Cayman Islands / Special Interests / Culture & Heritage

History decrees that the first Europeans to see the Cayman Islands were members of Christopher Columbus’s crews (during his fourth voyage to the Americas) on may 10^th 1503. He named the Sister Islands (Little Cayman and Cayman Brac) as Las Tortugas due to the high number of turtles present. Maps produced over the next fifty years called the islands variously ‘Lagartos’ (lizards) and ‘Caimanas’ from the Carib Indian word for the marine reptiles similar to alligators. Sir Francis Drake also referred to the reptiles – which he called ‘edible lizards’ and the turtles which early sailors used as a valued and important source of fresh meat kept alive until required aboard ship.

The first settlers arrived on Little Cayman in about 1658, and may have been deserters from Oliver Cromwell’s administration in Jamaica, or possibly pirates who wanted to settle down. The first recorded inhabitants of the islands were settlers on the Brac.

British influences have been a dominant factor in the Cayman Islands history, though the arrival of sailors, slaves and refugees from other islands and continents have created a truly mixed heritage. The sea – whether it be the cause of shipwrecks along her shores, or the careers of so many islanders over the centuries – is central to much of the islands’ history and the attitudes of its inhabitants.

The Cayman Islands were administered by Britain as part of the colony of Jamaica from 1655. A small amount of cotton was grown, and the islanders earned some income from revictualling passing ships – and supplying them with sturdy rope woven from the native silver thatch palm which was highly valued for its resistance to salt water. The infamous pirates Captain Morgan and Edward Teach (‘Blackbeard’) are said to have visited the islands, although documented evidence of pirate landings is hard to prove.

In 1794 the islands became famous for ‘the wreck of the Ten Sails’ when ten merchant ships ran aground near Grand Cayman’s East End. In a move that gave democracy a head start in the islands, a declaration at the estate known as Pedro St. James in 1831 allowed the islanders a degree of autonomy from the authorities in Jamaica. When Jamaica attained independence from Great Britain in 1962 the Cayman Islands became a Crown Colony, and now have the status of semi-autonomous British Dependent Territory.

Relics of the earliest days on Cayman can be found at Bodden Town, which was the original capital. Here are Guard House Hill, the Slave Wall, Gun Square and the Mission House.