Once upon a time the Regatta brought tears to the eyes of many. Just looking out at maybe thirty Sloops of all sizes riding to anchor or bleaching the seas in front of their bows trying for the Braggin’ Rights of winner.

As people began to enjoy the event a little more each year the South Caicos Regatta began to loose its luster as a sailing race and took on the aspects of a land based carnival with some boats either sailing or speeding by in the background. Then, the sailing part dwindled to a few and seemed to be replaced by beauty pageants, which it was felt at least maintained the crowds.
With the death of commercial sailing fewer Sloops were around and eventually no Sloops came to South Caicos, and South Caicos had no Sloops of its own. That lasted a couple of years until the sailors in the newly formed Maritime Heritage Federation decided to get the Sloop back onto centre stage and displace the acts and beauty pageants that had taken their place.

Though some of the Sloops came and raced for two years straight, they never re-captured the attention they deserved. That was a result of the numbers arriving from Providenciales and Middle Caicos. Both treks are difficult for small sailing vessels and the time off work was a consideration also. But, the main problem seemed to be in the lack of format. There was a contention arising that is still underlining this historic event. The South Caicos Regatta is the first officially organized regatta in Turks and Caicos history.

Usually, in almost all countries, there is an organizing body that has particular rules that sailing races adhere to, which include classes, specifications, safety equipment, international rules of the road information.

When a sailing club or an event organization announces a regatta or race it is with those rules in mind. The club or organization announces the race and the application deadlines and rates. The racers sign up and come to the race to participate. There is a committee boat and safety boats, a course that is given to the racers at the Captains’ Meeting and the race begins at a specific time and ends when the sailors have rounded all of the well displayed turning buoys and crosses the finish line.

There is no sailing club for the wooden Sloops being built. There are no sailing clubs for the Sloops that are around though there is rivalry between the different Islands. As a result the Federation was looked upon as a sailing club though it is ill-prepared to be one to so diverse a group of people. The Federation can be an umbrella organization that assists all of them but the divides that come with the rivalries make a discontented soup that will never taste right to anybody if it tried to be the big sailing club for all.

The Big South event that is being held in South Caicos this year shows the results of this lack of simple sailing clubs. There is hardly any communications between the geographic groups and as a result there is no information passed. There is also a tendency to look for the event organization to seek out each sailor and let each one know what the rules and prize allotments are. Again, a club would have solved that problem also. One representative goes to the organizers and finds out everything and brings it back to the club.

The Federation has a set of Articles that were made up for a proposed Middle Caicos sailing club about four years ago and it has said such for four years but nobody wants to get into the details of taking them and changing them for their own needs. There is that much discord between the geographic areas. So, the day before the tow to the Rock, which will start the racing the following day, there is a Captains’ Meeting to find out what is going on.

The meeting went well and the classes are divided into general categories for this specific race, with  the safety boat and tow boat situation resolved. There are two outstanding organizers who went down a list of what there was to do and everybody agreed and the meeting was over. In the morning they will start the towing to the Rock, with Albert Higgs sailing his way from North Caicos on his big red Messenger and Wil Gibson is trying to finish his modern designed Lick’off to  take the trophies. At last count there will be ten Sloops participating in what might return to being a real Regatta off South Caicos.
And though there will be a good turn out in Sloops at Regatta this year,  there has to be some club concept formed in order to have a real future with subsidies and sponsors and professional boundaries for participation. That is if the Sloop racing wants to continue.

Spirit And Salt

When you have the term maritime heritage in your name the first thought most people understand or comprehend is that you are in the preservation of history business. So, to have a replication of aBermudian Slave Ship Chaser visiting your shores to rekindle relations between that maritime nation and the one they founded 330 years ago should cause some profound interest by anybody coming into contact with those words.

