From the Seventeenth
Century to Now. . .
The Buccaneer is a completely modern hotel with a fascinating historical background. It was in 1653 that Charles Martel, a Knight of Malta, constructed the first building on Estate Shoys where The Buccaneer is located.
This French Greathouse, which overlooks one of the swimming pools, was placed out of sight of the sea to protect from roving foes. Later, after the Danes bought the island in 1733, Governor von Prock built his home on the estate, turning the French Greathouse into a sugar factory and erecting the sugar mill which is as it was in the days when sugar was king.
Michael Shoy, from whom the area known as Estate Shoys received its name, bought the estate from von Prock and began growing cotton. Later the Heyliger Company
raised cattle here.
Finally in 1947, the Armstrong family, who had owned and operated the cattle estate since 1922, opened The Buccaneer for business with eleven guest rooms. It was the first hotel in St. Croix to be built and operated by an island family.
Guests, known as "continentals," made a two-day trip from the mainland to stay there and often mixed their own drinks, helped rake the beach, paint furniture, and plan meals.
In the early days, before modern tourism attractions, guests gathered nightly for cocktails. Today, The Buccaneer offers live music and fine dining for nightlife diversions, but maintains the repertoire of cocktails popular among early guests, including Cruzan Confusion, Raising Cane, Caribbean Sunset and Jump-Up-and-Kiss-Me. Read more about these
Vintage Cocktails
Guest rooms, which slowly and steadily grew in number to meet the demands of increasing business, were named after the coin of the day during the swashbuckling buccaneer era, including Lucky Farthings, Pretty Penny, Pieces of Eight and Doubloons, a tradition that continues with the opening of the Luxury Beachside Doubloons.
The Buccaneer
St. Croix,
US Virgin Islands
800-255-3881
340-712-2100
