Exploring Cockburn Town

Heading for the Cemeteries

02.11.2016 - 02.11.2016
View 2016-Carnival Sunshine & Grand Turk on greatgrandmaR's travel map.

Cockburn Town and Grand Turk are not just a cruise ship port. They are important in their own right.
Signature Clock Tower

Signature Clock Tower

Cockburn town is a very small town even though it is the capitol of the country. It is relatively unspoiled by the influx of cruise ship passengers, because most of them stay around the cruise port. The town is named after Sir Francis Cockburn, who was governor of the Bahamas in the early 1800s. Cockburn Town is the oldest permanent settlement in the country.

Turks and Caicos Coat of Arms

Originally the town grew up in the area because of the sea salt industry that once operated on Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos.

Town Salina (town salt pond)

At a time when salt was a valuable commodity, the natural shallow ponds in the Turks and Caicos were easy to adapt for the evaporation of ocean water. My guide pointed out a place where there were sluice gates which could be opened to control the level of the water in the salt ponds.

There is no longer salt production here, but there is a small salt museum called Salt House. Exhibits here talk about the ships that were used to build the industry, a tour of the salt canals, and a visit to a working windmill replica.

The gift shop is an outpost of Salt Cay Salt Works, which sells handmade soaps, bath salts, culinary salts and premier cooking salt (fleur de sel, or finishing salt) made from organic sea salt that forms naturally on the small remote island of Salt Cay, located just south of Grand Turk.

If you like the off-beat, you can also tour the prison.

Cockburn Town is the capital of the country. The government buildings of the country such as the Supreme Court building, Turks and Caicos House of Assembly, the Treasury Building, and the Governor's Residence are right here on Grand Turk. In addition to the main government buildings, there are subsidiary buildings such as the Tourist Board, the Integrity Commission, the National Museum, the post office, the prison, and the Division Headquarters of the Royal Police Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.

Integrity Commission

Division Headquarters - Royal Police Force

Tourist Board

Hon. L. Headly Durham building

Grand Turk is connected to the outside world and the internet

Digicel building

Cell tower

Cannons defending a satellite dish

One of the main buildings in Cockburn Town is the Victoria Library.

Victoria Library

There is also a Post Office and a Philatelic Bureau. The Philatelic Bureau is a little museum of stamps. The first post office opened in Grand Turk on 11th December 1854 but it was not until 1867 that the Turks Islands issued their own stamps.

Philatelic Bureau and gift shop sign

Some people collect stamps - it would be an inexpensive gift for someone who collects stamps to send them a card with a Grand Turk stamp on it). The Philatelic Bureau also has a gift shop. You can buy the cards at the National Museum just down the street, and mail the postcards, which will then have a Grand Turk cancellation mark on it. Stamps of the islands are highly decorative and illustrate the natural History and History of the Islands. . After 1900, “Turks and Caicos Islands” was printed on the Stamps. The Museum collection contains Stamps for most years from 1867 up to the present. It holds over 1000 Stamps, either as individual Stamps, first day covers or souvenir sheets

Ship tour in town

Restaurants in town

Narrow one way street

Duke Street - a block back from the water

Shady street

On the way to visit the National Museum, my taxi driver guide Rosemary took me down some of the quiet tree-lined back streets. We passed the Lester Williams Community Park before we emerged on the ocean side.

News story from the Turks and Caicos Weekly News Saturday, Dec 24, 2016
After many months of planning and hard work, the park located in South Backsalina, Grand Turk, has opened its gates to the public. The Lester Williams Community Park is the newest park to be completed as part of the Tourist Board’s Beautification Project to improve the natural beauty of the TCI. It was named after Lester Williams, a man who made an enormous contribution to the economic growth and development of Grand Turk.

Lester Williams Community Park sign

Street with School Zone ahead sign

Quiet back street

Barbie's Restaurant

We are open

Now we were going to visit the cemeteries. If left to my own devices, I will go and take photos of cemeteries - I am involved in a project to photo-document as many final resting places as possible. A lot of the cemeteries on Grand Turk are next to the churches

Holy Cross Catholic Church

Holy Cross Catholic Church

Holy Cross 2008 on right 2016 on left

Normally there is only one Cathedral in a country, but if there is both a Catholic and an Episcopal/Anglican diocese, there can be one Cathedral for each of them. In the case of the Turks and Caicos, the country is so small that there is no Catholic Cathedral and they only have an Anglican Pro-Cathedral. A Pro-Cathedral is one that is shared. In this case the local Anglican diocese covers both the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, so St. Mary's was designated a Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the 1990's. This allows it to serve as a cathedral for the Turks and Caicos Islands since they are politically separate from the Bahamas but within the same diocese.
diocese map

diocese map

In 1910, St. Mary's was the first church built in Cockburn Town proper.St Mary's Pro-Cathedral was build closer to town - it was more convenient. It is an Anglican church. The Anglican churches are the churches that in the US are called Episcopal. Anglican or Episcopal churches are the churches that resulted when Henry VIII broke ties with the Catholic church because he wanted to divorce his wife and the Pope wouldn't let him.

