29 Jun 2021

A WEALTH OF ISLANDS

A Wealth of Islands

Under the Seagrape Tree

A Wealth of Islands

Will Johnson

Introduction

Remi de Haenen (Mayor of St. Barths)

The first time I learned of Remy de Haenen was in Boys town “Brakkeput” on Curacao. Harold Levenstone, son of the then Commissioner Matthew Levenstone, received a telegram on February 9th, 1959, from his father. It stated; “Plane landed safely. Pilot O.K.” What plane landed where? Which pilot was O.K.? This was the great question among the boys from Saba for at least a week. In those days there were no cell phones. Communication with the Boys town was by mail only and it took forever it seemed. The slow boat from Saba had to connect with the twice weekly plane to Curacao. Everything with that arrangement could go wrong and it usually did. Consequently sometimes it was weeks before you heard from your old folks. For us Brakkeput was the main depository of homesickness. Many lonely days in semi-isolation away from that secure nest which had been provided by your parents. And so a much anticipated letter when it arrived was read a number of times. It was then stored away for reading when homesickness became overpowering. I can never remember throwing away a letter from those days.

Finally the mail arrived announcing that a Frenchman named Remy de Haenen had landed at Flat Point. He had flown over the island and surveyed the best possible landing spot. He was friends with a French contractor Jacques Deldevert who had done some work on Saba building the schools and so on. Deldevert also thought that an airport on Saba was possible.

There were those who wanted the airport at Tent Bay. Village politics played a role then even more than now. However Remy de Haenen insisted that Flat Point was the only place possible for an airport. This is a small spit of land thrown out of the mountain in one great flow of lava. It turned out later to be Gods gift to Saba. I once heard a Rabbi on the BBC state that the olive tree was Gods gift to the Mediterranean. Since then when I study countries I seek to find out what was Gods special gift to them.

Anyway the people led by the late Mr. Eugenius Johnson and others enthusiastically volunteered to work clearing a landing site. The owners of the farmland represented by my father Daniel Thomas Johnson gave permission to tear up what for them was prime farm land. My father was a red head and could be temperamental like his Neanderthal ancestors. Many years ago when I came across a theory by someone that the Neanderthals had red hair, I concluded that they had not died out as some would have wanted us to believe.

In a matter of a week the land was cleared and Mr. de Haenen came by boat from St. Barths to check the work and to give last minute instructions on what more had to be done so that he could land and take off safely. And so on February 9th, 1959, with almost the entire population looking on, Mr. de Haenen realized his dream and landed on the small airstrip. He also made one of Saba’s biggest dreams come true. He opened up Saba to the outside world as never before or since.

I should have known about Mr. de Haenen. After all he had landed on Saba before. Not on land of course, but in the waters off Fort Bay harbor. The plane he landed in was a Vough Sikorsky type O.SS. 2 U, seaplane and the year was 1946.He made two landings here in that same year.

Who was this Remy de Haenen? Although in his last years we became good friends I only knew him from afar. I would see him often, when I worked at the airport on St. Martin, carrying passengers back and forth.

When he was awarded the Medal of Honor in pioneering aviation by the French Government he called and insisted that I come to St. Barths to be present for the occasion. I used to think that he had confused me with my brother Freddie. However once he invited both Freddie and I to a lunch at Queens Garden. Despite his age he called me Will, with his heavy French accent, so then I was convinced that he really knew me and even seemed to like having me in his company. Yet another time he invited me to attend his birthday. It could have been his 80th one. His young Argentinean “nurse” had my attention so much so that I cannot remember now which birthday he was really celebrating. I do remember the “nurse’ though, the contours, the movements, the laugh, all of that I do remember.

In the 4th edition of the magazine “PURE Saint Bart” there is a wonderful article on the life of our friend Remy by Victoire Theismann. The article is accompanied by a series of wonderful photos of St. Barth’s from the late nineteen forties and fifties. Besides my personal memories of him, I will also quote from PURE magazine. He was still in the land of the living when that article was written.

