Nelson Island

Nelson Island (originally Neilson's Island) lies west of Port of Spain in the Gulf of Paria and is one of the "Five Islands" which also include Caledonia, Lenagan, Craig, Pelican and Rock Islands. It was the disembarkation point and quarantine station for indentured immigrants to Trinidad and Tobago in the 19th and early 20th century. The Quarantine Station built in 1802 spans almost the entire island.

From 1845 to 1921, Indian immigrants and their ships, foods and stores were inspected, cloth items fumigated and immigrants allowed to recuperate from the long voyage. This procedure prevented the spread of diseases, especially smallpox and measles. Persons were examined by a medical doctor and then transported by small boats to Port of Spain where the healthy moved on to estates, the sick transported to the Colonial Hospital in Port of Spain and the voyage weary sent to the Depot in Port of Spain to rest.

During World War II in the 1930s, Jewish Holocaust refugees from Germany and Austria were detained and processed as enemies at the Quarantine Station. The men were kept on the island while the women and young children were transported to Caledonia Island. Also during World War II, but in the 1940s, the United States Navy built a gun emplacement at the eastern end of the island and a cable causeway to Rock Island to the west during their occupation of the island.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s Nelson Island became a detention center for prisoners, most notably Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler of the Labour Rights Movement.

In the 1970s following the Black Power Revolution, Nelson Island once again became a detention center with notable prisoners: Oilfields Workers' Trade Union president George Weekes; National Joint Action Committee leader Geddes Granger; Apoesho Mutope; Winston Suite; and Clive Nunez.

Photograph of Nelson's Island circa 1900 is a part of Adrian Camps-Campins collection.

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