St. Mary's Anglican Pro-Cathedral

Rosemary then took me to the Anglican church cemetery (St. Thomas) but she could not get the gate open so I could only look from outside the wall. This turned out to be the church I saw on the trip in 2008 which I could not identify at that time. I could have used the scooter there if we could have gotten the gate open

Sign on the gate

St Thomas Anglican Church

Sign on the wall

According to the sign on the wall St. Thomas Anglican Church was built by Bermudian settlers in 1823-24. It was the first church built on Grand Turk and was the second church built in the Bahamas archipelago. It is likely that the rocks to build the church were obtained from a nearby quarry and the wood was imported from Bermuda. It is a very sturdy cut-stone building with some walls as thick as two feet. the hard stones that were hand hewn were set in a primitive mortar of lime mixed with turtle oil.

Part of the churchyard

She knew some of the people buried here and could tell me about them. She explained that the Reverend Jones had also been a principal of the school.

People Rosemary knew The Rev. Jones and his wife

Graves in St. Thomas Anglican cemetery

More of St. Thomas

She also showed me the Public Cemetery (from a distance) but said no one had been there in years. From the photos it looks like the gates are frozen shut and people just use ladders to go over the cemetery wall.

Cemetery sign

large_257596117739857-Gate_to_the_..Grand_Turk.jpg

The 'new' public cemetery was off on the east side and the road had never been paved so you couldn't drive on it as it was either sand or mud.
Looking at the maps, I think the new cemetery is just on the water side of the old one.

Earth view of the public cemetery

She said each church had their own cemetery and it was only the 'unchurched' that were buried in the public cemetery (she preferred that term to the one I used which was 'heathen')

I asked her if there was a funeral home, and she said people who died were prepared for burial in the hospital - they were embalmed there.
Street with Centennial Clock at the end

Street with Centennial Clock at the end

I had seen horses wandering around loose on the island when I was here before, and on the way back to the ship I saw them again.

Horsepower

She took me back to the ship.

ATVs or jeeps for excursions

We had been out about 2.5 hours. I told the taxi dispatcher lady that I would pay $35, but I gave Rosemary $40 because she was very good and kind.

When I got back to the ship, I saw Lynde had been there, but she had gone out to go shopping. She had a good time snorkeling. The steward left me a birthday card which had a free $50 spa card in it, but it was only good November 2nd (today). So I called the spa and first they said that they were fully booked. Then they said that I could buy some product. When I said I didn't want any 'product', they gave in and said that I could have a back and neck massage at 8:30, but that it would be $75 plus the 15% tip. So I agreed to that.

Anyway Lynde came back and she was hungry but it was now about 3:30 so she went up to the Lido and got us both some food (a slice of beef, some soup and some cake) And then we got ready for dinner

At dinner, I had the
Beef tongue appetizer

Beef tongue appetizer

and also a

Wedge of lettuce

(Mike's is better - actually even Outback wedge of lettuce is better). Lynde thought the tongue was gross. They had carmelized onion marmalade with it - I could have done without that. Then I had

Sea bass

which had black beans with it - it was supposed to have a plantain crust, but I didn't see any plantains or much crust. Then we had the

S'more parfait

it was to have layers of chocolate, graham and marshmallow. I didn't find any graham - just marshmallow and chocolate.
We were finished dinner by a little after 7 and I went up to the

Cloud 9 Spa

(on deck 10) and I was way early. I went into the gym and tried the exercycle, but the pedals were floppy and squeaky, so I gave up.
Gym

Gym

Gym Selfie

Tepidarium

I then took the scooter all around deck 10 - it was a bit windy up there.

Movie screen

Pool

On deck 10

I went through a residential area (staterooms) and ended up in the Children's area.

Children's area

So I went down one deck to 9, went back through deck 9
Atrium

Atrium

and then took the elevator back up. This time I wasn't so early. I got a masseuse who was from Hungary. She said she had been with Carnival for 7 years. She did my back and neck. I think this was the first massage I have ever had. It was nice, but not nice enough to pay the big money for.

Towel animal

She got the oil in my hair and Lynde said I need to to wash my hair. So she left to go smoke a cigarette in the casino, and I took a shower. Lynde came back to the room about 11:30 and said she did not want anyone to wake her up and put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.

3 November - a Sea Day.

I woke up about 7 and got dressed. I tried not to disturb Lynde - got dressed and went out on the scooter and went to the Sunrise restaurant for breakfast. They call it Brunch and have appetizers, main courses and dessert as well as breakfast food.
Brunch

Brunch

They seated me at a table for 8 and one other guy (named Morris) ate with me. I got

Eggs Benedict without the ham (and without the salmon)

Pound cake

Cheese Grits

When I came back to the room, Lynde was still sleeping. When she got up, she looked at the TV and said - Why can't we go back to Nassau - we are headed that way.

She went out and got something to eat (and coffee) and after she left the Captain came on the loudspeaker (and all the channels on the TV) and said that someone had a medical emergency last night and we were diverting to Nassau to let him off.

I wrote - SO WE WILL BE LATE GETTING TO NORFOLK. Jaclyne - tell your dad that he doesn't have to leave so early, because we will not be getting to Norfolk on time.

Since today is a sea day, I am catching up on stuff. Lynde is up on deck in the sun with her book. She wanted to get a hamburger at the hamburger place and I thought that was a good idea, so when I got hungry, that's what I did too.