That was the thought process of the organizers for the Spirit of Bermuda stay: that some form of celebration for this re-linking of maritime history by two maritime cultures would be thought important. And to this event was added a symposium of some of the most noted scholars on Caribbean maritime history as an added feature, as well as the chance for two youth from the Turks and Caicos Islands to sail on the return voyage to Bermuda.

So, here you have a $6.5 million schooner sailing 830 miles to the Turks and Caicos Islands on a pilgrimage to teach the 23 Bermudian studentsaboard about their relationship to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a lecture series by seven outstanding scholars on Turks and Caicos-Bermudian inter-dependency history and two youths being invited to sail back to Bermuda…

Digicel immediately upon receiving the news of the visit and the possibility of the speakers coming jumped onboard to fund the scholars lecture series which stretched over two days on the deck of the 112-foot schooner. Sherlock Walkin immediately donates the funding to get the students back from Bermuda and for them to have a little spending cash while there. Coralie Properties sends some cash in to help out with the festivities.

Brian Been (of the TCI Tourist Board) volunteers to assist the coordination from Grand Turk. Michelle Gardiner (of Public Works) volunteers to assist with housing because of a couple of conferences taking all the hotel rooms. Dr. Neal Hitch and Deborah Annema from the TCI National Museum volunteer to arrange history tours for the visiting students. David Bowen of the Cultural Arts Commission volunteers to add footage to the video documentation of the event and with housing. HE the Governor Richard Tauwhare volunteers a reception for the Spirit. WIV Channel 4 commits to produce a video documentary during the whole visit. New Media gives the same commitment.

So, there is the foundation for a great educational event that is directed toward culture and seems to have an intellectual and practical vibrancy all in one ball. What happens? It actually, for the most part, does happen. There are some stumbles and some slippages but they are met and overcome. The Speakers are happy to be in an atmosphere that is completely conducive to their fields of study looking into the eyes of people who want to know what they know, not just students who have paid a tuition and have pass a test.

The audience was small but nobody left during a lecture and there were many a question since the subject matter was such that most had never heard, including the other Speakers. In the audience were Honourable Floyd Seymour, Doreen Quelch-Missick, Captain Jay Stubbs, Oswaldo Arriza.

It started off with Dr. Michael Jarvis pointing out proofs of early Bermudian slavery aboard vessels as not just lenient but the enslaved were entitled to percentages of voyage profits and could buy themselves out of slavery. But his most important argument was that most of the designers, builders, riggers and sail masters were the enslaved and those who had been taught those trades while enslaved but were now free.

Dr. Clarence Maxwell continued the voyage into another way of looking at enslavement by bringing into focus the skills by which African slaves were valued while still in Africa. Also the influence of trained and skilled shipwright slaves who were leased to the shipyards of North America.

I have to include here that the enslaved, at least in the early days, were not all Black. The North American Indian, the Irish and the Scot were amongst those called slaves. At onetime there were more black indentured servants than white indentured servants and more white slaves than black slaves in the Bermudian archipelago and on the Turks Islands.

It was to be repeatedly pointed out that the first saltrakers on Salt Cay, Grand Turk and South Caicos were Irish and Scots with the sailors and boat infrastructural class being black. The logic being that if you had a black skilled worker you could rent him or her out for more, and also that they could earn you more money if they performed their skill to a good and productive standard.

The National Museum Director Dr. Neal Hitch finished the first day by telling of his observations of relationships between the strains of African design that are found in late 18th and early 19th Century house features. He also found the use of ship scantlings in the construction of homes indicative of not only an intermixing of maritime and land culture but of the occupation of wrecking that was prevalent in most Island cultures during that period.

H.E. Governor Richard Tauwhare gave a welcome reception that evening that drew a good crowd, with former Chief Minister, Washington Misick, flying in to talk to the Speakers in a relaxed atmosphere. Honourable Misick gave a photograph, donated by the Maritime Heritage Federation and the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources to the Captain of Spirit, Chris Blake. Governor Tauwhare also gave a plaque recognizing the pilgrimage of the Spirit to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Captain Blake gave a small block of Bermudian stone and a cutting of Bermuda Cedar to the Governor.

