This Island in the Bahamas is home to an abandoned castle built by a Nazi supporter
Ken Macdonald/Historical Post
Think of the Bahamas and the visions that come to mind are gorgeous tropical islands, palm-fringed beaches and crystal-clear seas. And now you, too, could own a piece of this earthly paradise – if you happen to have the £46 million you’ll need to buy Darby Island. But beware – it has a sinister past that might be a little more than you bargained for.
That Darby Island is a secluded Bahamian idyll with the potential to be a tropical wonderland isn’t in doubt. But its derelict castle holds some secrets dating back to the Second World War that might put off even the most enthusiastic of prospective buyers. Moreover, the fate of the last man to live in the castle back in the 1940s is shrouded in mystery.
Today, Big Darby features that long-empty and slowly decaying castle, an impenetrable jungle covering and even a disused airstrip. It could be a great setting for a horror movie, in fact. But whether it’s a place the average multimillionaire would choose as a home from home is open to question. We’ll get back to this mysterious island with its dark past a little later, but first let’s find out some more about the Bahamas.
The Bahamas lie to the north of Cuba, with the Bahamian capital of Nassau located around 350 miles from Havana. In turn, the U.S. lies to the north of the Bahamas – the distance from Miami to Nassau is some 180 miles. The Bahamian archipelago includes in excess of 700 islands. These are spread over approximately 180,000 square miles of ocean.
The original inhabitants of the islands were the Lucayans, who lived there for hundreds of years. And when Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492, the first people he encountered were these Lucayans. Indeed, the sole written account we have of the Bahamians of that period was written by the famous explorer. The only other information we have about the Lucayans is derived from archaeology and the study of related peoples.
Moreover, Columbus kidnapped several of the Lucayans and took them back to Spain. This was a grim portent of what the future held for this unfortunate people. In 1500 hundreds more Lucayans were abducted and transported to Spain, where they were enslaved. Other Lucayans were also captured and cast into slavery on the island of Hispaniola, which is today made up of the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
By 1513 tens of thousands of Lucayans had been taken from the Bahamas by the Spanish. And in 1520 the colonialists decided to seize all the surviving inhabitants of the Bahamas and transport them to Hispaniola. However, they were only able to locate a grand total of 11 Lucayans. After that final removal, the Bahamas would be free of human settlers for well over a century.
ourism was introduced to the tropical idyll of the Bahamas as early as the mid-19th century, but it was a cottage industry at first.