Chatting With Dr Leonard Richardson

The St. Thomas Harbor is one of the most important commercial ports in the West Indies of the 1800s. The harbor was a free port. Traffic there was extensive because of its good situation & fine facilities. It was popular among merchants & trading companies for its good facilities: the West Indies’ largest floating dock, good machine shops, clear channel marking, & inexpensive harbor fees. But it was also notorious for 2 problems: hurricanes & diseases, particularly yellow fever & cholera. In the 1800s, an average of 2,000–3,000 ships came annually to St. Thomas. In the 1860s, this increased to 4,600 annually. About half of the tall ships arrived from Caribbean ports & a quarter from European ports. Vessels under the Danish flag made up a smaller share. In the 1820s, it was 23%; in the final year before the sale in 1917, it was only 13%. Most ships in the 1820s sailed under an American flag, but in the 1910s British ships had become completely dominant. The vessels in the harbor beca