The next day another former Chief Minister arrived with wide eyed interest in the form of another former Chief Minister, the Honourable Derek Taylor. He was treated to Kimberly Monk dissertation on the value of preservation of underwater landscapes. She was focusing on the reality of historic dive sites as tourism destination incentives while at the same time being places of study. Ms Monk promoted the economic reality of a field studies programme in areas that are known for their warm weather and clear seas. The field studies programme she assisted setting up in Tortola is ongoing and has quite a few more years of investigation to entice diving visitors to observe and in some cases to assist.

Professor Gene Tinnie showed the reality of the slave trade itself with graphic descriptions of life aboard a slaver from the viewpoint of a captured and kidnapped person. His particular interests were two-fold. In the one was the replication of one of the few actual slave ships that turned (as the Spirit of Bermuda was) a slave ship pursuer, the Dos Amigos. In the Dos Amigos the public would be invited to slide into the position of a captured passenger, into a tier bunk and experience a small sail. His other pursuit was the actual skills needed and provided by Africans and African Americans specifically in Baltimore, Maryland and how that added to the economy and prosperity of that area.

The last speaker had to make his talk short. Dr. Gilbert Morris had meetings that morning and caught a plane at his first opportunity to get to Grand Turk but had meetings that afternoon and had to take the last flight back so his lecture was limited to fifteen minutes. Dr. Morris, as a law instructor and economist is working on the new TCI Shipping Registry, gave a light touch to the importance of a modern Shipping Registry to the economy of the Turks and Caicos Islands, then, as an historian went into why a Historic Ship Registry would not just augment a Shipping Registry but would promote it and the preservation of maritime cultures. This, in turn, could make the Turks and Caicos Islands a maritime educational, research and financial centre for this region.

Dr. Morris felt that the significance of the historic geographic situation of this archipelago should be an easy promotion to sign up your mega-yacht as well as your charter historical brigantine.

At the end of each day was a meeting of the Speakers that culminated in an alliance to create a centre for maritime heritage studies for the Caribbean Region. All felt that the inter-National aloofness of the region could be overcome by a maritime linkage.

Erwin Jones approached us to see if his son would still be able to make the offered sail back to Bermuda. He was greeted with big smiles. Erwin said he could not see his child not being in on something that he personally considered a chance of a lifetime. Unfortunately for his son, school again rose up and the schedule could not coincide. But, Erwin’s sister was visiting from the States and volunteered, so one Turks Islander, Ms Shandera Hall, 20, will be making the sail North. Her schedule only allowed a portion of the experience and she will be disembarking at Nassau, Bahamas where Spirit is to be treated to an official welcome.

The sail to Salt Cay the day after the Symposium was a highlight that knitted a synergy of commitment for the Speakers. A brisk beat to windward, a windward passage, to the small island and anchoring where at time fifteen ships would roll to the same types of swells brought home the reality of days gone by. But, to walk along the salt ponds and pans long abandoned but a real part of the atmosphere of the place was almost an evil taste of the future with all of that history being slated to be dug out and a super marina put in its place.

The Turks and Caicos Islands were founded in this place when the Bermudian sailors started raking salt and eventually settled their families there in 1673. Now, it was to become a marina. There are fifty marinas going in along the coasts of the Sea of Cortez in Mexico but they do not have a Salt Cay or they would have preserved it and made the preservation serious.

A presentation was made to both the Honourable Floyd Seymour, who made the sail over and was the representative of Salt Cay, as well as to the District Commissioner Carolyn Dickenson, who graciously received a two hundred pound block of Bermudian stone and a piece of Bermudian Cedar both from the Captain of the Spirit, Chris Blake.

