Pelican Island or Pleasure Island?

The Coat of Arms of Barbados

Adorned in The Coat of Arms of Barbados are a variety of visual representations of our heritage. One of these is the brown feathered pelican standing to its left with one of its webbed feet resting gently against the shield. The use of this bird is a nod to Pelican Island, the former dependency of Barbados. Until it was joined to the mainland, it was located approximately 100 yards from the Carlisle-Fontabelle stretch on the southern tip. From the 1870s, the island’s location made it ideal to host a quarantine hospital which cared for patients infected with contagious diseases including cholera, small pox and yellow fever. For a more indepth understanding of the island’s medical history, head over to Part I: Baby Bim - A peek into Pelican's Past This blog however seeks to explore the more light-natured side of its legacy. 

Aerial view of Pelican Island

Pelican Island physically mimicked Barbados in shape and position but it possessed its own unique charm. Unlike the mainland, it is rumoured that Pelican Island had no bearded fig trees. Rather, it was home to anodyne, cordea, white wood almond, manchineel and some beautiful sea grapes. The main defenders of the land were none other than the local soldier crabs. The night belonged to them. Many in number and ranging from ½ inch up to 5 inches in diameter, they would appear at night’s fall and march around with their houses on their backs. Turtles could also be found in abundance and they often laid their eggs in the sand at Full Moon (Bertie, p. 36).

With the erection of the Lazaretto in Black Rock, the island became much more than just a convalescent haven by the mid-20th century. In 1950, the Barbados Advocate reported that by this time, Pelican had become a ‘One Woman’ island. Mrs. M. Whitehead was now the sole resident and she was the caretaker of the island. One may wonder how she managed to live there by herself but she was evidently quite the self-sufficient woman. Mrs. Whitehead was not born on the smaller island but she had made it her own and went about rearing her own turkeys, pigs, and cows. Coupled with the fish found in the waters around Pelican, she likely wanted for little (Barbados Advocate, 1950, p. 5). 

View of Pelican Island in 1950

Other Barbadians also took advantage of the island for a range of economic and leisure activities. The shallow waters were abundant in sea eggs, garnering the attention of the occasional diver for the sought-after delicacy. Many others simply ventured across the waters to relish in the cool of the trees and the ambiance of the white sand beach along Pelican’s northern coast. The perfect little picnic getway was reached by boat with many bathers boarding from Fontabelle making the short trip to its shores. With the almond trees thickly dressing the landscape, the islet added a further incentive to fill one’s baskets with the ripe tasty nuts. One man, in particular, made his living from the island’s visitors. After all, without his services, many may have never made it there at all! He was Charles Duke and he had, as of 1950, been transporting individuals for 4 years from the mainland of Barbados to Pelican Island in his small craft (Barbados Advocate, 1950, p. 5). 

For Dr. Bertie Clarke, who was also a resident of the island, Pelican was more than a medical facility or an oasis to escape to from time to time. It was her childhood home. With her grandmother living and working at the quarantine hospital for 37 years, Bertie’s entire immediate family grew up on the island. This included her mother Georgina Clarke as well as Bertie’s brother, sister and three cousins. It would seem that only two births ever occurred on Pelican Island. These were Bertie’s brother who passed away rather early in life as well as her cousin Mrs Emmeline Gay, making the latter the only surviving ‘Pelican Islander’ (Bertie, p. 10).  

In Bertie’s memoir, she called her joyous experiences there as a child. Believe it or not, many spectacular dances were hosted on the island. Starting in the afternoon, the atmosphere filled with music and lightness as the dances of Lancers, Quadrilles and Tom Jones went on all night! 

On bank holidays specifically, the island was once again awakened by the arrival of boats to its shores filled with a considerable number of people. However, this time around, the arrivals were not the ill and infected but rather bright-eyed and bushy-tailed spectators. You see, the Yacht Club used Pelican as a base for regattas with the races taking place over three days - Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  The event was more than just about racing with the entire weekend being punctuated with eating, drinking, dancing and being merry. For a child as Bertie was, this spectacle was extremely enthusing and she admitted that she was left “wide-eyed” each and every time (Bertie, p. 11). It seems understandable then that she felt motivated by the experience, leading her to purchase her own yacht in her adult life. On this yacht, she and her companions mimicked the parties of the past. While she conceded that they were certainly less opulent, they were no less exciting. 

Today, vessels continue to grace the shores of what was once Pelican Island as large cruise ships escort thousands of visitors to Barbados. However, the sweet intimacy and leisure which once thrived there are now gone. Its significance may be memorialised forever in our Coat of Arms but how many of us truly know the history of this island? For some, it was a home, for others it was a mere escape but above all, it was a reminder of the calm nature that was synonymous with Barbados. So to conclude, one could say:

All things bright and beautiful

Some creatures great and small

Adventure and tranquility

Pelican Island had them all!

Bibliography
Clarke, Bertie. “Pelican Island”. In Bajan.

“The 1952 Crop Will Start This Month.” Barbados Advocate, 20 Oct. 1950, p. 5.