Saba was not the first place where he landed. In 1945 he landed a plane on the grassy plains of La Savanne in St. Barth’s. I remember hearing stories that he had also landed on the cow pastures of Mr. Jo Jo Flemming, just outside of Marigot on St. Martin.

Remy was born in London on February 12th, 1916. Some say that his mother was a Dutch woman from whom he got his name. At the age of 18 he became a naturalized French citizen and entered the Merchant Navy school at Le Havre. He then discovered the world and particularly New York and later on the Caribbean to which he returned in 1938 and remained here.

He criss-crossed the region until he discovered St. Barths, and was seduced by this rocky part of the world. When the Second World War broke out Remy opened a small shipyard in Gustavia. A gentleman smuggler he trafficked between the US Virgin Islands, the British West Indian islands and those under German domination – Guadeloupe and Martinique. My first boss on St. Martin, Mr. Joseph Alphonse Constantine O’Connor, used to tell me that Remy also supplied German submarines with anything edible from fish all the way up to vegetables and donkey meat. Fons claimed that the German submarines used to pay in gold bars.

Several years before landing on St. Barths, Remy de Haenen rented the island of Tintamarre from its owner, Mr. L.C. Flemming who was then Mayor of the French side. Remy made it both his aviation base and his home. That home was the home of the former King of Tintamarre Mr. D.C. van Romondt. I remember sleeping once there on the verandah all by myself in the sixties when I was there on a fishing trip and I did not want to sleep on the boat. Remy settled there with his wife Gisele from Martinique. It was also there that the oldest of his three daughters Helene was born.

On Tintamarre Remy built a 300 meter runway, near a lagoon that could also accommodate sea planes. In 1946 he founded, but did not register with the French Government, the West Indian Airline Company, the CAA. He bought planes from the United States Army.He also employed the later famous Jose Dormoy and a cousin as well as other young pilots who were willing to take risks. He traded between the various islands and if Fons is to believed he traded with the German submarines as well. Was it Shakespeare who said:”All is fair in love and war”? Tintamarre was the main base for the fleet. In 1947, there were several air crashes, which weakened the company; in one crash a nun and pilot were killed. But it was the hurricane on September 1st, 1950, that dealt a fatal blow to the young company. That same hurricane destroyed St. Barth’s fleet of schooners. By creating a runway in St. Jean five years later, he enabled that island to open to the world.

In 1953 Remy bought a rock on the bay of St. Jean. No one wanted it and at the time he paid 200 dollars for it. The best purchase since the Dutch claimed to have purchased Manhattan from an Indian tribe whose principles of faith were never to sell any part of Mother Earth. I won’t tell you here how in the mid nineteen sixties I could have bought a large piece of land on St. Jean Beach for $1200.—dollars. My friend Georges Greaux told me that he nearly bought that same land, but his father discouraged him telling him that St. Barths would never amount to anything and better he put his money on the bank in St. Kitts or wherever.

Remy with the help of friends built his house on the peninsula jutting out into the Bay of St. Jean. The small hotel that he started from his house hosted many internationally known people, one of which was his friend Jacques Costeau. I remember once watching a film of Costeau on his ship the Calypso looking for the treasure of the Concepcion, a Spanish Galleon which had sunk in 1641. Who but Remy was a guest on board. He liked that sort of thing and was forever diving around the islands looking for treasure. That is besides the tall blond, curvaceous, Argentinean “nurse” and other such treasures which he found in his old age while living in Santo Domingo.

In 1953, Remy de Haenen became “Councilor General” and from 1962 to 1977, Mayor of St. Barths. He was elected against an outstanding native of the island; Alexander Magras.

Remy was at the origin of change in the political status of the island. He was the initiator, the origin of the idea. Remy also created many of the roads on the island and promoted many development projects. All was waiting to be created. The electrical supply network, the water supply, and the roads and so on. He was the first to start the construction of a seawater desalination plant. According to PURE MAGAZINE;” Remy was a humanist, a lord, a prince of life, and nothing could ever stop his determination to always go towards the best, the new, the out-of-the- ordinary. Sometimes he made mistakes and he paid dearly both in reality and figuratively. Several times he was ruined, but like the phoenix he always rose again and set out, each time more combative, more determined, more generous. Remy was an idealist, an inventor, a pioneer. He ushered in the development of trade, tourism, and the well being of the people. Risk taker, brilliant dreamer, impassioned adventurer, great lover of life and of women (oh boy, I wonder where that Argentinean nurse is now). Remy de Haenen was an exceptional man.” And that is no exaggeration.

