Virgin Gorda is the third-largest ( after Tortola and Anegada ) and second-most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Christopher Columbus is said to have named the island “the Fat Virgin”, because the island’s profile on the horizon looks like a fat woman lying on her side. Historically renowned, the anchorage off Bitter End was the site of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins’ 1595 fleet rendezvous, two Elizabethan British admirals who led Britain’s ascendance into naval supremacy. Twenty-six ships anchored in the sound and used the large hill at Bitter End to practice for their attack on San Juan, to wrest Puerto Rico from Spain. With both admirals dying on the 1595/1596 voyage, the land at Bitter End may be the last place that these legendary mariners set foot on British soil.