depression years

• Four industries that centered on farming

  • Sisal
  • Tomatoes
  • Pineapples
  • Citrus
• Wrecking


  The practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck found close to shore
• Wrecking was the first industry introduced in the Bahamas
• How Bahamians benefited from wrecking

  • They exported goods from wrecking
  • They gained large amounts of money from it
• Rules of the wrecking industry

  • All Bahamian men and boats needed registration to take part in wrecking
  • The first person to arrive at a wreck was made the wreck master
  • The amount each wrecker would earn from a wreck was laid down in the law
• Bahamians often extinguished warning lights or set up false beacons on treacherous rocks to wreck unsuspecting ships
• Wrecking declined


  • Due to the construction of lighthouses
  • Steam power replaced sails on ships, making it easier to maneuver through seas
• Sponge


  An animal that attaches itself to the sea floor
• Six commercially imported types of sponges

  • Wool Sponges
  • Reef Sponges
  • Hardhead Sponges
  • Yellow Sponges
  • Honey Comb Sponges
  • Grass Sponges
• Wool sponge


  Used for bathing and washing horses off
• Yellow sponges


  Used for general house cleaning
• Grass sponges


  Used for baths, washing walls before painting, washing cars
• Honey comb sponge


  Used for cosmetic and domestic purposes
• Reef sponge


  Used for cosmetic uses
• Hardheaded sponge


  Used for scrubbing floors
• The main sponging ground was west of Andros in the Great Bahama Bank, known as The Mud
• Other sponging grounds


  • Long Island
  • Exuma
  • Abaco
• Sponging boats


  • The sponging fleet consisted of 600 large vessels, each carrying up to 5 small boats called dinghies which were operated by two or three men. Each vessel contained 10 men and a cook
• Kraal


  A shallow water enclosure where the sponge would be soaked
• A kraal was visited once a week
• How sponges were sold

  They were taken to the Sponge Exchange in Nassau and sold to Greek Merchants using the silent auction method
• How sponges were processed

  The two men would get into a dinghy with a glass bucket to look for a good sponge bed, they would hook the sponges and take them back to the boat to dry in the sun so they die. After they would be taken to a kraal to soak and beaten and scraped to remove decayed matter, sand and rock
• How sponges were prepared for sale

  Before they were sold, they would be given a final cleaning and chipping and dying before they were sorted out and pressed into burlap covered bales
• The sponge exchange was located in Nassau
• The sponging industry failed due to a peculiar fungus that attacked and killed only the sponge beds
• Cameo jewelry


  The shell of conch was used to make cameo jewelry
• Cameo jewelry was exported to France and Italy to be made
• Cameo jewelry failed because women lost interest in it and they preferred other types of jewelry
• Places where pineapples were grown

  • Eleuthera
  • Cat Island
  • Abaco
• The pineapple industry declined because the Bahamas could not compete with Florida who started to make pineapples, and the soil wore out easily
• Pineapples were significant because they were used as the design for the first Bahamian stamp
• First exports of pineapples started

  1842
• Canning factory opened


  1857
• The canning factory was located in Governors Harbor
• How pineapples were served or exported

  Canned or sliced in small pieces and put in juice
• Sisal was grown in the Bahamas, but was originally brought from Yucatan, Mexico
• The sisal industry declined because prices became so low that it was deemed uneconomical, and the soil became inadequate even for sisal
• Sisal was introduced to the Bahamas


  1845
• Who introduced sisal to the Bahamas


  C. R. Nesbit
• Who ran the Andros Fibre Company

  Neville Chamberlain