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A Princess Cays Mystery!

caribbean2000

By caribbean2000,
in Princess Cruises

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jetstorm

jetstorm

Posted
Posted

I was just at Princess Cay on Dec. 22 and tried to find the graves but either I didn't make it far enough down the beach or I walked right past them without knowing. My husband and I walked the beach for a while until we saw the road running along beside the beach and decided to follow the road to avoid the beach rocks. We didn't make it far because we ran into a 4 ft. long snake in the middle of the road and I ran back the other way. When we got back to beach with the other passengers we asked a couple of the local people working there what kind of snake it might be (we had a photo of it) and they told us it was locally known as a chicken snake. I don't know if its called that because they are chicken of it or if it tastes like chicken - LOL. For those of you heading out to find the cemetery, the "chicken snake" was the color of the wet pine needles whcih were a dark reddish brown. Her in the US it would look kind of like a darker shade of a copper head. Locals said the snake wasn't poisonous but I wasn't stopping to check with the snake.

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  • 2 weeks later...
wonderpig

wonderpig

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We were at Princess Cays on Jan 12 and made the trek. It is quite treacherous, you will need good shoes as it is very rocky, almost like lava rock. We found a path that parallels the beach, but if you follow that, you'll miss the graves completely. But from the path, I found two short walls that may have been part of another structure and these are past the graves. I'll see if I can add the pic. There's also a road that comes down to the beach and this too is past the graves......plus, if you see a small building that says "Cable Landing" in faint letters on the side, you've gone way too far. It is best reached from the beach.

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alexmom

alexmom

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We were at Princess Cays on Jan 12 and made the trek. It is quite treacherous, you will need good shoes as it is very rocky, almost like lava rock. We found a path that parallels the beach, but if you follow that, you'll miss the graves completely. But from the path, I found two short walls that may have been part of another structure and these are past the graves. I'll see if I can add the pic. There's also a road that comes down to the beach and this too is past the graves......plus, if you see a small building that says "Cable Landing" in faint letters on the side, you've gone way too far. It is best reached from the beach.

 

Thanks wonderpig, for the update. DH, DS and I will be on the Royal Princess March 30th and we plan on going to the graves. I planned on us wearing our water shoes. They have a rubber sole and fit tight to our feet. Will that be enough for the trek ?

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wonderpig

wonderpig

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Thanks wonderpig, for the update. DH, DS and I will be on the Royal Princess March 30th and we plan on going to the graves. I planned on us wearing our water shoes. They have a rubber sole and fit tight to our feet. Will that be enough for the trek ?

 

I would definitely recommend something more like running shoes....if the water shoes have thick soles, could be ok.....and there is definitely snakes around there...saw a few tracks on the path!

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Redwing55

Redwing55

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Posted
Thanks wonderpig, for the update. DH, DS and I will be on the Royal Princess March 30th and we plan on going to the graves. I planned on us wearing our water shoes. They have a rubber sole and fit tight to our feet. Will that be enough for the trek ?

 

I and others went with water shoes. We took the "beach" route there and the road back. It's been a few years since I've checked it out, but I suspect that the terrain hasn't changed that much. Hope you find it easily. It's not too hard to go right past it.

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rbt001

rbt001

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Wonderful thread! Thanks to all who have participated.

 

Read the thread and made the beach trek while at PC recently.

 

GRAVES DEMOLISHED

 

OLD CHURCH FLATTENED AND BULLDOZED

 

BOTH CABLE LANDING BUILDINGS RAZED

 

CHAIN LINK FENCE SURROUNDS THE WHOLE SITE

 

SIGN HANGING ON FENCE READS:

 

"Coming Soon:

Wal-Mart"

 

 

 

 

P.S.- Just kidding.

