On the 8th of December at Port Royal in Jamaica,1778 Lieutenant Horatio Nelson was made Master and Commander of the Brig, HMS Badger. His first orders were to provide protection to settlements of log cutters and shipping in British Honduras, the Mosquito Shore and Rattan Island from American and French privateers.

The fair haired, slight, 5’6” tall teenage Captain seemed inexperienced to most of the 90 men on board, but his self confidence, courage and skill soon earned him their respect, after some initial setbacks. Low morale was affecting the Royal Navy as a whole at that time and the crew of HMS Badger was no exception, in all,, 21 of the crew deserted during Nelson’s six months at the helm. The defectors even included a midshipman, Henry Lee who fled at Rattan in March, 1779 a day before Horatio set sail on the HMS Badger’s return to Jamaica via St. George’s Cay in Belize.

In 1779, the epicenter of life on Rattan was at Port Royal. A garrison of Navy and Royal Marines were stationed there between Fort Frederick right on the bluff where Anne Jennings’ house was located in the 1970’s and George’s Cay (Fort George Cay) named after King George the Third, then reigning British monarch. There were eight cannons positioned in a semi-circle around the Bluff at Fort Frederick and 17 on Fort George Cay positioned defensively facing westwards towards Fort George Cay Channel.

The epicenter of life on Rattan was at Port Royal.

There were civilian settlements at Augusta, a site situated on the high ground 500 yards from where Erick Anderson’s house is today. There was the Litchfield settlement 100 yards west of Augusta and a Cooperage in the Bight, situated where the old Port Royal Lodge once stood in the 1960’s to early 1980’s.

Due to the abundance of freshwater in Port Royal , the young Captain Nelson was very likely to have had HMS Badger’s water storage barrels built and repaired at this same cooperage. More significantly was the wide shallow bar east of Fort George Cay adjacent to Careening Cay, so named on Henry Barnsley’s 1742 chart, and known to all today as Cay Comfort. The wreck of The Rambler salvage vessel is located west of this cay. It is noted in the Badger’s log and muster records that prior to his departure for Jamaica her 14 guns were hoisted out and she was careened on this bar; algae, barnacles and ship worm was scraped away and perhaps a layer of sulphur, tar and tallow applied to prevent leakage.

One hundred and fifty civilians in Port Royal scratched a living from logging (mostly centered around the Lignin Vitae variety which was indigenous to the east of the island and much sought after by boat builders for its extreme hardness used in boat stems and sterns), farming and green turtle fishing. It was very likely that among these settlers that the young deserter, midshipman Henry Lee would have laid low in the hours before HMS Badger set sail for Jamaica in March, 1779.

This was not the last that the western Caribbean and The Mosquitia had seen of the future British Icon , he was to return to the Nicaraguan Mosquitia as commander of a small Royal Navy fleet of several vessels seeking to join the Atlantic to the Pacific via the San Juan river and Lake Nicaragua ( the ill-fated plan of Major General Sir John Dalling , then Governor of Jamaica ) . Horatio Nelson was aboard his new command at this time, the frigate HMS Hinchingbrooke a larger vessel with 200 on board.

Across centuries under the cartographer’s pen, Roatan changed shape: from rectangular to curved, from meandering to square. Even the island’s distance from the other Bay Islands has varied over the years.

English, Spanish, French and even Italians created maps of the Bay of Honduras and Bay Islands beginning in the 1500s. The oldest geographical references to Roatan marked it with quite different names. An Italian cartographer Isolario del P. Corelli marked it by a evocative name, Laymoda Island. A French Map dated to 1650 marked Roatan as Guayama and another map has it as Isla de Guajama. Yet another XVII century cartographer drew a Latin map and designated Roatan as Isola de Leya. While the name of Roatan became more common in 1700s, it still had several variations: Ruatan, Rattan, Rotan before it finally settled.

The 1740s brought much better cartographers to Roatan, most of them were English. The best, most detailed map of Roatan was done by the English Lieutenant Henry Barnsley in 1742 who described the island writing: “The Island of Rattan is exceedingly well situated for trade, both with the Bay of Honduras, and the Spaniards of the Provinces of Honduras and Guatemala. The South side is very convenient for Shipping, having many fine Harbours from one end to the other…” The English maps designated the meandering Roatan southern coast with different geographical terms. In the 1740s maps marked Roatan full of Bays, Lagoons and Coves, and it seems that most terms were interchangeable. Dalrymple Bay is now called Neversteen Bight and Oak Ridge now occupies the area once marked as Pitts Lagoon. Cochman’s Creek is now called Second Bight.

English cartographers Roatan ended up with more French Harbours then English Harbours

Curiously, despite the work of all these English cartographers Roatan ended up with more French Harbours then English Harbours. There was the Old French Harbour and the New French Harbour. The English had a Harbor as well, now called Brick Bay. There were no Spanish Harbors on any maps I have found.

Definitions also changed over time. What was once considered an island is today a cay. What was once a bay is now a bight. Poinsetts island is now Stamp Cay just west of Dixon Cove. What are called bights today, on southern side or Roatan, were called lagoons, mostly. Gibson Bight changed names several times: it was called Turtling Bay and at one time Oyster Bite. Mangrove Bight was called Cohoon Bight.

Roatan has an unwritten rule that an owner has the right to change the name of the cay… and often that is the case. Some Roatan places changed their names as their owners changed. Bennets Island became Osgood Cay and now it is called Maya Cay.

Names can also flip, a name can migrate. Sandy Bay was not designated as a bay on any maps before the XX century and today’s Camp Bay was actually called Sandy Bay in 1700s. Coxen Hole used to be called Caulkett’s Hole, and even appeared as Roatan City in the 1990s. Though marketing a place called “hole” to tourists and cruise shippers is an uphill struggle, one that might never be won.

Still some things stay the same, despite names that change, move, or relocate. Naming places can be a political tool, a tool of glorification, or even a marketing tool. So next time you’ll find yourself trying to make a left turn at Peru Plaza, ask yourself why Peru?