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| On his way to Puerto Rico, Christopher Columbus
discovered the islands in 1493 and named them for St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgin
followers. It was not until 1571 when Sir Francis Drake, an English navigator and
buccaneer sailed through the passageway separating the British and American Virgin Islands
(today called the Sir Francis Drake Channel), that the struggle to claim the Virgins
began. As the years passed, Holland, France, England, Spain, Denmark and the Knights of
Malts all tried their claims on the Virgin Islands, but in 1733, Denmark finally took hold
of the precious tropical paradise. The Virgin Islands became a haven for pirates, buccaneers and privateers who would keep watch on the seas for unsuspecting ships. Legend has it that when Blackbeard would spot a ship in the harbor he would braid his hair and position candles in it to frighten the sailors when he attacked. Following many years of prosperous sugar plantations, the African slaves began a series of uprisings that led to the sale of the Islands. In 1917 the United States purchased the land for its strategic proximity to the Panama Canal during WWII.
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