brought inside the boat you could see and he got the yellow brick and then got i saw the the red one and they used sedimentary rocks and basically in those days they didn't have like cement we have today and basically what it they constructed with with for example with lime molasses after the level of water gravel and that would in fever mata and constructed these structures as we've learned throughout our rediscovery of the virgin islands the bricks used in the construction of structures similar to this fort were ballast bricks brought into the islands on ships lime kilns like this one found on hassel island was used to make the bonding agent for the bricks and stones this coal-fired furnace would heat seashells and coral to a point where they could be pulverized into a fine powder this powder was then mixed with sand and a molasses product to create more but what's interesting is the wild the thickness of the wall and how they build within the the topography the rocks you can see how they build right into the right right into the wrap gave it a very strong strong holding and of course when it rains to the water go right through the drainage and here's the sister again in this island what was the limited factor and so therefore they have a system which is right here this is the system i see they build a system and kind of realize that they need water and narrative freshwater united supply decepticon has island have very liquid water indo you may have underground water the major one or two wells and the islands but water was a critical uh component to the whole operation over here how important is this this structure to fort and here is where it is located on hassel island now it's very this is the south side it's very interesting because you notice this is the mouth of the harbor to come in and of course in those days the bill fought to throw the wall in the caribbean to protect the goods so i should coming in this particular area see this forte here to protect saint thomas as they're coming into the area now the story of fort frederick is pretty interesting it was built under threat of british occupation of saint thomas what happened was in 1776 a ship called the nancy it was a seven gun brig okay basically it was a cargo ship that had seven cannons on it was in charlotte o'malley harbor and she was loading 386 barrels of gunpowder for george washington's army during the american revolution and 1776. she the nancy was a u.s warship okay and as she set sail out of charlotte of mali harbor she unfurled the stars and stripes and as she left the harbor fort christian over here fired off a 21-gun salute second time in u.s history the stars and stripes had been saluted by a foreign government now you got to remember the british who were our enemy at that time right are over on saint martin they kind of send word to the danes we don't like you trading with the americans the danes to protect themselves sent were to copenhagen they wanted to build a fort to protect the harbor danish governor said good idea go ahead and build it and they built fort frederick despite having built this fort the danes were still unable to prevent a british take over in january of 1801 the british had decided they were going to blockade charlotte of mali harbor and they had british warships patrolling the mouth of the harbor here on march 3rd 1801 there was a danish ship called the loygan that was coming from saint croix getting right into the end of the harbor here in charlotte o'malley it was a british warship called the hms arab under the command of a gentleman by the name of captain john perkins that saw the loygan and was planning to intercept it john perkins was the son of a black slave woman on jamaica and a british planter father okay the first time his name appears in any type of dispatches is as a 16 year old as a navigator aboard british warships in the caribbean and during the american revolution his name appears again as the captain of a privateership in the pay of the british called the punch intercepting intercepting ships down here in the caribbean so getting back to march 3rd 1801 captain perkins on the ancient on the hms arab sees the ship deloigan's coming into charlotte and molly harbor about four in the afternoon captain perkins decides he's going to take her as a prize pulls up a long side fires a shot across the bow figure he's going to take her as a prize logan's going to have nothing to do with that she gets the weather gauge turns broadside and fires off a broadside and fights on so now they're duking it out just outside of shuffle molly harbor here and the logan starts to drag the fight in towards stroller molly harbor where the arab now comes under the guns of fort frederick fort frederick had an 18-pound cannon two six pounders and two eight pounders captain perkins logs says that he took shot between wind and water and broke off the engagement laid outside the harbor overnight waited for the loyan to come out the next day the loygan didn't so captain perkins left went back to saint martin but unbeknownst to the people on st thomas or captain perkins at that time the british had already had battle plans drawn up to take saint thomas the british fleet came back in late march of that same year about march 28th 29th with 29 other warships including captain perkins and 4 000 british troops and took over the island of saint thomas and held it for 10 months and then through treaties gave it back to denmark now during the british 10-month occupancy several other structures were built on hassel island to include fort shipley which is located on the island's northern hilltop [Music] and kawa's battery located on the southern hilltop additionally the british built these structures which served as officers quarters and soldier barracks we are city we are at the location of the british officers quarters as i previously mentioned the british occupied these islands twice once in 1801 and again in 1807. um this was the original site of the first british officer's quarters in 1801 they were here for 10 months so we believe a lot of the structures that were here at the first time were made of wood when they were here the second time in 1807 they were here for a period of eight years and that's why we believe a lot of these structures were made out of rubble construction okay and as you can see by the construction it's um the brick was used to make the doorways in the windows and the corners and the rest of it was just um rubble this second occupation by the british also saw the construction of garrison house which served as a munitions building today it is said to be the only napoleonic war structure built in the western hemisphere basically garrison house was used to store ammunition gunpowder and was a cistern and as a small piece of history it is the only napoleonic war structure built in the western hemisphere majority of these structures were built with slave labor okay i'm not saying that the british soldiers who were here didn't help to build but the majority of these structures were built with slave labor it's important to note that adjacent to the remains of the soldier barracks exists the hassel family cemetery the cemetery contains two mausoleums and three graves one of which belongs to james hassell jr hassell island is named after one of its owners called james hassell senior okay there were previous owners of the island as we mentioned before john hatch jacob mogan but it was james hassell senior that really improved the ship repair facility over here in in careening cove and therefore the island is is named after him and it's interesting the current spelling of the island is with two s's james hassell senior spelled his name with two z's despite only being 136 acres in size hassell island has quite a rich and impressive history one that stretches across the globe and one that is well documented throughout the centuries it's st thomas's history book that floats just meters away it's been a great day of rediscovery but unfortunately we've run out of time thanks to mr alaska davis and thanks to the st thomas historical trust for taking the time to guide us on these tours and of course thank you for watching so until next time cherish your home this beautiful island but most of all cherish each other [Music] you