I personally felt that Saba had not done enough for him. Hurricane George blew away the airport building in 1998. We were able to get funding from the Dutch Government for a new building. I was once again at the helm of the Saba Government and decided to dedicate the building to him in a ceremony of Saba Day, December 6th, 2002.Many people here felt that he had been treated badly. Not only was his pilot’s license suspended for a month after making what was considered an unauthorized landing on Saba, but he was not allowed to fly here on a commercial basis after the airport was built either. What V.H. Friedlander says about pioneers was applicable to him; “We shall not travel by the road we make etc. For us the master-joy, oh pioneers- We shall not travel, but we make the road.” He was kind of frail then, but extremely pleased to have been honored in this fashion. And guess what. At the lunch he gave me a long phone number and asked me to call the person. And guess who answered the phone all the way from my favourite country? The nurse from Argentina!! I got the impression though that she had taken on a new nursing career and was not too happy with the call. Remy was 83 then and he still remembered the good things in life. In the airport building besides the propeller from the plane which he landed at Flat Point with, there is also a plaque honouring him.

Remy died in the latter part of 2009. I was unaware of it until my friend Elly Delien on St. Eustatius brought it to my attention. By that time he was already buried so that I did not make it to the funeral. Saba will never forget you though Remy. I don’t want to make light of it but rather as a tribute to you my friend I will never forget that tall, blond, bombshell of an Argentinean “nurse” who seemed of some comfort to you in some of the last of your golden years.

Christine Flanders

In the booklet issued as a eulogy for the occasion of her funeral, I was pleased to see that I was mentioned as one of her dearest friends. That was indeed the case.

I first met Christine and her husband William (“Tin Tin”), when I started my campaign for Senator on the U.R.A. ticket in 1969. I was trying to sneak in to Statia. The Democrats on St. Maarten had spread the rumor that I would be stoned on arrival at the airport, thrown back on the plane and sent back to St.Maarten. Therefore I was taking no chances.

At the Juliana airport Winair informed me that my brother Freddie wanted to talk to me. I thought that he wanted to warn me not to go. To my great surprise he informed me that Statia wanted to know exactly when I would arrive as they had a steel band waiting for me and a parade would be organized to take me in to town.

On arrival my friend Commissioner Vincent Lopes of the Democrat Party was among the crowd to sort of welcome me as well. He presented me with a pamphlet which was headlined Welcome to the United Russian Alliance. I have a file with all of those pamphlets from 1969 still lying around.

After the welcome we headed to the home of William and Christine Flanders in a big parade. This the Democrats had not expected. When I met Christine I could see immediately who was in charge. I was not much of a public speaker at the time and was not expecting to have a political rally. Well Christine informed me that she had eighteen speakers lined up and asked if I had anyone besides myself. Among the speakers was “Willy Doc”, the father of Papa Godet. Willy Doc had once organized a rebellion on Statia against Act. Governor Ernest Voges. This rebellion had to be put down by sending armed troops to Statia to arrest “Willie Doc” and take him to Curacao. So in case you were wondering where Papa Godet got his rebellious spirit from, now you know.

Statia people don’t need anything on paper to speak from. We had a great evening with fire and brimstone speeches and from there the friendship started. I was living on Sint Maarten at the time and was completely on my own. I had some help from people like Stanley Brown, Jopie Abraham and especially Freddie Lejuez, but the all-powerful Democrat Party was not about to let a young upstart spoil the day for them so I had a rough time, but in the end thanks to people like Christine I did very well.

