Hassel Island, United States Virgin Islands
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Hassel Island (also sometimes Hassell Island) is a small island of the U.S. Virgin Islands, a
United States territory In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, including all waters (around islands or continental tracts). The United States asserts sovereign rights for ...
located in the
Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
. Hassel Island lies in the Charlotte Amalie harbor just south of Saint Thomas and east of Water Island, with which it is part of the sub-district of Water Island. The roughly island was once a peninsula of Saint Thomas, known as Orkanhullet (Hurricane Hole). Hassel Island was separated by the Danish government in 1860, and named for the Hassel family who owned much of the estate. In March 2012, the MTV's reality TV series ''The Real World'' was filmed for its twenty-seventh season on Hassel Island. It is the only season that the television series has filmed in the Caribbean. The season completed its filming two months later in May 2012. In 2015, that land was purchased to be used as a lot for a home. There are under five homes built on this island. It does not seem to be a fast growing populous place, but rather a more secluded and private island.


History

Careening Cove, a bay on Hassel Island, appears on maps as early as 1687. The Danish used Hassel Island's strategic location to defend the busy Charlotte Amalie harbor in the 18th and 19th centuries. The
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
occupied Hassel Island during the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. The ruins of several British buildings remain on Hassel Island, including Fort Willoughby, which was built on the site of the older Prince Frederik's Battery (Fort Frederik), Fort Shipley (Shipley's Battery), and Cowell's Battery. All three were constructed around 1802. In the 1840s, the St. Thomas Marine Railway Company constructed the St. Thomas Marine Railway Slip. Later renamed the
Creque Marine Railway The Creque Marine Railway, formerly the "St Thomas Marine Repair Facility", is an inclined-plane ship railway on Hassel Island, in the bay of Charlotte Amalie off the coast of St. Thomas Island, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its site is below Fort ...
, it is one of the earliest steam-powered
marine railway The patent slip or marine railway is an inclined plane extending from shoreline into water, featuring a "cradle" onto which a ship is first floated, and a mechanism to haul the ship, attached to the cradle, out of the water onto a slip. The ...
s in the western hemisphere and perhaps the oldest surviving example of such a railway. The
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
-based Boulton Company built the railway's steam engine. In the 1860s, the Danish government dug a channel that separated Hassel Island from Saint Thomas and improved the circulation of the Charlotte Amalie harbor. The
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by a Scot, James MacQueen. The line's motto was ''Per Mare Ubique'' (everywhere by sea). After a troubled start, it became the largest shipping group ...
operated its
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
hub on Hassel Island from about 1850 until the 1870s. In 1871, the
Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...
set up a
coaling station Fuelling stations, also known as coaling stations, are repositories of fuel (initially coal and later oil) that have been located to service commercial and naval vessels. Today, the term "coaling station" can also refer to coal storage and feedi ...
on Hassel Island. There was also a
leprosarium A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. ''M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Afr ...
on the island. The channel was widened by the
United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
in 1919, shortly after the United States purchased the
Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with ; Saint John ( da, St. Jan) with ; and Saint Croix with . The ...
. The
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
also established a naval station on the island, which was in operation during World War I and World War II. In the middle of the 20th century, most of Hassel Island was owned by the prominent local Paiewonsky family. The Royal Mail Inn, a small hotel located on Hassel Island, built by the Paiewonsky family may have been the hotel immortalized in Herman Wouk's novel '' Don't Stop the Carnival''. The Creque Marine Railway and a
signal station A signal station is a form of Aids to Navigation that is defined by the IHO simply as "A signal station is a place on shore from which signals are made to ships at sea". While this broad definition would include coastal radio stations and fog sig ...
at Cowell's Battery were in operation until the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. The southern portion of the island was inscribed as a historic district on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1976. In 1978, the historic district was expanded to cover the remainder of the island as well. In 1978, the
Virgin Islands National Park The Virgin Islands National Park is an American national park preserving about 60% of the land area of Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands, as well as more than of adjacent ocean, and nearly all of Hassel Island, just off the Char ...
purchased most of the island from the Paiewonsky family. The rest of the island is divided between the territorial government and a few private residences. Since around 2004, the Saint Thomas and Hassel Island Preservation Trust, the Virgin Islands National Park, the Saint Thomas Historical Trust and other organizations have been working to restore and preserve the island's historic sites. There are limited guided kayaking and
hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...
tours of the island. Hassel Island is also the location for '' The Real World: St. Thomas'', the twenty-seventh season of the reality show '' The Real World''.


References


External links


Virgin Islands National Park: Hassel Island

Hasselisland.org — Hassel Island history and preservation organization




* ttp://www.northamericanforts.com/East/vi.html Northamericanforts.com
St. Thomas Source.com: "Hassel Island's makeover uncovers historical riches"
{{NRHP in Saint Thomas, United States Virgin Islands Islands of the United States Virgin Islands Landforms of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands National Register of Historic Places in Virgin Islands National Park Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States Virgin Islands