 

(Okay, I hope at least some people think this post was as funny as I thought it would be when I dreamed it up as I plowed through seventeen pages, so far, of this thread. Yes, this is interesting. No, I hadn't read about it for my January cruise, so instead kept a barstool warm as I gazed at the ocean through palm fronds and drank my bucket of beer. Will I visit the graves during my upcoming trip in February? Hmmm... the bucket of beer still has more votes... )

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alexmom

alexmom

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Read the thread and made the beach trek while at PC recently.

 

GRAVES DEMOLISHED

 

OLD CHURCH FLATTENED AND BULLDOZED

 

BOTH CABLE LANDING BUILDINGS RAZED

 

CHAIN LINK FENCE SURROUNDS THE WHOLE SITE

 

SIGN HANGING ON FENCE READS:

 

"Coming Soon:

Wal-Mart"

 

 

 

 

P.S.- Just kidding.

 

(Okay, I hope at least some people think this post was as funny as I thought it would be when I dreamed it up as I plowed through seventeen pages, so far, of this thread. Yes, this is interesting. No, I hadn't read about it for my January cruise, so instead kept a barstool warm as I gazed at the ocean through palm fronds and drank my bucket of beer. Will I visit the graves during my upcoming trip in February? Hmmm... the bucket of beer still has more votes... )

 

DUDE, I'm going to be 61 in a few weeks !! My heart !! You scared the dickens out of me !!

 

That said, good show. You really got my heart pumping and since the wind chill in minnesnowta is -37, you have my thanks !

 

I'm still going to walk to the graves in March because I'm old but I'm not dead yet and I love doing different or difficult things. I also have an outline of a story for these 2 ladies and I'd like to discuss it with them before I write "The Princess Cays Mystery" !

 

Maybe I'll bring them a bucket of beers instead of a pretty stone or shell !!

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MandD

MandD

Posted
Posted
Read the thread and made the beach trek while at PC recently.

 

GRAVES DEMOLISHED

 

OLD CHURCH FLATTENED AND BULLDOZED

 

BOTH CABLE LANDING BUILDINGS RAZED

 

CHAIN LINK FENCE SURROUNDS THE WHOLE SITE

 

SIGN HANGING ON FENCE READS:

 

"Coming Soon:

Wal-Mart"

 

LOL:)

 

 

That said, good show. You really got my heart pumping and since the wind chill in minnesnowta is -37, you have my thanks !

 

 

 

Maybe I'll bring them a bucket of beers instead of a pretty stone or shell !!

 

I'm sure they'd like that.

 

Temp in Minnesota today approx.93 degrees cooler than Princess Cays!

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  • 5 months later...
cboyle

cboyle

Posted
Posted (edited)
We were at Princess Cays on Jan 12 and made the trek. It is quite treacherous, you will need good shoes as it is very rocky, almost like lava rock. We found a path that parallels the beach, but if you follow that, you'll miss the graves completely. But from the path, I found two short walls that may have been part of another structure and these are past the graves. I'll see if I can add the pic. There's also a road that comes down to the beach and this too is past the graves......plus, if you see a small building that says "Cable Landing" in faint letters on the side, you've gone way too far. It is best reached from the beach.
This was also our experience on June 22. We used the sand road to detour around an especially rocky area and missed the graves. We walked past the rock walls, the blacktop road, and the cable crossing hut for a total of about 2 miles from the tender dock. (We were wearing Teva-type sandals.)

 

We walked back along the beach and saw the graves then. They are approximately 2/3 mile from the tender dock. The approximate GPS coordinates are:

24 degrees 37 minutes 45 seconds N (24.6291667)

76 degrees 10 minutes 14 seconds W (-76.1705556)

 

The attached photos show the ship as viewed from the grave site, the graves as viewed from the beach, and Myrtle Gibson's grave stone. The grave stone reads "Myrtle Gibson, Born 1928, Died 1946."

 

BTW, according to the Bahamas National Trust, there are no venomous snakes in the Bahamas (http://www.bnt.bs/_m1818/Snakes-of-The-Bahamas). The snake that someone saw on the road was probably a corn snake, which comes in many other colors besides the red/orange in the Bahamas National Trust photo (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaphe_guttata).

