Hawksbill Creek Agreement

The Hawksbill Creek Agreement (4 August 1955) granted Wallace Groves' Grand Bahama Port Authority a lease of 50,000 Crown acres at £1 per acre (≈$2.80), with exemptions from income, capital-gains, real-estate, and customs taxation — 30 years from signing plus a 69-year extension, i.e. to 2054 — in exchange for dredging a deepwater harbour [S1][S2]. Engineered politically by finance minister Stafford Sands, it created the privately governed enclave of Freeport. The terms, often repeated as too extreme to be true, verify in full against Bahamian statute law [S1]. See Offshore Finance Network (UAP Lore Audit).

Sources

[S1] Hawksbill Creek Agreement | Bahamas statute law (official) URL: http://laws.bahamas.gov.bs/cms/images/LEGISLATION/PRINCIPAL/1965/1965-0048/ Accessed: 2026-07-20 [S2] "An Informal History of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, 1955–1985" | Grand Bahama Museum URL: https://www.grandbahamamuseum.org/images/pdfs/gbm-informal-history-port-authority-1955-1985.pdf Accessed: 2026-07-20