St Barts & St Maarten

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Sunday 8th February, 2015. St Barts & St Maarten

Gustavia was founded in 1785 and was naned after the Swedish king Gustav III. It is a pretty town sprinkled with red-roofed villas and surrounded by beautiful beaches. The island of Saint Barthelemy (St Barts or Saint Barth) is tiny and at 9 square miles is the smallest of the four islands of the French West Indies. It has a reputation ofr being the playground of the rich and famous and a price tag to match. 1t was 16 euros for a bowl of cold soup!

Gustavia is the capital of the island and the harbour is packed with flash boats. After breakfast D went to get the tender tickets. We were allocated boat C. We hung around for nearly an hour as one of the tenders "broke down in the water" according to TJ our guest relations manager. Very reassuring as the tenders are also the lifeboats! We managed to get onto tender B which had onboard all the guests going on tour. We were two of three "independents" that there was room for. Good job as we were to find out later that nobody else disembarked until 10.45am and the last tender back to the ship was 11.20 am! The town was pretty much closed as it was a Sunday. M found a shop that was open and procured the mandatory FM. She then went in to the harbourmasters office and landed a map of the island.

We made our way along the harbour passing all the flash boats until we reched the Anglican church. Before St Barthelemey became a Swedish Colony the original 739 people that were reported to live here all belonged to the small catholic church in Lorient. The first Lutheran protestants arrived to the island with the Swedes in 1785 followed by the first Methodists in 1790's but it was not until 1851 that the Anglican Society was founded. With the completion of the church 4 years later they got their own place of worship in Gustavia. The services were held by visiting Anglican Priests from neighbouring islands and later by American Priests. For about 10 years in the early 20th century there was a resident Anglican Priest on the island. This did not happen again until 2002. The church is open to all Christians. and is the only one in St Barthelemy with services held in English. There was a service taking place while we were there and a sign outside informed us that the Bishop of the North East Caribbean and Aruba is Errol Brooks and that the visiting Clergy was the Rt honerable Theodore Eastman III.

The foundation stone of the church was laid on 24 Feb 1853 by the Swedish Govenor James Harlef Haasum. The small church is symetrical in relation to its central axis.Lowered Shutters along the side walls create natural ventilation and filtres the light creating a sober interior. The original pine pews are elegant contrast to the white walls and marble floors. The walls are constructed in local stone apart from the wall facing the harbour which is made from limestone with white gables of painted wood. The emphasized cornerstones are constructed of stone from St Eustache. The pitched roof which was originally covered with singles but is now corrugated steel. The small bell tower however still has its original shingled roof.

Directly in front of the church is the Square de la Retrocession where a large anchor is on display. The Anchor from 18th century made in England discovered in 1980 between St Barthelemy and St Thomas (USVI).

We walked on until we came to a Merchant's House built by John Hodge Bryan in 1841 which is documented in the keystone above the door. The symmetry of the facade and the central axis emphasized by a steel balcony has influences of neoclassicism. The balcony stresses that the upper floor was very important. This is where the owner and his family would have lived and would have been elaborately decorated. The ground floor was used for commerce and storage. The ground floor is constructed in stone and covered with facing brick. Volcanic stone is easy to shape and is used as cornerstones and window frames. The upper floor built in a wooden frame structure is also clad by facing brick. The bricks came from the Swedish town of Hoganas and are reported to have been brought to the island as ballast on Swedish shiips. Historicaly stone has always been a more expensive building material than wood. The use of stone clad wooden houses is often an attempt to show wealth and prosperity. An interesting feature of this house is the elegant rainwater catchments hidden in gutters behind roof mouldings crowning the facades of the house. The lower stone floor is sloped to compensate for any flooding that occurs during hurricanes. This lower floor served as a store or commercial area while the family lived on the upper level. The large rooms on this level have ceilings that cover the roof timbers which insulate the building from the heat of the sun during the day. In the yard behind the house there are several small outbuildings which include 2 slave cottages reconstructed according to the original plans which now serve as guest accommodation.

We walked on to Shell Beach which was really beautiful. At the entrance to the beach were a row of cans to be used for ashtrays. It was clear why the beach is so named. There is no sand only shingle which is made up of thousands of shells. We walked back to the harbour and continued our tour noting that the street signs are in both Swedish and French .

Next we came to the Swedish Consulate Building. Built around 1820 is one of the few housses that escaped the fires on 2nd march 1852. During the Swedish period the house belonged to a merchant family called Dinzey. Many refer to it as "Le Brigantin" the name of a restaurant which was located in the house during the 1980's. The building is a good example of what the exclusive merchant houses looked like in Gustavia during the Swedish period. The roof is still covered by shingles which was the most common roofing material during the early years of the city. One storey of wood sits on top of a lower storey in concrete similar to the "landshovdingehusen" (the Govenor houses in Gothenburg, Sweden). This type of construction was used to prevent the spread of fires in the Swedish wooden towns.

We were heading to the fort which we could see on the hill but when we reached the road up to it we decided it was too far and that we wouldn't have time to get back for the last tender. It was more than likely closed anyway. We took a photo from the bottom of the hill.

We continued on to the Gustavia Museum which is housed in the Wall House which is one of the largest buildings in the town. It was built at the end of the 18th century but little is known about the history of the building. There are several theories with regard to its original function including a place of entertainment, waarehouse, private house, a place for conferences and political meetings. At the end of the 19th century the house was known as "Steinmetzka huser" refering to the Merchant John Steinmetz who lived there with his family. The house is unique in Gustavia with its stone construction and strategic position at the entrance to the harbour. It has a steel balcony which is very rare in Gustavia and the building techniques similar to those used in Sweden at the time. The origin of the name "Wall House" is also unknown. It may have to do with an American called Job Wall who declared himself the Consul to the USA towards the end of the 18th century. However it is a more common belief that the name refers to the stone construction of the building, the walls of which were the only surviving part for the best part of 100 years. The building was restored and reopened in 1995 and houses the museum of St Barthelemy which is open to the public - except for today! It was closed on Sundays.

in front of the museum is the Place Vanadis which was inaugurated in 1996. The name refers to the frigate Vanadis which was the last Swedish military vessel to leave Saint Barthelemy when the island was returned to France on the 16th March 1878. The steam frigate was built on the Karlskrona Wharf in Sweden in 1862. It is a lovely square with palm trees and some rather strange but interesting sculptures of different animals riding strange modes of transport. For example a frog on a spacehopper, a kangaroo on a pogo stick to name just two. Also on this square is the Hotel de la Collectivite which is the town hall.

We made our way back to the jetty for the last tender. This was a terrifying experience. First of all they moored the boat right in front of a capstan so that people were tripping over in order to et on and off. Once we arrived at the ship it took 3 attempts to bring the tender alongside. The little tender was smashing against the side of the Azores. On the second attempt we approached from the wrong direction so the ropes were not the correct lenght to secure the bow and stern. The captain came down and went absolutely mad. it is clear that the deck crew have not been properly trained. When we did get off we were hauled and thrown back onboard.

We had lunch with Patty and Roy on the upper poop as we sailed on to our next destination which was St Maarten. Luckily this was not a tender stop! The four of us caught the bus to Marigot. We just missed a carnival which was a shame. We went to the harbour where we had been an few weeks ago and we all had a few beers and used the internet. We walked around to the seafront and watched the rest of the sunset and then caught the (very full) bus back to Philipsburg. After dinner there was a deck party. An eventful day!

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