I came to St. John from my hometown of Sitka, Alaska when I was 18 years old. 25 years later, I’m still here.
To say I love the island is an understatement. It’s not just a culture, people, and history that I love. The actual Island gives me a certain undeniable peace. The history of the island hascaptivated me from day one. I’ve had so many mentors on the subject to help me along theway. Boat builders, native fisherman, archaeologists, ancestral Virgin Islanders. Some stillteach me to this day, but sadly many have passed now. Decades of researching on my ownalong with my wife Leah through what feels like countless medium, but namely books,microfilm, the Danish archives, SJHS records, maritime archives, Dutch records and so manymore fills every spare moment when we are not working on our charter boats or chasing ourson around!
My main historical passion is Maritime history. For the last 10 years I have been locating and mapping all the old piers, turtle crawls, and historic shipwrecks around St. John as well as other Virgin Islands. To date Leah and I have located 43 shipwrecks in the US in British Virgin Islands that date from the early 1700s to the late 1800s. Over 20 of these are on St. John. I’ve been extensively mapping all the St. John shipwrecks by drawing, photographing, and researching and I’m putting it all together in two large files for the historical society to have. First file is almost finished and contains map and information on the first 10 wrecks.
One of the things I’m most proud of the historical tour we have been doing the past several years with our charter company FlyAway Charters. “St. John: UNCOVERED “has been very popular with our guests so far. It’s amazing how many tourists are into history related things if you just offer this product to them. Our history trip as well as the guided Reef Bay trip which is now back after years are both great ways to get people deeper involved in this islands rich history The Revolt of 1733, Emancipation ,and the years leading up to this captivate me.
I believe now more than ever these stories must not be forgotten and the untold stories need to be found and told. The past five years Pre-columbian native history has also really grabbed ahold of me. I’ve been very lucky to have archeologist Ken Wild as a close friend who has taught me and is still teaching me so so much on this subject.
I hope this helps tell a little bit about me and my love of the islands history. I look forward to working with the society and continuing to help in anyway that I can and hope to serve as a board member. All the best, Colin Hanson FlyAwayChartersVI@gmail.com