Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas – Lucayans, Loyalists and Eleutheran Adventurers. For centuries, these
and other populations have sought safety and refuge on Green Turtle Cay, a tiny
island in Abaco, Bahamas. Propelled by fate or by force, most ultimately moved
on. A resilient few remained.
Their
stories are the focus of
Those Who Stayed:
The Tale of the Hardy Few Who Built Green Turtle Cay, a new hardcover book
by Bahamian writer, Amanda Diedrick.
The
full-colour, 185-page publication features close to 200 historic images of
Green Turtle Cay, oil paintings by world-renowned Bahamian artist and
historian, Alton Lowe, and never-before-published, first-hand accounts of 20th
century Abaco life.
In 2012, Diedrick
– a ninth-generation Bahamian -- and her husband, Canadian journalist Tom
Walters, purchased her family’s ancestral home on Green Turtle Cay. Shortly
after, she began documenting the cottage’s restoration and the cay’s history on
her weblog, Little House by the Ferry.
“So much of
Green Turtle Cay’s past isn’t immediately obvious,” says Diedrick. “You’d never
know, for example, that there was once a large Lucayan village near Bita Bay,
on the island’s east coast. Or that pirates like Calico Jack Rackham, Anne
Bonny and Mary Read hid out in Black and White Sounds. Or that in the late
1800s, the cay’s population was four times what it is today and New Plymouth’s
streets were lined large, elegant homes. There was a dance hall, a theater and
even an orchestra. It’s difficult to reconcile all of this with the quaint, low-key
town we know today.”
Those Who Stayed will be officially launched on
January 7, 2017 at ”A Night to Remember,” a cocktail reception commemorating
the 40th anniversary of Green Turtle Cay’s Albert Lowe Museum, being held at the
cay’s Bluff House Beach Resort & Marina.
Book
signings will also take place
January 10 at Hope Town’s Wyannie Malone Museum,
and
January 13 and 14 at the Sand Dollar Shoppe in Marsh Harbour.
Part
proceeds from the sale of
Those Who
Stayed will benefit Green Turtle Cay’s Albert Lowe Museum. “Alton Lowe, who
founded and has operated the Albert Lowe Museum for 40 years, was instrumental
in putting this book together,” says Diedrick. “His passion for Bahamian
history has long been an inspiration, and he’s been incredibly generous in granting
me access to rare photographs and documents from the museum archives. He’s
created an important national resource in the museum, and I’m delighted to be
able to support it.”
For more
information about
Those Who Stayed, visit
www.littlehousebytheferry.com. To learn more about the Albert Lowe Museum, visit www.albertlowemuseum.com or call (242) 365-4094.
Tickets for “A
Night to Remember” may be purchased online at the museum’s website, or through Molly
McIntosh at the Bluff House Beach Resort (242-365-4247), Julie Farrington at
Island Property Management (242-365-4047), or Mandy Roberts (242-365-4402.)
