Bequia

The island's name is said to mean "island of the clouds" in the language of the ancient Arawak. Its early inhabitants were the Kalinago, who used it mainly for fishing and farming; early French accounts thought it too inaccessible to colonise. In the 18th century French settlers set up small plantations of indigo, cotton and sugar worked by enslaved Africans, and the Kalinago population was gradually displaced or absorbed. Under the Treaty of Paris of 1763 France ceded Bequia to Britain; the French seized it again in 1779 but soon had to give it back. Among the settlers who came under a British scheme granting land to poor colonists was James Hamilton, father of Alexander Hamilton, who lived by Southeast Bay from 1774 to 1790.

Admiralty Bay was the island's fortune. It is thought that buccaneers such as Henry Morgan anchored there, as it was then the safest natural harbour in the Eastern Caribbean in the hurricane season, and with cedar trees for timber and deep, sheltered water Bequia became a place for building and repairing wooden ships. Whaling was introduced by Yankee whalers in the 19th century, and in the 1860s white Barbadians settled at Mount Pleasant.

Port Elizabeth took its name in 1937, after Princess Elizabeth, to mark her parents' coronation. In the 1950s Princess Margaret visited and had a beach renamed in her honour; in the 1960s Thomas and Gladys Johnston founded Moonhole on the western tip. In 2024 Hurricane Beryl caused considerable damage on Bequia.

Bequia's identity is bound up with the sea. Boatbuilding, sailing and fishing run deep, and the island remains one of the few places in the world where limited whaling is still allowed. The International Whaling Commission classifies the hunt under its rules for aboriginal subsistence whaling: islanders may take up to four humpback whales a year by traditional methods, with hand-thrown harpoons from small open sailboats, but the limit is rarely met and some years see no catch. In 2012 the commission renewed the quota despite objections from several delegations that the hunt is not truly aboriginal and has broken the rules; a small museum on the island tells the history of the hunt.

The islanders are mainly of mixed African, Scottish and Kalinago descent, with descendants of 19th-century Barbadian settlers at Mount Pleasant. For its size the island has produced a notable number of people in politics and the arts: Sir Sydney Gun-Munro, the first Governor-General, and James Mitchell, Prime Minister from 1984 to 2000, both came from Bequia, and writers, editors, publishers, painters and graphic designers work here.

The sailing calendar shapes the social one. The Easter Regatta and Music Fest is one of the busiest times of the year, and since 2010 the New Year's Day Lilo Regatta has sent nearly a hundred people across the bays on anything that floats, as a cure for the night before.

About 5,300 people live on Bequia, an island of 7 square miles. Port Elizabeth, the capital of Grenadines Parish, holds the ferry terminal, and Paget Farm in the south the airport; other villages include Lower Bay, La Pompe, Hamilton and Belmont, while Spring, once a coconut plantation, keeps farm animals. The island's low hills catch fewer rain showers than the peaks of Saint Vincent, 10 miles to the north.

The island is popular with cruising yachts, expatriates and tourists, and two dive shops run trips to the reefs and wrecks offshore. Ferries run between Port Elizabeth and Kingstown several times a day, carrying passengers, cars and cargo, and many residents keep in touch by marine VHF radio on channel 68 as well as by telephone and the internet.

Hurricane Beryl, in July 2024, caused considerable damage on Bequia, while on Canouan, Mayreau and Union Island 80 to 90 per cent of dwellings were damaged to some degree; across the country it killed eight people.

Bequia eats as the rest of the country does, from Creole cooking built on the sea and the garden. The national dish is roasted breadfruit with fried jackfish, and callaloo soup, stewed and grilled fresh fish, souse and provisions such as dasheen, sweet potato and plantain are the staples. Fresh fruit and vegetables are sold on the main street in Port Elizabeth near the dinghy dock, with cheaper produce on back-street stalls.

The island's plantation past included sugar, molasses and rum, and the country's rums, among them Hairoun and Vincy strong rum, are now exported, mainly to the European Union. Fresh juices, mauby and sorrel are the everyday drinks.

Eating out centres on the harbour. Waterfront bars and restaurants have lined Admiralty Bay, among them the Whaleboner, long known for its entrance through an arch of two whale ribs and its whale-vertebra bar stools, and Frangipani, traditionally home to a small party on Thursday nights.