Creque's Alley - Charlotte Amalie, USVI
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 18° 20.474 W 064° 55.968
20Q E 295754 N 2029022
Creque's Alley is a narrow passageway located along the waterfront in Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands.
Waymark Code: WMEWRV
Location: US Virgin Islands
Date Posted: 07/15/2012
Views: 20
Creque’s Alley is a part of an area of narrow parallel alleys that once stored ship cargo and pirate booty in the warehouses lining the waterfront. Some of these old warehouses have, now, been converted to restaurants. It was the subject of the song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and performed by the Momas and the Papas. It has a long and varied history. In the late 1600's this waterfront area of Charlotte Amalie was notorious for being the haunt of pirates. A bronze plaque placed on the walls lining the alley attests it's history and the legend of hidden pirate treasure. The plaque is inscribed:
PIRATE TREASURE
In the late 1600s detractors of the danish Colony referred
to St. Thomas with justification as "the Den of Pirates".
Pirates performed acts of bloody violence. Times glossed over their
crimes and imbued them with romance. Titillating legends emerged
like Blackbeard's and Bluebeard's castles around around St. Thomas'
two ancient gun towers. This passage once known as
Creque's Alley has its own pirate legend. An ancestor of
its former owners discovered chests of pirate treasure in a cave of
Normand Island. It is rumored he hid part of it within these premises
until it could be converted into bank notes. The fantasy of finding a
pirates hoard and quick wealth still haunts the islands.