My brother Eric wrote me during the campaign and said the rally on Saba had gone well and I did not know what he was talking about. Turns out Christine and a group from Statia had organized a charter and came to Saba and held a public rally on my behalf to get some of the Saba people to vote for me. They kept the meeting on the porch of “Brother’s Place” a building which eventually came to me. It was destined to be so I guess.

In the years following I used to go to Statia often. Christine and William had a small snack bar and I would spend lots of time with them. The only thing I could not figure out was all the small children in the house and yard. I wondered how Christine at her age had all those little people. I was enlightened at the funeral when to the laughter of the congregation one of those little people, now a woman, explained that she was a big woman before she realized that Christine was not her mother.The lady who was always quietly in the background and whom we all thought was the maid was the mother of all the children. When she was on her last and I went to see her at the hospital, she was lying out like an African queen. Still talking politics to me, surrounded by her children, while the real mother sat discreetly outside the door on the wall looking on. Of course William was the father but Christine had raised them as if they were her own. She herself had no children, but it didn’t matter to her as Williams children were hers.

One of the times that I was on Statia and had climbed the Quill with my boys, we decided to drop in at the Community Center and buy some soft drinks. William was running it at the time. We had a good chat. I was staying in the country at Ishmael Berkel’s new house and enjoying the two weeks there with no electricity and recalling my youth. At the same time Julia Crane was there working on Statia Silhouettes and I was able to give her some background advice.

I went on to St.Kitts and Nevis and then to St.Maarten on that vacation. To my surprise when I walked down the Front street, I heard someone call out to me from the St.Rose Hospital. To my surprise it was William. He was dressed in his pajamas and I asked him what was the problem. He informed me that he had some pain in his chest and that the doctors were checking him out. He looked the same as always to me. Just about two weeks later I got a call from Christine informing me that if I wanted to see my friend William that I must come to Statia immediately as he was on his last. I could not digest that information. When I arrived at the home and Christine told me to go see him in the bedroom, I could not believe my eyes. He was just a shadow of his old self. He was a chain smoker and had contracted lung cancer. In another week he had passed away and my brother Guy went up to attend the funeral as I was on a mission off island at the time.

I represented the Windward Islands on the Committee to honour citizens with a postal stamp. Christine was one of those who I was able to have the Postal services give that honour to.

On July 1st, 1998, I sent the following letter to Mrs. Marelva Maduro, Postmistress on St. Eustatius.

“Dear Mrs. Maduro,

I would appreciate very much if you would make the necessary apologies on my behalf for not being present today. Due to the fact that I am Act. Lt. Governor for the coming three weeks and I have to meet some commitments made here I cannot travel these days. However I would like to congratulate the family of the late Mrs. Christine Flanders on today’s occasion. Her family includes all of St.Eustatius.

The people of St.Eustatius can feel rightfully proud of this noble daughter of the soil who is being honoured by the Postal services of the Netherlands Antilles.

There is much that I would have liked to have said about my friend Christine had I been on St.Eustatius today. I would like to simply state that I am thankful that I was in a position to bring forward her name for this honour which she so truly deserved. My congratulations go out to the people of St.Eustatius and may the memory of my dear friend Christine remain with us through the monuments of her work and through this postal stamp honouring her.

Sincerely Yours, The Act. Lt. Governor of the Island Territory of Saba.

W.S.”Will”Johnson. “

Some of her well known family members are Ms. Alida Frances of the Tourist Bureau and Mr. Eldridge van Putten, of St.Maarten respectively a niece and a nephew.

She was born Christina Elizabeth Roosberg. Born on the island of St.Eustatius on May 25th, 1908 and died September 8th, 1996 on St.Eustatius. This year she would have been 100 years old.

She was the second of five children born to Louisa and Alexander Roosberg. She grew up on St.Eustatius, took her elementary education there, worked hard and developed an undying love and devotion for her native island. At a very tender age it was evident she would become a natural leader, a philosopher and a social worker.

