11.   Legend has it that the pirate Blackbeard used the island as a hiding place and kept one of his many wives there.

12.   Officials now are hoping to lure U.S. and Asian companies to use the islands as a transport and manufacturing site for goods destined for Western Europe and Africa.

13.   That, they said, would severely overburden ferryboats to Governors Island and cut down on access by people who want to use the island for recreation.

14.   The French, using their islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique as departure points, flew supplies and workers into St. Martin and St. Barts.

15.   The issue of Vieques has smarted in the Puerto Rican consciousness almost since the United States began using the island for naval exercises during World War II.

16.   The Navy began using both islands for target practice at the outset of World War II.

17.   The soil had been tainted with low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and other substances while the island was used as a scrap yard.

18.   Typically, law-enforcement officials said, Columbian drug cartels used the island as a principal entry to the United States.

19.   Other proposals include using manmade islands as dumps for industrial waste and sites for energy-generating wind turbines.

20.   According to Panama, U.S. officials used the island for chemical weapons experiments during World War II and unexploded ordnance remains.