Island in the Stream  

After the Spanish claimed the island in 1492, there was barely a footprint to be seen on the beaches of Grand Bahama Island. The Lucayans were enslaved and transported to work the gold and silver mines of Hispanola and Cuba, and the pearl fisheries of Margarita, near Trinidad. The conquerers gave the island the name "Gran Bajamar" - great shallows - a term that eventually became the basis for The Islands of The Bahamas themselves. 

After they stole away its inhabitants, however, the Spanish seemed to have completely ignored Grand Bahama Island. Once in great while, a ship would drop anchor, perhaps scavenge a few provisions, then sail off towards Europe or South America. More often than not, Grand Bahama Island was viewed as a perilous landfall, due to the treacherous shallow reefs surrounding it. So many ships would collide with the reefs that "wrecking" became a major livelihood of what few inhabitants there were, most of whom lived at West End. In hard times it wasn't unheard of for the townspeople to actually try and lure ships onto the reef with a well-placed lantern at night. 

Great Britain claimed the Islands of The Bahamas in 1670, after British colonists left Bermuda for the island of Eleuthera, where they sought religious independence. More followed, and other ports and colonies gradually developed, bringing in their wake an army of pirates and privateers. Grand Bahama was probably well known to famous pirates like Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, and Henry Morgan, as its reefs would have been perfect for running aground vessels, a common pirate tactic. By 1720, the crown had successfully established control over the pirates, and the island probably saw a lot less visitors than it had during "the Golden Age of Piracy." The sleepy colony lay largely undisturbed for another 200 years, when history finally caught up with it again.