This page includes lighthouses of two small island "special municipalities" of the Netherlands located in the Leeward Islands at the northeastern corner of the Caribbean Sea. Since the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in 2010, these two islands and the island of Bonaire in the southern Caribbean have been called, somewhat informally, the Caribbean Netherlands.
Saba is a small island about 80 km (50 mi) southwest of St.-Barthélemy. The island is essentially a single volcanic peak, Mt. Scenery; the mountain rises to an elevation of 870 m (2854 ft). Saba was first settled by the Dutch around 1640; although it changed hands a number of times after that, it has been Dutch again since 1816. The population is about 2000. Saba has no protected harbor capable of receiving cruise ships, so it is one of the least visited islands of the Caribbean. Access is by short-takeoff aircraft or ferry from the other Dutch Leeward Islands (Sint Maartin and Sint Eustatius). Hair-raising roads snake around the mountian to connect the small villages of the island.
Sint Eustatius, nicknamed Statia, is a somewhat larger island located southeast of Saba and northwest of St. Kitts. It was settled by the Dutch in 1636 and remained Dutch thereafter except for an occupation by British forces in 1781-84. Less mountainous than Saba, Sint Eustatius has room for a full-size airport runway, but it has only a small protected harbor at Oranjestad, the capital. The population of the island is about 3500.
ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume J of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 110.
- Saba Lighthouse
- * St. John's
- Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 325 m (1070 ft); two white flashes every 10 s. Approx. 15 m (49 ft) square skeletal communications tower mounted on a square 1-story white concrete base. A photo is at right, and Google has an indistinct satellite view. In the original of the photo (click on it for enlargement), the navigation light can be seen on the left rear of the tower, near the top. The microwave antennas on the tower are pointed southeast toward the island of Sint Eustatius. Located on the steep slope of Mt. Scenery at St. John's, a village on the south side of the island. Site open, tower closed. Admiralty J5667.3; NGA 14738.
