Origin of The Name
The name of this island group, Leeward Islands, dates from previous centuries, when sailing ships were the sole form of transport across the Atlantic Ocean. Because of prevailing currents and winds, the fastest route west across the Atlantic to the New World from Africa brought sailing ships to a point that was halfway south on the Lesser Antilles chain of islands, roughly between the islands of Dominica and Martinique or nearby. This area became the dividing line between what are now known as the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands.
In the West Indies, the prevailing winds, known as the trade winds, blow from the southeast to the northwest. When sailing ships arrived, what are now known as the Leeward Islands were down wind, or "in the lee of the wind" to them. In other words, these islands were "leeward" to the sailing ships when they arrived in the West Indies, and could be reached from that arrival point by simply sailing with the wind.
This was in contrast to the Windward Islands further south, which were up wind from the sailing ship's point of arrival, in other words "windward", and had to be reached by sailing against the wind.
Read more about this topic: Leeward Islands
Famous quotes containing the words the name, origin of and/or origin:
“The name of the town isn’t important. It’s the one that’s just twenty-eight minutes from the big city. Twenty-three if you catch the morning express. It’s on a river and it’s got houses and stores and churches. And a main street. Nothing fancy like Broadway or Market, just plain Broadway. Drug, dry good, shoes. Those horrible little chain stores that breed like rabbits.”
—Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993)
“There are certain books in the world which every searcher for truth must know: the Bible, the Critique of Pure Reason, the Origin of Species, and Karl Marx’s Capital.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)