A Princess Cays Mystery!

Hi everyone,

 

Found this site after stumbling on the graves yesterday during my cruise on the Crown Princess (12/19-12/16 '09). I decided to take a walk on the beach past the basketball and volleyball courts, and sure enough, found two graves. I walked back to the resort area and asked a couple of vendors if they knew anything about the graves, and eventually found one person who said that they were slave graves, and more could be found in the area.

 

I went back to the graves with some friends and then passed them, searching for more. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily making it pretty miserable to trek. About 10 or 15 minutes after passing the graves, we found a building marked "Cable Landing" (very faded), which we later learned from the same person was a communications building used by the US Marines, and more graves are apparently located behind it (which we didn't see due to the thick vegetation surrounding the building). Since it was raining really hard, I was only able to reach my camera in the doorway and snap some pictures and quickly put it back in my backpack without looking at them. When I looked at them later, it turned out the building was empty, although there was a ladder going below the building inside to a basement...hopefully someone on this board could check it out further.

Wow...that is interesting! Thanks for the information. Im too much of a chicken to go in the basement of the building! There were a few pictures at the begining of the thread that had parts of a building, I wonder if its the same one or different. How far was the building past the graves?

We went to the graves a few years ago. My husband is the one who put the big heart rock and a few smalls one on and next to the grave..glad to see they are still there. We always look for heart rocks where ever we go and collect them, couldn't believe he found that onel

How far was the building past the graves?

Probably 10 or 15 minutes? You can make a round trip journey in a little more than 30 minutes I'd guess.

Some photos for you guys:

The history of this island is interesting! My wife and I will be their in 5 weeks on the Ruby. I am bringing my new Mine lab metal detector along with me on the cruise. I contacted Princes about bringing the detector on the ship and they said no problem. I would be interested in using it in areas around old foundations on the island. No telling what I may find!. With all the reports regarding ship wrecks off the island I may even find a old coin or two.

Hi everyone,

We were on the Crowne Princess week of January 9. I visited the graves on Princess Cays and shot a little video. Here is the link...

Thanks,

Larry

Hi everyone,

 

We were on the Crowne Princess week of January 9. I visited the graves on Princess Cays and shot a little video. Here is the link...

 

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

Very nice, thanks for posting.

Awsome...thank you:)

What an amazing thread! Thanks everyone for posting. And I wonder if anyone will be brave enough to check out that basement!

I'll assume the only part where shoes are really needed for this walk is for going over the rocky parts. Is the rest of the walk on the beach doable bare footed or are there rocks all over the place so shoes are needed for the entire trip?? I'll be doing this trek in Jul 2010 on the Emerald.

Wow! What a beautiful resting place for those souls!

I'll assume the only part where shoes are really needed for this walk is for going over the rocky parts. Is the rest of the walk on the beach doable bare footed or are there rocks all over the place so shoes are needed for the entire trip?? I'll be doing this trek in Jul 2010 on the Emerald.

I just had on "water" shoes and it was fine. If you know where you are going, walking the road/path is really easy. Not as pretty since the vegetation blocks a lot of the views.

I was there in Mid jan. I thought it was unique enough to make the small treck.

Wow I wish I explored a little more when I was recently there. So interesting!!

Hi everyone,

We were on the Crowne Princess week of January 9. I visited the graves on Princess Cays and shot a little video. Here is the link...

Thanks,

Larry

Thank you Larry for posting, and to all of the others that have made this thread fascinating.

Thorougly appropriate to discover and pay respect while visiting.

Top of the list for a return to Princess Cays.

It's not a far walk up the beach (hang a right when you get off the tender, go over the little bridge and go about 1/4 mile). When you get to the rocky area on the beach you can cut up to the dirt road that's next to the beach....easier than picking your way around the rocks (IMO). Yes, they do have a beautiful resting area and this is something you don't get to see on every cruise....I'm glad we took the time to go and pay our respects...it was a beautiful, peaceful walk with my wife.

Oh, and whoever "B + J" are....your heart is still on the beach as of July 2010 (Emerald Princess cruise).

