Cronstadt Island

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Cronstadt Island
Cronstadt Island as seen from the west
Cronstadt Island as seen from the west
Waters Gulf of Pariah
Archipelago Diego Islands
Geographical location 10 ° 39 '31 "  N , 61 ° 37' 48"  W Coordinates: 10 ° 39 '31 "  N , 61 ° 37' 48"  W.
Cronstadt Island (Trinidad and Tobago)
Cronstadt Island
length 400 m
width 200 m
surface 4,755 ha
Highest elevation 46  m
Residents 15th (2011)
315 inhabitants / km²

Cronstadt Island , historically also Kronstadt Island , is an island in the northwest of the island state of Trinidad and Tobago and forms the Diego Islands together with the neighboring island of Carrera Island . Administratively, Cronstadt Island is part of the Diego Martin region .

geography

The Diego Islands are located in front of the northwestern tip of Trinidad, Chaguaramas . Both islands belonging to the group are located south of the Point Gourde peninsula; Cronstadt is the western of the two. The 4.75 hectare island consists mostly of limestone and, together with Carrera, represents the remains of a reef.

history

During the tenure of the last Spanish governor of Trinidad, José María Chacón , the island was added to the Cabildo of Port of Spain , which it leased for the benefit of the city treasury. Around 1800 the island was known as Begorrat Island after a large landowner resident in Diego Martin, and then temporarily also as Cretau Island after the subsequent tenant. Both Begorrat and Cretau used the island as a weekend home because of the pleasant climate. The first survey was carried out during the tenure of British Governor Thomas Hislop between 1803 and 1811 as part of a military build-up of the Chaguaramas to protect against the Spanish and French. Starting with the transfer of ownership from Bergorrat to Cretau, limestone was mined in the western part of Cronstadt between 1850 and 1970; In 1922, for example, the MacKenzie company acquired a ten-year license that allowed them to mine limestone on three quarters of the island. Around 1877 the eastern part of Cronstadt became the residence of the prison doctor of the prison on the neighboring island of Carrera; for some time the name Doctor's Island became common for the entire island. The name Kronstadt itself did not appear on maps until 1910. The origin is not clear; the historian Anthony de Verteuil suspects a reference to a Russian garrison town of the same name located on an island . In 1922 the eastern part of the island, which was not leased by MacKenzie, was leased to the Catholic Diocese of Trinidad for a symbolic price of one shilling per year for 99 years , as compensation for annexed lands on Chacachacare , which were previously owned by the Church and which were needed there by the government for the construction of a leper colony. In 1940 the eastern part of the island was designated as a nature reserve, but the continuous mining activities meant that the reserve was delisted by the WCMC in 1988. In 1946 the government bought the lease right from the clergy. After an extensive renovation of the buildings in the eastern part of the island, they served from then on as the residence of the superintendent of the Trinidadian prisons and later as the weekend home of the Governors General Werner Boos, Solomon Hochoy and Ellis Clarke . The latter was almost killed in the 1970s by falling debris from a blast in the limestone quarry on the west side of the island, whereupon both the holiday residence and the quarry were abandoned. The residential buildings were left to decay.

Today imported barite , which is used by the country's oil industry, is processed on the island . For this purpose, the island has a small harbor with loading facilities for bulk goods, at whose 60 m long dock ships up to 180 m in length can anchor. The facility, operated by 15 workers living on the island, processes around 35,000 tons of barite per year.

Flora and fauna

Cronstadt is rugged, beachless and, compared to the mainland, only sparsely overgrown. The strawberry tree species Arbutus xalapensis , known as the "Naked Indian" , the cordia species Cordia alliodora , a few species of orchids and numerous cacti grow on the island . Occurring animal species until 1988 were the sipo snake ( Chironius carinatus ), various types of lizards (especially iguanas ), centipedes and scorpions as well as numerous species of birds, including brown-capped claws, yellow- thighed tangars , screeching owls , sulfur tyrants and sugar birds . Since the listing as a protected area, there are no more controls of the stocks.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Caribbean History Archives: The Cabildo Building. Retrieved October 23, 2016 .
  2. ^ Anthony de Verteuil: Western Isles of Trinidad . 3. Edition. Paria Publishing, Port of Spain 2011, ISBN 978-976-95008-5-3 , pp. 33 .
  3. ↑ Caribbean History Archives: Trinidad in Hislop's times. Retrieved October 23, 2016 .
  4. ↑ TriniView.com: Chaguaramas - The Past. Retrieved October 23, 2016 .
  5. ^ Anthony de Verteuil: Western Isles of Trinidad . 3. Edition. 2011, p. 35 .
  6. Jump up ↑ PADDDTracker.org: Cronstadt Wildlife Sanctuary, Trinidad and Tobago (Degazette, 1988). Retrieved October 23, 2016 .
  7. ^ Anthony de Verteuil: Western Isles of Trinidad . 3. Edition. 2011, p. 38 .
  8. ^ Shipping.co.tt: Ports of T&T. Retrieved October 23, 2016 .
  9. ^ Anthony de Verteuil: Western Isles of Trinidad . 3. Edition. 2011, p. 41 .