P6226523.jpg.441c75bb4c9b53ed5707216e54fbc7d8.jpg

P6226516.jpg.94337f62da499ba5c9f13ed504a38d97.jpg

P6226517.jpg.8fd18bddf31996edf295c4f9bd96214c.jpg

Edited by cboyle
photos did not attach
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Thrak

Thrak

Posted
Posted (edited)
Finally got to it, but had to type in 24 38' 01.46" N 78 11'07.75"W

 

I dont really understand why its different for some of us, but just glad to see it. Yes, I see the tender too. Karen

 

quote=PTJD]I could get to it but had to type in 24 38'13" N, 76 10'17" W and it will take you there. Kinda cool looking at the Grand class ship, look closer and you can see a orange tender.

 

\

Holy cow this thread is old. I wonder how it was found in order to be resurrected!

 

If anybody is still trying to find the thing on Google Earth or Google maps, I've converted the coordinates to a different format. You can copy and paste this:

 

N 24° 38.217 W 076° 10.283

Edited by Thrak
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cboyle

cboyle

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Holy cow this thread is old. I wonder how it was found in order to be resurrected!

 

In my case, I had seen the thread years ago and just used the search function to find it when I had something to add.

 

Wow, what a great thread! Has anyone uploaded photos and the information from the tombstone to Find a Grave? http://www.findagrave.com
I looked into that but I could not find the cemetery in their database. I do not feel comfortable creating a name for the cemetery; someone from Eleuthera should do that.
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maz48

maz48

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Posted

Just finished reading the whole thread. How fascinating it has been and also sad to see how the graves have deteriorted over the years. It feels kind of sad to know that. These two ladies have at least been remembered for a few years due to Caribbean 2000's explorations and interest causing him to begin the thread. I am sure he would have no idea it would still be being replied on and encouraging others to make the hike to find the graves. I know he has commented occasionally over the years so maybe again he will post a reply. I hope so.

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parisbully

parisbully

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Posted
I've been reluctant to post this for quite a while because I would hate to see what I'm about to tell you about be disrespected. But after as much research as I've been able to do with absolutely nothing found, I thought I'd put it out there and maybe someone has an answer. Last April when we stopped at Princess Cays on our cruise on the Star Princess, I decided to take a walk. We've visited PC a couple of times before, and I wanted to see what the beach was like to the south of the Princess area. I knew from previous visits that it was very rocky initially and that sandals were needed to get past the rocks - I'm sure this is why there were no footprints on the beach after I got past the rocks. I walked for about a half mile, then noticed a clearing in the bushes above the beach and what appeared to be the remains of a foundation of a house. And there were two other cement structures. When I walked up to them I realized they were graves! They are very crude, above the ground, with barely legible, crude round cement markers attached. Now here's what I would really like to know. The names on each were of women, one who died at about age 19 in late 1930's, the other who died at age 26 a couple of years later. The last names were not the same, but judging from how they were set at a certain angle very close to the edge of the beach, right next to each other, I had to conclude that they must have known each other and been buried that way in that location for reason. Other people had obviously discovered them, because a few shells and pieces of coral had been placed on the graves out of respect, I imagine. What could this mean? How did they die at such a young age, and why were they placed together in that spot? I tried to do as much research as possible about the history of Eluethera and discover anything about these women but came up totally empty. For what it's worth, if you zoom in on that end of Eluethera (Princess Cays) on Google Earth, you can make out the remains of a road and the clearing, but it appears to overgrown and not used. So...at the very least I think this has the makings of a good novel! In any case, if anyone reading this does make the walk down and find the graves, please be respectful. Any information anyone might have is appreciated.

Gene

 

Sorry couldn't read this. No paragraphs. Wish I could. Your replies look interesting

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