Qualla: Little San Salvador Island https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/k/3/g/little-san-salvador-island-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Little San Salvador Island https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island Little San Salvador Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island/ Photo credit Scott Lucht, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Lucayan people called it Guateo, meaning "distant land." They were right. Little San Salvador sits roughly halfway between Eleuthera and Cat Island, about 100 miles southeast of Nassau - close enough to reach, far enough to feel like the edge of the known world. Over the past two centuries, this 2,400-acre island has sheltered ships from hurricanes, hosted two American presidents on fishing expeditions, nearly become a garbage dump, and been bought and sold by cruise lines competing for the perfect beach day. Today, Carnival Corporation owns it. They call it RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay. The Lucayans' name was better.

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Image: Scott Lucht | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/k/3/g/little-san-salvador-island-wp/dk3g-little-san-salvador-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Little San Salvador Island: Storms and Shipwrecks https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island/ Photo credit Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project, CC BY 2.0. The waters around Little San Salvador have a long memory for disaster. In September 1883, a Category 3 hurricane tore through the Bahamas. Captain Dorsey of the Carleton, sailing from Nassau with 14 passengers, steered into the island's harbor to wait out what he believed was a t...

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Image: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/k/3/g/little-san-salvador-island-wp/dk3g-little-san-salvador-island-storms-and-shipwrecks.mp3 0:06 2 full Little San Salvador Island: Presidents and Botanists https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island/ Photo credit Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project, CC BY 2.0. Franklin D. Roosevelt visited twice. In 1935, aboard John Jacob Astor IV's former yacht Nourmahal and escorted by the USS Farragut, he cruised the Bahamas on his annual fishing trip. Off Little San Salvador, the presidential party launched small boats to capture tropical fish for...

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Image: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/k/3/g/little-san-salvador-island-wp/dk3g-little-san-salvador-island-presidents-and-botanists.mp3 0:06 3 full Little San Salvador Island: From Garbage Dump to Cruise Port https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island/ Photo credit Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project, CC BY 2.0. The most improbable chapter in the island's history arrived in 1987. In the wake of the infamous Mobro 4000 garbage barge incident - when a load of New York trash sailed up and down the East Coast looking for a dump - someone proposed turning Little San Salvador's lagoon into a l...

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Image: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/k/3/g/little-san-salvador-island-wp/dk3g-little-san-salvador-island-from-garbage-dump-to-cruise-port.mp3 0:06 4 full Little San Salvador Island: The Newbold Legacy https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island/ Photo credit Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project, CC BY 2.0. Beneath the corporate ownership lies a more tangled history. In 1863, Joshua Newbold owned one-eighth of the island. His will left his share to his wife Jane for life, then to their eight children - Edward, Joshua, Hezekiah, Dorsett, Josiah, Zephaniah, Elijah, and Georgiana - for...

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Image: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/k/3/g/little-san-salvador-island-wp/dk3g-little-san-salvador-island-the-newbold-legacy.mp3 0:06 5 full Little San Salvador Island: Island Time, Corporate Time https://qualla.com/little-san-salvador-island/ Photo credit Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project, CC BY 2.0. Today, Holland America develops just 50 of the island's 2,400 acres, maintaining the rest as wildlife habitat. Waterfowl nest on the undeveloped land. Cruise passengers arrive by tender - the island lacks deep-water docking - to find swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, parasailin...

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Image: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/k/3/g/little-san-salvador-island-wp/dk3g-little-san-salvador-island-island-time-corporate-time.mp3 0:06 6 full