Qualla: Norman Island

Norman Island: Introduction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Twofortnights, CC BY-SA 3.0. In August 1750, the crew of a Spanish treasure galleon named Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe mutinied off the coast of North Carolina. Fifty-five chests of silver coins were loaded onto smaller vessels, and a man named Owen Lloyd sailed one of them south to a quiet, uninhabited island at the tip of the British Virgin Islands. He buried the treasure. Word got out. Residents of Tortola crossed the water and dug it up for themselves. Soldiers came to recover it. A fisherman may have found gold doubloons in a sea cave during a storm. And a century later, Robert Louis Stevenson may have drawn on the whole saga when he wrote Treasure Island. Norman Island has been trading on its secrets ever since.

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Image: Twofortnights | CC BY-SA 3.0

Norman Island: The Guadalupe Affair

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit edited by M.Minderhoud, Public domain. The documented history is dramatic enough without embellishment. In August 1750, the Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, a Spanish treasure galleon, sought shelter from a storm near the coast of North Carolina. The crew mutinied and loaded the treasure, said to include 55 chests of silv...

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Image: edited by M.Minderhoud | Public domain

Norman Island: The Fisherman's Storm

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kberg115, CC BY-SA 3.0. There the historical record ends, but local legend picks up where documents leave off. A member of a well-known Tortolan family, the story goes, was fishing near Norman Island when a storm forced him to shelter in one of the sea caves along the western coast. Through the night, t...

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Image: Kberg115 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Norman Island: Stevenson's Blueprint

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matt & Nayoung, CC BY 2.0. Norman Island is one of several Caribbean locations claimed as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, published in 1883. The connection is more than wishful thinking. The estimated timeframe of the novel's plot closely matches the period of the Guadalupe af...

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Image: Matt & Nayoung | CC BY 2.0

Norman Island: Caves, Goats, and the Willy T

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joe Lin from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0. Norman Island today is uninhabited by humans, though wild goats have claimed the interior of its roughly 600 acres. The island is privately owned by Henry Jarecki and stretches about 2.5 miles long. Its large harbor, the Bight, offers one of the most protected anchorages in the V...

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Image: Joe Lin from New York, NY, USA | CC BY 2.0

Norman Island: The Treasure That Remains

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cemerp, CC BY 3.0. Norman Island is part of the 'Little Sisters,' a chain of smaller, lower, more arid islands that includes Pelican Island, Peter Island, Salt Island, Dead Chest Island, and Ginger Island. Dead Chest Island itself carries its own pirate legend, supposedly the origin of the sea shan...

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Image: Cemerp | CC BY 3.0