Well this is a very interesting thread. I'm glad it keeps getting bumped.

I'm an avid genealogist (amateur, to be honest) and volunteer at my local Genealogical Society which is a branch of the much larger Ontario Genealogical Society. I spend some time every summer looking for old abandoned cemeteries throughout central and eastern Ontario. You'd be amazed at how many I've found that have been long forgotten, even by the local townships and counties. No records survive, so we gather as much as we can and notify the provincial authourities to get it registered in the archives.

I'll gather old maps and documents, some with clues on the possible whereabouts of cemeteries and some without. Then I try to match them to the known geography with the area. Then I set out with my brother spending the better part of the daylight hours just searching both by vehicle and by foot. As morbid as it sounds it is quite a nice feeling to find a cemetery that was completely lost and forgotten for a couple hundred years. We then give it a quick clean up as best as we can, and notify the Genealogical Society. They have professional researchers who dig up as much as they can (not literally) on the people and the cemetery itself and put it in the records and archives for perpetuity. Also, the society has a long list of people who have hit a brick wall during their genealogical research, and if there's a chance that any 'new' cemeteries can help them out - we let them know.

We always try to get permission to go on private property but sometimes it just isn't possible. Many times we've faced a farmer who wasn't too happy to see us wandering around. I always feel badly, but it's amazing how helpful people are when I show them my OGS card and explain my mission. Especially the old timers. They'll jump at the opportunity to tell me what they know of the area. One old fella took me to an old foundation on his property and stacked neatly inside was about 30 or 40 headstones. They were, for the most part, his ancestors. Typically after a few generations had passed the descendants would need the land back, so they'd pull the markers up and re-work the land. "Grandpa would understand" is what we're often told. That has happened more times than I can remember. It's just the way it was done.

Oops. That was long.

Anyways...I'm speaking out of my hat here, so take it for what it's worth. Looking at the photos of the two gravesites I'd hazard a guess and say that they wouldn't be slaves. To have a grave like that, and a headstone (although inscribed very poorly to begin with) would tell me their family had money. There are literally hundreds of thousands of unmarked graves in Ontario alone (likely more) simply because the family did not have the money for a proper plot and headstone. For these people to have a proper burial site, protected from the high water table, with a formed headstone, tells me that somebody paid for that. And even back in the early part of the 20th century, on a remote island, having a proper burial was a luxury not afforded by the poor.

But I'm not familiar with the Bahamas. I'm just throwing my thoughts out there, that's all.

I can't wait to check this out the end of March.

We'll be in PC in about 6 weeks. Will definately have to check this out...very interesting!

Just remember to wear water shoes. We did not and found the path that we needed to take (because of too many rocks on the beach) has cuckleberries that hurt like hell when you step on them.

i loved this thread, so interesting, i could not stop reading. we live off of once was a country road, now built up there were these two graves of the road for many years, and we always wondered, then my son in law found a grave on some property he had purchased...........seems that all of this land was once a very large plantation and there graves with headstones were slave graves( very mush loved head house slaves) thus the headstones.........can't wait to go to princess cay on october 24 on the grand.........guess what i'm going to be doing lol

...Anyways...I'm speaking out of my hat here, so take it for what it's worth. Looking at the photos of the two gravesites I'd hazard a guess and say that they wouldn't be slaves. To have a grave like that, and a headstone (although inscribed very poorly to begin with) would tell me their family had money. There are literally hundreds of thousands of unmarked graves in Ontario alone (likely more) simply because the family did not have the money for a proper plot and headstone. For these people to have a proper burial site, protected from the high water table, with a formed headstone, tells me that somebody paid for that. And even back in the early part of the 20th century, on a remote island, having a proper burial was a luxury not afforded by the poor.

But I'm not familiar with the Bahamas. I'm just throwing my thoughts out there, that's all.

That sounds pretty accurate to me and I'm even more of an amateur genealogist than you are! ;)

Oops. That was long.

Actually, I thought it was fascinating! But then I'm one who can't pass up a cemetery. Thanks for sharing your work!

Can't wait to see this in March.

read this on CC before

of course I read this thread as it is almost 5 years old :o