Bellamy Cay

Bellamy Cay
British Virgin Islands
Location
Location:	18°26’53"N, 64°31’58"W
Data

Bellamy Cay is an island in the British Virgin Islands, located entirely within Trellis Bay, which indents the coast of Beef Island.

The Cay was formerly named Blanco Islet: today's name is after its most famous resident, "Black Sam" Bellamy, the "prince of pirates". For much of his very short but wildly successful campaign of piracy in 1716 and 1717, Bellamy used Blanco Islet as his base of operations, while crew members used the protection of Trellis Bay to maintain their fleet of ships. Bellamy soon learned that from Blanco, as well as from nearby Sprat Point, ships could be seen sailing through the Sir Francis Drake Channel. His favourite prey were Spanish Galleons laden with treasure intended for the exclusive use of the King and Queen of Spain.

In the early 1950s the island was acquired by Władysław (Wladek) Wagner, the "first Polish yachtsman," who left Poland in 1932 to sail around the world and who ended up eventually settling in Trellis Bay, Beef Island Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, where he built a boatyard and marine railway in addition to most of the buildings now standing on Bellamy Cay, where he ran a small restaurant and hotel.

Since the 1970s, the cay has been the home of the restaurant and bar called "The Last Resort" – which for many years was owned and operated by Tony Snell, a British war hero.

Bellamy Cay is near the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, and is inhabited by the owners and staff of the restaurant. The Island remains unlinked to the power, water and communications grid of the mainland, and so has to produce its own electricity and water through solar, wind and diesel generators.