Somewhere in her early twenties she migrated to Curacao. In 1938 she moved to Aruba in search of a better life. As many young Statians were doing at that time, she became quite active within the San Nicolas community of Aruba. For all causes, but yet her thoughts were always back home. In Aruba she met and married her late husband William Wallace Flanders on June 13, 1939. Their marriage produced no offspring, but her home was never empty as she cared for many nieces, nephews and other relatives who needed her care. While being an excellent homemaker she still found time to engage in various activities that enriched her skill and knowledge to become an outstanding leader among women. She was a liberated woman and a strong woman.

She was always interested in the youth. Parents cooperated with her in every way possible as she planted in many children the seed of community service. She contributed to many students and young people who left Statia to better themselves. When Statia’s steel band toured Aruba in 1955, it was Chris who made the arrangements for their visit, which was a great success. Her late husband William Flanders better known as “Tin Tin”, always supported her.

She was a member of the Windward Islands Club, so when it was time to raise funds to build the Windward Islands Club building, it was Chris who got her band of children together to raise the much needed monies in support of the cause.

She was also a member of the B.I.A. ( Benevolent Improvement Association). Many of her productions, including Genevieve, The Basket of Flowers, Pontius Pilate and the Prodical Son were staged at the B.I.A. hall or Cecilia Theatre on Aruba.

In 1964, Chris and her family returned to her beloved Statia, and as ever she pursued her ambition to see Statia and its people move forward, socially, culturally, politically and economically. Her activities ranged far and wide. Her many endeavours included the establishment of the St.Eustatius Welfare Improvement Association. Under the umbrella of this organization many worthy projects came into existence. The Artisan Foundation was created as a means to create employment for many young men who remained unemployed in the early 1970’s. The young men were taught trades in woodwork and in the tanning of leather.

Chris was at the head of the negotiating table with the Pandt family for the purchase of land for the Cottage ballpark in the early seventies. This was carried out under the auspices of the St.Eustatius Welfare Improvement Association.

The Community Center is another initiative executed under the management of the SSWWO (St.Eustatius Social Welfare Work Association), with Chris as its first President of the Board. The land on which the Center is constructed was purchased from Mr. Knijbe and donated to the Statia Community by Chris and her late husband. This was not too much for her. On June 2nd, 1996, she was honoured by the board of the SSWWO when the community center was renamed the Christina and William Flanders Community Center.

Carnival on Statia was co-founded by Chris in 1964. The experience she gained through her involvement in Aruba’s carnival and was implanted on Statia as a means to promote Statia’s culture. In 1978 she was contracted to head the Federal Government Office of Cultural Affairs. Together with the late Dr. Snow she founded the November 16th pageant: The reenactment of the first salute.

Her zeal for perfection led to her engagement in some very innovative forms of pastry and cake making. She was very famous for turning out wedding cakes. Her cakes were some of the most tasty and beautiful known on Statia. When her sight started to fail her in the early 80’s she was forced to abandon this exercise. Only on special occasions she would still try her hand at her famous Christmas cakes. She was also an accomplished seamstress.

She was a god fearing woman and played an equal important role within the Methodist Church where she was baptized as an infant. She was a class leader for many years. She also attended various sessions of the Synod. When her sight started to fail her she would still attend her church on a regular basis. However in 1992 when she was forced to walk with the help of a walker, her attendance at services was limited. Her heart was always with those who worshipped, for she insisted that she receive a program of the service each Sunday. The last time Chris was at church was to participate in and celebrate the 150th anniversary service of the church held on July 7th, 1996.

Chris was a charter member of the Masonic Lodge, a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. She and her husband also served as the ticket agents for the National Lottery until the early 1980’s.

She was honoured with a Gold Medal by Her Majesty Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in the 70’s for her sterling and invaluable contribution to the further development of Statia and its people.

She was most passionate about the establishment of the Auxiliary Home for the Handicapped . Her ultimate goal was to see a full-fledged Home for the Handicapped and the Elderly established on Statia. She would often relate of the struggle to obtain the necessary funding for the expansion of the Auxiliary Home. She had hoped to see the home opened and running, and even being one of its first residents. However, just one day prior to her becoming ill, she turned over her application to someone who she felt was more in need of a space at the home.

