The Caribbean’s mythical Aves Bank

ABSTRACT

The Caribbean is littered with navigational hazards such as shallow coral reefs, rocks, and sand banks. As this region was of vital economic and strategic importance to European powers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was mapped in great detail. Nevertheless, errors abounded, especially on early maps and charts, and even entirely fictitious topographic elements were introduced. One such cartographic myth is the Aves Bank, a long and narrow submarine bank that connected Aves Island with Saba and St. Eustatius. The Aves Bank myth was born in the 1720s and was quickly adopted by cartographers, who for over a century depicted it on maps and charts in various ways. This article explores how the myth was born, perpetuated, and eventually faded from existence. That the Aves Bank was more than just a cartographic curiosity is illustrated by the fact that it was used as an argument in a territorial dispute over Aves Island. The Aves Bank myth is peculiar given that the Caribbean region had already been well mapped by the time it came into existence. It thus shows that there is great potential for further research into the evolution of Caribbean cartography.

ABSTRAITE

Les Caraïbes sont jonchées de dangers pour la navigation tels que des récifs coralliens peu profonds, des rochers et des bancs de sable. Comme cette région était d'une importance économique et stratégique vitale pour les puissances européennes aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, elle a été cartographiée de manière très détaillée. Néanmoins, les erreurs abondaient, en particulier sur les premières cartes et chartes, et même des éléments topographiques entièrement fictifs ont été introduits. L'un de ces mythes cartographiques est le banc d'Aves, un banc de sable sous-marin long et étroit qui reliait l'île d'Aves à Saba et Saint-Eustache. Le mythe du banc d'Aves est né dans les années 1720 et a été rapidement adopté par les cartographes qui, pendant plus d'un siècle, l'ont représenté sur des cartes et des chartes de diverses manières. Cet article explore comment le mythe est né, s'est perpétué et a finalement disparu de l'existence. Le fait que le banc d'Aves était plus qu'une simple curiosité cartographique est illustré par le fait qu'il a été utilisé comme argument dans un différend territorial sur l'île d'Aves. Le mythe du banc d'Aves est particulier étant donné que la région des Caraïbes était déjà bien cartographiée au moment où il a été créé. Il montre ainsi qu'il existe un grand potentiel pour de nouvelles recherches sur l'évolution de la cartographie caribéenne.

KEYWORDS:

• Caribbean
• maritime history
• cartographic myth
• Saba
• Aves Island

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 On some maps, Saba and neighboring St. Eustatius were both connected to Aves Island by this bank.

2 A league was three miles or three nautical miles. A fathom was 6 ft or roughly 1.8 m.

3 Coincidence has it that there is, in fact, an elevated submarine ridge running between the two islands, but this ridge is hundreds of fathoms deep and was not detected in the eighteenth century.

4 A cable’s length is 600 ft.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ruud Stelten

Ruud Stelten earned BA, MA, and PhD degrees in archaeology at the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University. He became the island archaeologist on St. Eustatius in the Dutch Caribbean in 2011. Since then, he has directed numerous underwater and terrestrial archaeological projects and field schools, teaching hundreds of students on various islands such as Mauritius, Martinique, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, St. Eustatius, and Bonaire. He is the founder of The Shipwreck Survey, a research program dedicated to document and study shipwrecks and other submerged archaeological sites.