They, in return, gave three bags of Salt Cay salt to the Bermuda Sloop Foundation to be carried by the Spirit of Bermuda back to Bermuda as in the days of old. The Bermudian students had the privilege of going on the salt pans and gathering the white crystal themselves.

The trek back to the dock was a little poignant as the students knew that they might never see these historic salt pans again.

The sail back to Grand Turk was a broad reach with the wind coming from just to the side of behind us. It felt almost as though by the time the students put the four sails up they had to take them down again and we were coming into dock. That was to be our goodbye to the Spirit of Bermuda for now. But, we got together that evening to decide on a course to insure the preservation of the information gathered. It definitely helped that Rob Henry of WIV Channel 4 had video taped the whole event and that we were receiving positive feedback from the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institute. As well as several practical roads to pursue a goal of a united Caribbean regional maritime historical entity.

There were voices of support for the Symposium from the Cayman Islands, Corn Island, Providencia (Columbia), Anguilla, Antigua, St. Vincent and obviously Bermuda.

Gene Tinnie penned a mission statement that we all agreed upon:
“The Mission of the Center for Caribbean Maritime Heritage Studies is to retrieve, study and bring to public awareness the rich maritime history which shaped the Caribbean and surrounding territories, from a multiplicity of cultural perspectives, and  to serve as a repository and clearinghouse for such information.”
    

What’s The Point Of A Symposium On TCI?

One person in the Digicel Windward Passage Symposium audience, during the question and answer session with Bermuda-TCI scholar, Dr. Mike Jarvis, said that he did not understand much of what these college professors were talking about and that they should be talking to people like himself to get at the real history, the history of the people, before they gave these presentations.

It definitely was not a question but all in all it was the statement that was at the crux of bringing any sort of scientific presentation to a TCI public. Was this something that was too intimidating for the normal person to grasp or see any significance in? We feel that the answer to that is in the intent of the person curious enough to come and challenge their knowledge of the subject theme.

If you want to learn something different than ordinary conversation or surface sound byte history then a symposium, a gathering of this sort will give you a lot more than you can bargain for. When you have people who are spending their lives finding the money to study topics they are passionate about and presenting them with enthusiastic hopes that others will understand and appreciate the results of their usually forever ongoing studies then they should have a platform.

With the word doctor in front of your name awarded from a noted institution as more than honourary, it usually means that you conquered a discipline and held your passion in check enough to focus arguments into a concise revelation, sometimes called a fact.

There were several reasons for a Windward Passage Symposium with the first being the obvious one of presenting interesting information on the background and general history of the relationship between the Turks and Caicos Islands and the development of the Eastern Seaboard. Another was to document the consolidation of the Speakers’ information on the precept that the Turks and Caicos, through Bermuda, influenced the European and North American continuum of vessel design and construction during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Another was to present the argument that just as the TCI influenced those area, so did the Caribbean Region as a whole influence world vessel design and construction during that period. Another is to insure that students from the Caribbean Region be presented with the opportunity of careers that study their birthplaces. Another is to find out how to gather all of that information and make it available for researchers, students and the general public to easily find.

We were looking to make the Turks and Caicos Islands a regional centre for the study of maritime heritage for the Caribbean.

The WIV Channel 4 video documentation of the lectures, the individual interviews with participants and a Speakers’ group discussion of the possibility of uniting the Caribbean Region using a maritime thread, as well as some wonderful sailing scenes to remember where the Symposium was taking place should combine to make a really interesting documentary on the drive of the Turks and Caicos Islands toward academic civility.

The next step is to expand this present and enthusiastic network by attending the upcoming Fourth International African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference this July 26-30 in Bermuda. And, to do this as a united block, a panel from the TCI, not just a display ornament, but a vital part that would introduce the maritime heritage transporting element that connects the Diasporic Trails from South American through the Caribbean through North America.

