Hassel Island (also sometimes Hassell Island) is a small island of the U.S. Virgin Islands, a United States territory located in the Caribbean Sea. Hassel Island lies in the Charlotte Amalie harbor just south of Saint Thomas and east of Water Island. The Virgin Islands of the United States is a group of islands in the Caribbean that is a dependency of the United States. ... Dependency has a number of meanings: In project management, a dependency is a link amongst a projects terminal elements. ... Central America and the Caribbean The Caribbean Sea is a body of water adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, south of the Gulf of Mexico. ... Charlotte Amalie is the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America. ... Saint Thomas is an island in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), a United States territory, in the Caribbean Sea. ... Water Island is the fourth and most recent main island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a United States territory located in the Caribbean Sea. ...

The roughly 136 acre (550,000 m²) island was once a peninsula of Saint Thomas. It was separated by the Danish government in 1860. The channel was widened by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1919, two years after the United States purchased the Danish West Indies. The Kingdom of Denmark is geographically the smallest Nordic country and is part of the European Union. ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... United States Army Corps of Engineers logo The United States Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, is made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military men and women. ... The Danish West Indies (DWI) are a former colony of Denmark in the Caribbean, now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands. ...

History

The Danish used Hassel Island's strategic location to defend the busy Charlotte Amalie harbor in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British occupied Hassel Island during the Napoleonic Wars. The ruins of Fort Willoughby (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(NUMBER+@band(VI0093))) and Fort Shipley (Shipley's Battery) can still be seen. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the G8, the European Union, and NATO. Usually known simply as the United Kingdom, the UK, or (inaccurately) as Great Britain or Britain, the UK has four constituent... The Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1804 until 1815. ...

Hassel Island is also notable as the site of the Creque Marine Railway (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(NUMBER+@band(VI0026))). Initially constructed in the 1840s as the St. Thomas Marine Repair Slip, it is one of the earliest steam-powered marine railways in the western hemisphere and perhaps the oldest surviving example of such a railway. Events and Trends First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) on February 6, 1840 at Waitangi New Zealand. ...

Today

In the middle of the 20th century, most of Hassel Island was owned by the prominent local Paiewonsky family. A small hotel located on Hassel Island was immortalized in Herman Wouk's novel Don't Stop the Carnival. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Herman Wouk (born May 27, 1915) is an bestselling American author, with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. ...

Most of the island is now part of the Virgin Islands National Park. The rest of the island is divided between the territorial government and a few private residences. Established in 1980, Virgin Islands National Park is a United States National Park covering approximately 60% of the island of St. ...

External links

• http://www.vinow.com/news/may03/hassel.php
• http://www.caribbeaninspired.com/caribbean/destination/water-island.htm
• http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=Commentary:Op-ed&p=1105680537