Jost Van Dyke
Jost Van Dyke
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| Geography | |
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| Location | It is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. |
| Area | 8 km2 (3.1 sq mi) |
| Highest point | Majohnny Hill at 321 meters (1054 ft) |
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British Virgin Islands
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| Demographics | |
| Population | 298 (2010 Census) |
Jost Van Dyke (sometimes colloquially referred to as JVD or Jost) is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, measuring roughly 8 square kilometres (3 square miles). It rests in the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Jost Van Dyke lies about 8 km (5 mi) to the northwest of Tortola and 8 km (5 mi) to the north of Saint John. Little Jost Van Dyke lies off its eastern end.
Like many of the neighboring islands, it is volcanic in origin and mountainous. The highest point on the island is Majohnny Hill at 321 m (1,053 ft).
Despite rumours that the island's name comes from that of a 17th-century Dutch privateer, Joost van Dyk, who used its harbours as a hideout, there is no factual evidence supporting this claim. Just who Jost Van Dyke's namesake is remains a mystery. John C. Lettsome (of Little Jost Van Dyke), founder of the Medical Society of London is Jost Van Dyke's most noteworthy resident.
Although the English captured the BVI in 1672, it seems that Jost Van Dyke was mostly ignored until the mid-18th century. A map drawn of the BVI in 1717 by Captain John Walton does not depict either Jost Van Dyke or Little Jost Van Dyke.
The remains of a sugar works on the ridge above Great Harbour provide archaeological evidence that some sugar cane was under cultivation and processed, though probably not in any great quantity.
In 1815, 140 acres (0.57 km2) were under cotton cultivation, producing 21,000 pounds annually. There was a population of 428 (25 whites, 32 free persons of colour and 371 slaves). By 1825, cotton production decreased to 17,000 pounds, while the population increased to 506 (34 whites, 76 free persons of colour and 397 slaves).
Similar to other islands in the region, JVD and the BVI saw gradual and irreversible economic decline throughout the 18th century. Curiously though, the population of Jost Van Dyke continued to increase (probably due to the freedom of travel enjoyed by the former slave population after Emancipation in the BVI in 1838). Thereafter, many BVI islanders regularly sought work at the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's coaling wharves in St. Thomas, (today- United States Virgin Islands). By 1853, Dookhan (1975) attributes a population of 1,235 residents on Jost Van Dyke, 196 of whom died of a cholera outbreak in that same year.
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