So, that, or really those are the points of going through all the trouble to put on a symposium of this sort. Intellectual gatherings are not there to intimidate but to stimulate curiosity to the point that you actually go out and do some form of study. You do not have to have a title but you can meet and have contact with somebody who understands the discipline it takes to attain one and work with that person to resolve your particular interest.

What is in the immediate for the Federation?

Youth programmes and Chalk Sound is the emphatic answer to that question.

The Youth Programmes have to be implemented and consistent. And what is meant by Youth programmes are basic sailing lessons, sailing lessons, expeditions on Chalk Sound, maritime history research and documentation, traditional boat building, model boat building, a schedule of sailing and sculling regattas, parent and child boat building, rigging classes, swimming classes and an ongoing request for suggestions and projects from the public.

Chalk Sound means the Chalk Sound Sailing Centre itself and what its purposes are. The proposal calls for a club house (primarily for youth but there is room for adults also), a restaurant, meeting rooms, a library and small museum, offices, storage for boats and an open air workshop. There was also included a series of bungalows for researchers and rental. The concept is to become self-sufficient while fun and educational.

There are two point three acres to work with that is already levelled, with a traditional spot for launching. Floating docks are the suggestion from both H. Hinderaker and Sherlock Walkin. Consideration for handicapped sailors would extend to ramps from the bungalows to the dock and boats.

A Chalk Sound Sailing Club can be the competition with sailing clubs that are already operative, such as the Provo Sailing Club, with both sharing the facility. The Chalk Sound Sailing Club and though one of the basis for establishing the Chalk Sound Sailing Centre is the preservation of maritime heritage, the future of sailing always lays in the future and no type of design should be discouraged. Multihulls would be in a natural setting in the shallows of that beautiful bay.

The Salt Cay Lighter one design class is hoped to be the signature vessel of the establishment. Hopefully, the original two-masted Bermuda boat will also be an item for sailing and racing.

The open invitation for the Turks and Caicos National Museum, TCI National Trust and any future history and heritage conservation organisation has to be just that, and hopefully they will be in on the planning of the site.

One stipulation by the Minister of Natural Resources in allotting this Crown Land is the strict adherence to the proposal that was rendered. Honourable Hanchell wants kids on the water in a safe way but also wants them to have fun by learning and passing on cultural information to the rest of us.

Funding The Centre

Locally, there are many ways to get the initial structure up, so we can begin to enjoy this prime piece of real estate as a community. We could start with a donated trailer to post a security person there on a live-in twenty-four hour basis and have an office at the same time to coordinate the overall project.

We can solicit material and volunteers to actually begin the main structure from the many contractors and builders in this archipelago. We can put together a lot of fund raisers and solicit businesses to contribute both funding and volunteers. The more people who get involved with the project the more people who will use the facility once completed.

The establishment of overseas funding should also not be overlooked. This could create ties that not only assist the funding of the site development but would be available to assist with preservation and heritage programmes. To this end we conducted a Digicel Windward Passage Symposium, as explained above, but this is the practical reality of that endeavour. To create a centre for Caribbean maritime studies brings more educational and conservation oriented exposure to the TCI. With that comes the possible beginnings of an accredited institution and a central depository for Caribbean regional maritime information.

To have a youth clubhouse with an academic research centre is not a bad way to pass on traditions from one generation to the next.

If you wish a copy of the Proposal, just send me a request and I will get the unillustrated version to you.

	Floyd, Carolyn and Bermudans On Salt Cay

New Newsletter from National Museum

Dear Friends of the Turks and Caicos National Museum, ArtiFACTS is the new newsletter from the T&C National Museum and they are looking for interesting subjects or projects that you would want shared with the community. The Museum is for the whole of the Turks and Caicos Islands, so don’t hold back just because you live on Provo or Middle Caicos and feel disconnected from Grand Turk.

The new Programme Development Director, Pat Saxton wants to do a good job with this and with your assistance. Get on their mailing list by emailing Pat at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call/fax 649 946 2160 Enjoy!