Surviving Stationary Steam on Nevis, 2012
Thomas Kautzor has been to several Caribbean islands to check out what is left of their railways and industrial heritage.
For the full general index, see Railway Relics (and more) in the Caribbean,
Thomas Kautzor reports:
A one-day special offer by Air France for cheap flights to Sint Maarten allowed me to take my family there for a two-week holiday in July. Sint Maarten (the Dutch part) used to be part of the Netherland Antilles (with Curaçao, Bonaire, Saba and Sant Eustatius, while Aruba separated in 1987) which was dissolved in 2010 and Sint Maarten has since then the status of a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while St. Martin (the French part), which used to be a commune part of Guadeloupe, separated in 2007 and is now a French overseas collectivity (Collectivité d’Outre-Mer – COM). As this was my only 3rd visit to a nation without any railways (after Niger and the Maldives), I looked at a map for the nearest alternative and decided to spend some time on close-by St. Kitts. This proved a good thing as St.M, although scenic in parts, proved to be very touristy with little else to do than lay on the beach and get roasted in the heat.
Sint Maarten/St. Martin
There used to be plantation estates (sugar, tobacco and cotton) here, but due to the island’s small size these were also very small and many closed at an early date. A few ruins remain and a couple of others can be visited. I don’t know if any stationary steam engines were ever used and don’t think any survive (on the Dutch side little historic preservation has occurred), but I nevertheless found the following on the French side: First is a boiler at Spring Plantation (open 10-16h, closed Saturday & Monday) on the eastern side of the island and second is the ruins of the factory and chimney at Hope Plantation on the outskirts of the capital, Marigot.
Nevis:
The small island of Nevis (93 km2, 12,000 inhabitants) is part of the associated state of St. Kitts and Nevis. It was settled by England in 1628 and soon sugar became the dominant source of wealth. When the Leeward Islands were separated from Barbados in 1671, Nevis became the seat of the colony and was given the nickname "Queen of the Caribees”. During the late 17th century it was the richest of the British Leeward Islands, also outranking larger islands such as Jamaica in sugar production.
Attacks by France in the 18th century, when a large number of slaves were captured and sent of to Martinique to be resold, led to the collapse of the sugar industry and hardships. As a result, small plots of land were made available to the remaining enslaved families for them to grow their own food on. When slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834, a relatively large percentage of land was already locally owned or controlled. With a large number of owners, each planting whatever he wanted, it made little sense to build a large central sugar factory such as on St. Kitts, and therefore those small sugar factories that existed remained in use until the last one was closed in the late 1950s, having since been replaced by tourism and offshore financial services as the main sources of income.
We found three steam engines remaining on a day trip to the island:
At New River Estate, on the eastern side of the island, and is an 1883 G(eorge) Fletcher & Co., London & Derby, steam engine and mills. The mill was the last to close on Nevis in 1958.
The engine is very similar to those we seen many times over in Burma. I assume the vertical rod was used to change the cut off. Behind is a small steam powered vertical water pump. RD
That looks like the remains of a crosshead pump probably used to fill the boiler while running the engine. RD
This is a view of the water pump, it what I believe is called a 'Scotch Yoke' engine. RD
This is a classic triple roll small cane mill. RD
At Old Manor Hotel, an old plantation turned into a hotel, at Gingerland, is this P. Stewart and & Co., Glasgow, cane mill N°. 21/1859. The hotel has closed and is for sale.
P. Stewart became the more familiar D. Stewart in 1861 when Duncan took over from his late father Peter. Note how this rare survivor has its valves over the cylinder. We have seen several of this type in Burma, always old and amazingly two were n use. Some 100 years later, the Fletcher and Stewart businesses combined as UK heavy engineering companies went into melt down. http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb0248ugd052 (Link broken by December 2023. RD)
Another 3 roll cane mill.
At Hamilton Estate, Government Road, Charlestown, the roof of the mill had fallen in, which prevented inspection of the remains of the 18th century mill, which was in use until 1951. This used to be owned by the paternal family of U.S. statesman Alexander Hamilton (the one on the U$10 bill), who was born out-of-wedlock on Nevis in 1755 or 1757.
The Ruston diesel engine is on display at the ferry pier in Charlestown.
