SCANDINAVIAN IN THE CARIBBEAN

When winter closes up on us, we may be forgiven for letting our minds wander off to cruise ships and small islands in the sun. What we are dreaming of are uncrowded beaches, perpetual sun and a slower pace of life. And that is what you find on the islands of St. Barthelemy, St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and on cruise lines such as the Royal Caribbean and Star Clippers. What you also find is that these islands and cruise lines have a very special significance if you have a Nordic heritage. This heritage is also evident in other unlikely places in South America.

In the hills of Colombia in South America there are many stone monuments that date back to centuries before the Spanish conquest of the New World. A few of them look very much like the prehistoric representatives of the God Tho_ that have been found in Iceland and other northern countries.

One of the stone monuments is especially interesting because its headdress features what appears to be runic inscriptions. Skeptics have suggested that the runes could have been carved by modern Scandinavian tourists, but it is unlikely as they are evident of the photographs of the monument from as early as 1863. Similar Viking graffiti has been found on the stone lions in Venice and here it has been verified as authentic carvings by Viking seafarers.

In Mexico the legend of Quetzalcoatl tells of a god by that name that arrived by ship bringing with him the knowledge of metal. The point where he landed was called Tule (Thule?) The name Quetzalcoatl means serpent and retired Swedish-Mexican professor Gustavo Nelin believes that the origin of that name refers to the dragonheaded Viking ship the god arrived in. Nelin's theory is that the god was actually Ari Marson who, according to the Norse Sagas, disappeared with eleven ships en route to Greenland with Eric the Red.

One point that the skeptics point out to is the fact that the Incas were using various metals as early as 500 B.C. about 1500 years before Ari Marson was born. Gustavo Nelin, however, believes that the reference to metal is actually to iron that the Vikings were such experts with.

"Much more rain to Saint Croix" was the traditional toast of the Danish planters on the island. The Danes bought St. Croix from the French in 1733 after first having taken control of St. Thomas in 1666 and St. John in 1718. This was the start of the Golden Age of Denmark, when a thriving economy based on sugar, slave labour and commerce brought wealth to both the colonies and the mother land.

The Danish islands were small and mountainous and ideal for sugar plantations. With the help of slaves, agriculture here flourished beyond anybody's imagination. By 1774 St. Croix produced enough sugar to fill the needs of all of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Prussia and Russia.

There were never many slaves on the Danish islands themselves (4 214 on St. Thomas when the trade was abolished in 1891) but as many as a million and a half slaves were bought and sold on the islands before being shipped away to other American destinations. Denmark had seven slave forts on the West African coast between Accra (in Ghana where Christiansborg was situated) and Togo. The "triangle route" following the trade winds brought the slaves from Africa to the Danish Virgin Islands. The ships then continued with sugar, rum and molasses to Europe. Of the 11 million slaves so imported about 50 000 came on Danish ships. A bloody slave revolt on St. John in 1733, a bloodless rebellion on St. Croix in 1848 but above all diminishing profits brought about the abolition of slavery and thereby ultimately the end of the profitable sugar plantations.

Today the capital Charlotte Amalie (named after a Danish queen) on St. Thomas is the most popular cruise ship port of call in the Caribbean. Badly battered by the recent hurricanes, the old Danish warehouses still survive remodeled into boutiques and restaurants. You will like the pretty Legislative Building and Fort Christian that was completed in 1671 and now serves as a museum in Charlotte Amalie.

Even prettier are the historic buildings of Christiansted on St. Croix that once upon a time was the capital of all the Danish West Indies. Here the Steeple Building has been converted into a museum and the old Scale House now houses the Visitor's Bureau.

There is also a small fort that has survived from the Danish era. An even smaller one stands in Fredriksted at the other end of the island.

St. John is a tranquil and lush island with perfect coves for the charter boat fleets. Most of the island is a national park (donated by Laurence Rockefeller and his family who own the Caneel Bay Plantation resort nearby) but you can also visit the ruins of the sprawling Danish Annaberg Plantation with self-guided tours.

Danish rule in the West Indies continued until World War I when the three islands were sold for $ 25 million or about $ 300 per acre to the United States. Not bad when you consider the US $ 3.30 per acre that the Danes had paid to the French for St. Croix less than two hundred years earlier. Today however, the land prices in the US Virgin Islands are about double those in Denmark. On the island of Tortola there is a Danish store called Little Denmark, with a halfDanish owner, but otherwise you do not come across many Danes, except for the captains of a few charter boats.
The Friends of Denmark (Anne Marie Bodel 809-773-6722) organizes a trip to Denmark every other year. The contact with the old mother country is also kept up through the visits by the friends of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.

Scandinavian Press, issue 4, 1995