Arriving from Barbados on the morning of July 13, 1784,
while his boat was in sight of the beaches of Antigua, the young Captain
Commander Horatio Nelson was in a very bad mood. He came in an official capacity
as Royal Navy commander of the British naval base at English Harbourtown, the
most protected natural anchorage in the Caribbean. Francis Drake and John
Hawkins had defended Antigua from Spain at the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Now it
was up to Nelson to take the command of the island in order to keep the French
fleet at bay, for Antigua was rich, from rum, rich from sugar and rich from the
lucrative triangle trade. As he observed the splendid waterfront for the first
time, he was not looking at the beauty of the place, nor was he considering the
high level of the protection offered to a war fleet by natural fortifications of
Antigua, the defensive bastion of the British Crown in the Leeward Islands. These were not the thoughts of the Captain Horatio while standing on the deck of
his flagship, the Boreas, a frigate of 617 tons, armed with 38 Cannon. He was
all too aware that despite relief from Atlantic trade winds, the tropical heat
to this very model of a proper English Captain Commander felt unbearable.
But
the orders of Sir Edward Hughes, Admiral of the West Indies, were
very clear:
wear the heavy blue wool dress uniform jacket of the Royal Navy.
Nelson hated the heat and he did not know that in Antigua, he was going to cover
himself with cool glory.
Form of government:
Constitutional
Monarchy
Capital: St. John's (Antigua)
Superficie: 442,6 Kmq.
Population: 70.000
Languages:
English official. Local dialects spoken
Currency: Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD). 1
XCD=0,29 euro
Time Zone: - 4 GMT - UTC
Documents:
Passport
Salute: In
general the quality of health facilities is good.
International Dialing Code: +1
268
Elettricita':
230 volts. Plugs type A,B
(See image)
TERRITORY
Antigua and Barbuda are very different from each other but united as a single
country.
Antigua measures 108 Square Miles, low and hilly with a very rugged coastline
surrounded by many small islets. The capital, St. John’s, is located on the west
coast.
Barbuda, a secluded and solitary paradise 27 miles from Antigua, is a
flat coral reef, with only one small town, Codrington, virtually no paved roads,
but many free beaches. Barbuda has an area of 62 square miles, 15 miles long and
5 wide with a population of 1.500
Redonda is also part of the archipelago, an uninhabited rock about 25 miles from
Antigua. Redonda is 6.2 Square miles only .
CLIMATE
Temperature ranges from 73° F in winter to 86° in summer. The humidity is low.
Fast moving tropical showers mainly take place between September and November.
The Atlantic winds blow constantly.
