Lower Town, St. Eustatius: The Drowned Port

Why Go

Lower Town is the narrow strip of land between the cliff and the sea at Oranjestad, and in the 1770s it was one of the busiest commercial addresses on earth. Warehouses ran along it in an unbroken line, handling more trade than New York, supplying the American revolution and earning the island the name the Golden Rock. Then the British sacked it, the trade moved on, and the sea took the rest. What remains is a stretch of broken walls on the shore and a great deal more of the same city lying in shallow water a few metres out.

The Experience

The shelf is a few hundred metres long and only as wide as the cliff allows, reached by the Bay Path on foot or the road by car. Along it are stretches of eighteenth-century wall — some standing to head height, some reduced to foundations, some incorporated into later buildings — with the sea directly in front. There is a sea wall, a stretch of dark sand, and the harbour office. It reads at first glance as an unremarkable shoreline, which is precisely the problem: without context you would not know that the rubble is the remains of an entire mercantile city, or that the reason so little survives above water is that storms and rising sea have taken the seaward half of it. Divers see the other half. It is also worth saying plainly what the trade was. The free port dealt in everything, and that included enslaved people in very large numbers — Statia was a major transshipment point. The wealth that built these warehouses and that fills the island history is inseparable from that, and the museum does not pretend otherwise.

What to Try

Walk the length of it slowly, after visiting the museum in Upper Town so you know what the walls were. Then get in the water: Golden Rock Dive Center and Statia Divers work the submerged remains and the wrecks offshore, and diving here is genuinely unusual — you are swimming over the foundations and ballast piles of a drowned commercial district as well as reefs. The Old Gin House is the long-standing hotel and restaurant on the shore. The Boardwalk Café and Bay Brow Barbecue Hut cover the rest of the eating, with Genildas Kitchen and Lucian Corner for the local plate and the Golden Rock Mini Market for supplies. Walk back up the Bay Path rather than driving, which is the way the town was always connected.

Insider Tip

Dive it, if you dive at all. Statia's underwater attraction is not just reef — it is the drowned eighteenth-century harbour, with warehouse foundations, ballast stones and centuries of dropped cargo lying in shallow water within sight of the shore. There are very few places anywhere you can swim over a lost commercial city this easily, and almost nobody does it because the island receives so few visitors. Even snorkellers see some of it close in on a calm day.

The Practical Stuff

Lower Town is directly below Oranjestad's Upper Town, joined by the Bay Path on foot and by road for vehicles, and a few minutes from F. D. Roosevelt Airport. The shore is dark sand and rock rather than a swimming beach. Divers pay a marine park fee that funds the protection of the submerged site as well as the reefs. Statia is a special municipality of the Netherlands using the US dollar, with English the everyday language. Facilities are limited to a handful of restaurants, a small market and the dive operations. Card acceptance is patchy, so carry cash. The island is in the hurricane belt, roughly June to November, and storms have taken a good deal of this shoreline over the centuries.

Common Questions

What are the ruins in Lower Town?

The remains of the eighteenth-century warehouse district of what was then the busiest free port in the world. Storms and rising sea have taken the seaward half, which now lies underwater.

Can you dive the drowned harbour?

Yes, and it is Statia's most unusual attraction — warehouse foundations, ballast stones and dropped cargo in shallow water within sight of shore. Local operators run it, and snorkellers see some of it on calm days.

How do you get down from Upper Town?

By the Bay Path on foot, which is how the two halves of the town were always connected, or by road for vehicles. The walk is short and the historically correct way to do it.

Is there a beach?

A stretch of dark sand and rock rather than a swimming beach. Lower Town is a historic shoreline and a dive entry rather than somewhere to spend a beach day.

Why is so little left standing?

The British sacked the island in 1781, the trade moved elsewhere, and over two centuries storms and rising sea removed the seaward half of the district. What survives above water is a fraction of what was there.

Should you visit the museum first?

Yes. Without context the ruins read as unremarkable rubble; half an hour in the Upper Town museum turns the walk into one of the more remarkable historical sites in the region.

Pair It With

Golden Rock Dive Center Guide — The half of the city that is underwater.
The Old Gin House Guide — The institution on the shore.
The Boardwalk Café — Eating among the warehouse walls.