Chris was known far and near as a strong voice for Statia. Even in the last days her spirit remained strong and confident. She was privileged to speak with all her children, family, relatives and friends until the very end. Her final wish was for the people of Statia to live in love and harmony. “Please do all that you can to make Statia a nice place to live once again,” she said.

Chris will forever remain synonymous with a strong voice and love for her beloved island and people of Sint Eustatius.

Paula Dorner

On December 16th, 1986, Minister Leo Chance signed the National Decree appointing my person as the representative for Sint Maarten, Saba and St.Eustatius on the Committee concerned with the issuing of new stamps of the Postal services honouring meritorious persons in our island communities.

The other committee members were

The director of the Postal Services R.H. Galmeijer,( member/chairman). Mr E.A.V. Jesurun of Curacao, Dr. A. F. Paula of Curacao, and Mr. F.J.I. Booi of Bonaire.

While I served on the committee I nominated a number of persons to be thus honoured and was successful with all of the ones I nominated. They were from St.Maarten: Mr. Cyrus W. Wathey, Mr. Joseph H. Lake, and Mr. Evert Stephanus Jordanus Kruythoff.

For Sint Eustatius: Mrs Christine Flanders and Miss Paula Clementina Dorner;

For Saba: Mrs. Maude Othello Edwards born Jackson, and Mrs. Gertrude Johnson born Hassell.

After the Post office of the Netherlands Antilles was given away to Canada I never heard another word either about the committee or the need to honour people who had served these islands. This was a good way to honour people and the families appreciated what I had done to bring recognition for these people through the issuing of a stamp in their honour. Somalia for many years did not have a government. Some say they still don’t have one. They do have their own Post offices though.

During the period that I served on the Committee it was fun for me to do research on the lives of the people whom I nominated. I got help from a number of friends who knew them as well. I did not do a bad job in bringing the women forward. Of the seven which I succeeded in nominating, four of them were women. There would have been a lot more but alas the new owners of the Post office did not see any financial rewards in honouring people they had never heard of. As the Post office goes, so goes the country as well.

I would like to give some information on Miss Paula Clementina Dorner of St.Eustatius, who appeared on a 40 cent stamp issued by the Postal Services of the Netherlands Antilles on September 20th, 1989.

She was born on St. Eustatius on January 15th, 1901, daughter of Jacob Henry Dorner and Agnes Eusebia Godet.

She was raised in the Roman Catholic faith and became a teacher at the Roman Catholic Elementary school in 1919. She taught in the first grade until 1965 when she went on pension. And so for nearly fifty years she directly influenced several generations of Statians who attended her class.

Her religious beliefs also led her to take part in the political life of her island. She was the first woman of Sint Eustatius who took part in elections. She ran on a list in the elections of June 4th, 1951 and obtained 13 votes. Although 5 parties took part in the elections her party the K.V.P. (Catholic People’s Party) was successful in the sense that party leader G.A.Th. Heyliger was elected as a member of the Island Council. Together with Mr. Vincent Astor Lopes he was also elected as Commissioner in the first Executive Council of Sint Eustatius.

She was directly involved with all which took place in the Roman Catholic Church on Sint Eustatius. She was charged with preparing the young children for first Holy Communion. This task she carried out until her death. She was also leader of the choir and was also the organist. The church on Sint Eustatius was blessed with two great organists.

Before Miss Dorner around 1890 the fourteen year old Cathy Lispier was so talented in playing the organ that she attracted a large number of people to the church. Until her death at the age of 79 she remained the organist and Miss Dorner surely learned from her.

Miss Dorner and her sisters Clasina and Carrie lived next to the Roman Catholic Church on the Van Tonnigenweg. Her house was a place loved by young and old as Miss Paula and her sisters were always socially active in the Statian community. These many years later after her death most old timers on Sint Eustatius know who ‘Miss Paula’ was, where she lived, and,what her contributions were to the community.

After she went on pension she was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen with a medal in silver in the Order of Oranje Nassau.

