Grand Cayman
SHORT STORY
SEASON 2 · JUNE 2026
Photography and story by John Menzies
The Shipwreck That Became a Tax-Free Legend
On Seven Mile Beach, I kept pointing my camera west.
Every evening, the sky gave me another reason.
The story I should have been photographing was on the other side of the island.
In the early hours of February 8, 1794, a convoy of more than fifty ships sailed dangerously close to the reef at the east end of Grand Cayman. Ten of them—including the Royal Navy frigate HMS Convert—ran aground in the dark.
Caymanians went out to help. Hundreds of passengers and sailors survived. About eight people didn’t.
Then the rescue acquired a legend.
According to the story repeated for generations, one of the rescued passengers was a son of King George III. A grateful king supposedly decreed that the Cayman Islands would remain forever free from taxes.
The rescue was real. Historians have found no evidence of either the royal passenger or the decree.
Yet today, the Cayman Islands have no income or corporate tax.
Apparently, the news of “no taxes in the Caymans” got around.
By 2025, more than 120,000 companies were registered in the Cayman Islands—more companies than residents. At one point, over 18,000 companies listed the same five-story building as their registered address.
Trillions of dollars flow through here annually. The island is 22 miles long.
I went home thinking about the sunsets.
Seven Mile Beach, on Grand Cayman’s west coast. The wrecks occurred off East End, on the opposite side of the island.
And that is the story behind the place.
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