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Top Stories

A Bahamian Life at Lynn
Some Call the Islands Paradise; Timothy “TC” Stuart Calls Them “Home”

A Bahamian Life at Lynn
Some Call the Islands Paradise; Timothy “TC” Stuart Calls Them “Home”
 

Bahamas native Timothy “TC” Stuart takes a break from studying to smile for the camera. Staff Photo/Ramona Cavanagh.

By Ramona Cavanagh
Special to the iPulse

The Bahamas is said to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. From the sun and tropical atmosphere to the smell of salty seas, tanning lotion and coconuts, the Bahamas is definitely an ultimate destination.
Timothy Christopher Stuart, known to his friends as TC, is a senior who hails from the Bahamas. Stewart has left his island home for a great education and a taste of American life.
“It’s a nice life in the Bahamas; it’s very calm,” said Stewart. “It’s a lot of fun, and it’s also very small.”
While South Florida might be similar as far as the climate is concerned, it is very different when it comes to culture. Stuart has said that he is able to adapt to the culture easily as he went to an American high school in Lake Worth.
Stuart wanted to pursue a quality higher education in the United States, and he felt that Lynn was the right place for him. “Lynn gives me a better opportunity here in the states,” said Stewart. “The university has a great program, and for me it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Stuart currently serves as assistant manager to the men’s basketball team. He calls his job “a great opportunity to be a part of a fantastic basketball program.”
When he graduates, Stuart plans to head back to the Bahamas with the experiences and knowledge that going to Lynn and living in the United States has provided him.

Beautiful, Balmy Bahamas
Laid Back Lifestyle is Apparent in this Tropical Island Destination

The Islands Of The Bahamas form a 100,000-sq-mile archipelago that extends more than 500 miles of the clearest water in the world. The 700 islands, including uninhabited cays and large rocks, total an estimated land area of 5,382 sq. miles, and register a highest land elevation of 206 ft. on Cat Island.
The Bahamas has the world’s third longest barrier reef and about 14. 5% of the world’s coral can be found in our waters.
The islands are made entirely of calcium carbonate, which is mainly produced or precipitated by the organisms of coral reefs. There are no rivers in the Bahamas.
Most notable, however, is that each island has its own diversity that continues beyond geography, carrying through to the heart of the Bahamas, the Bahamian people.
It is found it in the heritage, culture and humble pride. The Islands of the Bahamas has a population somewhere north of 305,000.
With 700 islands sprinkled out over 100,000 sq. miles of ocean, The Bahamas offers the largest assortment of vacation spots of any tropical destination. Islands are circled by cays (pronounced “keys”). Some cays are surrounded by uninhabited rocks. There are 14 main islands that serve as hubs for the remaining 686 islands.
The Bahamas has successfully promoted itself as a destination for US jetsetters, and a lot of it is Americanised. Yet there are still opportunities among its 700 islands and 2500 cays to disappear into a mangrove forest, explore a coral reef and escape the high-rise hotels and package-tour madness.
The 18th-century Privateers’ Republic has become a modern banker’s paradise, at least on New Providence and Grand Bahama. On the other islands - once known as the Out Islands but now euphemistically called the Family Islands - the atmosphere is more truly West Indian.
Sources: Bahamas.com and Lonely Planet

History of this Island Nation
From Pirates and Privateers to Rum-running and Eventual Prosperity
 

Documented Bahamian history begins with the words, “Baja Mar,” the name the Spanish bestowed on the islands.
This term is misleading, however; it means “shallow sea,” but the islands are really mountain plateaus that emerged from the Atlantic hundreds of thousands of years ago. As they grew, they hosted countless generations of coral, which today comprise the islands’ limestone base.
The “Lukku-cairi” or island people, as they called themselves, were the first settlers. Originally from South America, they meandered up through the Caribbean and finally arrived in The Bahamas around the Ninth Century AD.
Known as Arawaks, they are also called “Lucayans” and “Indians”- a label bestowed by Columbus, who mistakenly thought he found the East Indies when he dropped anchor in San Salvador in 1492.
The next phase of Bahamian history involves the Eleutheran Adventurers, English settlers who left Bermuda in 1647 searching for religious freedom. They formed the first British colony on the Island of Eleuthera, and began a prosperous agricultural economy that still thrives today.
The geography of the islands attracted many well-known pirates, such as the infamous Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and Anne Bonney, who dominated the islands for the next 70 Years in what was known as “The Golden Age of Piracy.”
Britain, which claimed islands in 1670, remained powerless against their predations for almost 50 years, until the first governor, Woodes Rogers, drove them out in 1718. Britain then recognized them as a colony.
Privateering, a government-sanctioned form of piracy practiced during Britain’s war with Spain and the American Revolution, brought periods of prosperity to the islands.
Spain entered the fray on the side of the Americans and briefly retook the Bahamas in May 1782. A year later, under the Treaty of Versailles, it once again became a British colony.
Following Britain’s defeat in the American Revolutionary War, southern loyalists brought their slaves to the islands and grew cotton under the Crown’s protection.
Troubled times in neighboring America often meant prosperity for The Bahamas. In 1861, during the American Civil War years, the Union Navy blockaded the islands in an attempt to cripple the Confederacy, and Bahamians grew rich running Confederate cotton to English mills and sending military equipment to Confederate rebels.
Hard times followed the end of the Civil War until Prohibition and the “Roaring Twenties” transformed The Bahamas into a base for rum-running.
But after Prohibition was repealed, the islands again lapsed into economic stagnation.
Prosperity did not return until World War II, when the Bahamas served as an air and sea way-station in the Atlantic. Shortly after, the new industry of tourism changed the priorities in the islands. For the first time, the beauty and life of the islands were recognized as an asset.
Great Britain granted the islands self-government in 1964 and changed their status from colony to Commonwealth in 1969. In 1973, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas became independent within the Commonwealth of Nations, but retained Queen Elizabeth II as constitutional head of state.
Source: Geographia

The Brilliant Bahamas
Taking a Look at the Famous Island Destination

Calm waters and cooling tradewinds have rightfully earned the Bahamas an international reputation for sailing, with regattas and races held year-round. The same conditions that make these islands so amenable to sailors and fisherman draw visitors to the vast and diverse underwater parks.
The Bahamas offer inexhaustible pleasures and challenges to snorkelers and divers. The natural beauty of the water extends to the thousands of miles of shoreline, which has some of the world’s most stunningly beautiful and unsullied beaches.
Source: Geographia.