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HERITAGE HIKES & WALKS

GOAT ISLAND

The guided hike starts at the Old Harbour Bay fishing village and beach. The hikers embark on real fishing canoes and travel across the bay up the Salt Island River to see the bird life and crocodiles. After that the tour continues to the Seaplane Base built by the US as the first Lend Lease facility signed by Sir Winston Churchill and Franklyn D. Roosevelt at the start of World War 11. The hike around the island looks for the treasure of Sir Henry Morgan reported to have been buried somewhere on it. A picnic lunch is provided on the white sands of Teal Point looking out across this magnificent bay, Old Harbour Bay.

Goat Island has about 150 acres of firm ground surrounded by 150 acres of salt flats and mangroves. The remains of Taino (Arawak) settlement have been found and confirmed. Because the site afforded an excellent land-locked harbour ideal for seaplane operations, and a satisfactory channel for shipping, the US Navy established a naval air base there during World War II. Work to clear the site started on January 22, 1940 and there was a strike the following day for better pay. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Little Goat Island, the site of the base, on November 5, 1940 by ship with heavy security.

• Period Offered: All year-round
• Time: 10 hours
• Suggested to carry: Water bottle, energy bars, walking shoes

The base was equipped with two timber piers, a concrete seaplane ramp, a parking area, and a complement of buildings, which had previously been assembled and fabricated under the San Juan contract. These included quarters for 75 men and 25 officers, two administration buildings, a 10-bed dispensary, a power plant, a shop, utility buildings, and a warehouse. Fresh water was brought in by barge from the mainland and pumped from the dock to storage for treatment and distribution. A total of 2,800,000 cubic yards of dredging was necessary to remove shoals from the seaplane runaway and to deepen anchorage and channel approaches to piers. Gasoline storage, totaling 75,000 gallons, was provided in eleven underground steel tanks.

The air station was commissioned April 4, 1941; it was reduced to caretaker status during September 1944. The navy dismantled the installations before leaving. The island has been leased to the US Government for 99 years. It was returned to the government of Jamaica under an Utilization Agreement, on condition that if the USA required it, they would give the government of Jamaica 48 hours notice.

The property was transferred to the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) in September 1970. The earliest reference found to Goat Island is that of Cundall and Pietersz (1919:23) who quote the Spanish Governor of Jamaica in 1598 about his encounter with corsairs on the island. "---after having driven from the port a hulk and tender of corsairs, he had information that they were three leagues outside the port at a cay called 'The Goats', and the crews from the vessels, on the shore cutting Brazil wood and loading it."

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