Nelson’s Dockyard Antigua

More school this morning.

In the afternoon, we went to the museum at Nelson’s Dockyard. The Dockyard has been restored to its former 19th century glory architecturally but is now a tourist destination full of cafes and gift shops for visitors to the island.

It’s called Nelson’s Dockyard because the Admiral was stationed here during its heyday. He was actually extremely unpopular because he strictly enforced the Navigation Act which stopped Antigua from trading outside British interests. Many other commanders “turned a blind eye” to illicit trade with the US, French and Spanish, but not Nelson.

We spent an hour in the museum learning about Antigua and sailing conditions in the 18th and 19th century.

From the museum we visited the island’s capital St John to check out the provisioning (and buy a birthday card and cake!)