Paula C. Dorner died on December 1st 1969. Through her work and example she opened many doors for women in the Statian community and her name is held in honour by all of those who had the privilege of meeting her.

Miss Paula’s house is used now as the headquarters of the Democrat Party. In the nineteen eighties I stayed in the house for a week with my family. The house was then called‘t Tuin Huisje’.It was October, calm and very hot but we look back fondly on our stay there.

The late Mr. William Carl Anslijn knew her well. Carl and his brother Arthur had bought the Schotzenhoek plantation from the Every family of Saba/Sint Eustatius.They lived on Statia for several years before the second world war. When I was doing research on her life I asked him and then Senator Kenneth van Putten to give me information. Carl wrote the following:

“I remember Paula as a person who always had a smile and a cheerful word for everybody. It did not take me long to find that the most of her time when not teaching in the Catholic school or engaged in choir practice and church work, was spent in helping others.

Since every time we came to town from our estate’ Schotzenhoek’, it was always a pleasure for us to stop by for a ‘short’ visit which often lasted an hour or more.

Paula’s sisters Clasina and Carrie were very much respected and liked by my mother, my brother and I, and the same could be said of Paula.

Paula and her sisters were highly respected and liked by the entire Statian community, and many were the gifts of fruit, greens, etc. which were sent to their home by well-wishers.

We grew to regard Paula and her family as our relatives, and many were the happy hours we spent at her home. Some times when I sit and think of the days gone by I imagine us all sitting on their porch on a bright moonlight night, with the fragrance of the jasmine flowers all around us, and peace and contentment in our hearts.

The three sisters were God fearing and religious, and their lives were above reproach.

We spent many happy hours in their company, and when the time came for us to leave Statia it was with sorrow in our hearts that we had to leave such good and loyal friends behind. We kept in touch for many years, but time like an ever flowing stream, bore them also away, and I am sure that among the old folks on Statia there are many who still think fondly of them, and if godliness, goodness, and kindness insure one a place in Heaven, then they are in Heaven.”

Of course Carl is strictly speaking for himself here. His brother Arthur was a bird of different plumage. The old fox would have viewed a house with three single ladies living in it as identical to that of a coup with three pullets in it.

I asked Kenneth about my take on Arthur and he laughed and said:” Yes Arthur was after one of the sisters but she would not take him on.”

I just returned from Statia doing the eulogy for my friend Lasil Rouse. As I passed the old Dorner house memories of my pleasant week there came back to me and thus I decided to share this bit of information with my reading public.

I also went to see Mr. Siegfried Lampe in the hospital. I would like to compliment Statia with its nice clean hospital. Mr. Lampe is 95 and despite the hardships he has been through the last years, I was amazed at how strong he was. He complimented me on my articles and asked me to never stop writing.

I must say I am getting a bit of a swell head with all the compliments I get from all the islands where my articles circulate. So many people call me or stop me about what I write. From the immigration officers on St.Maarten, to the airport cleaners, the taxi drivers, and many of my friends from when I was a young teenager on St.Maarten. I think the articles have brought me as much reputation as my political career.

Anyway I enjoy doing this and I promise all of those who ask, that I will try and put a book together in future of the most interesting articles. It also goes to show that our people long for a time and a world which has been mostly lost to us. I would also like to encourage others to share their memories with the reading public.

Vincent Lopes

Arthur Valk

I often heard Senator Kenneth van Putten and others talking about Mr. Valk. Usually it had to do with how smart he was for his times, his collection of books, his expert knowledge on the history of St.Eustatius, and the fact that he was a love child of Mr. Daniel James Hassell Every the owner of Schotzenhoek estate.

Years ago Kenneth gave me an old chair which belonged to Mr. Valk. Capt. Randolph Dunkin did the caning for me and Henk Bontenbal restored the old chair. Reprtedly it had belonged to the Honen Dalim (The one who is merciful to the poor) Synagogue and had been used as a baptismal chair. I placed the old chair next to an old vanity set which had belonged to my mother Alma Simmons. She had told me once that it had been built here on Saba for someone on Statia. Somehow, and I cannot remember the story, it ended back up here on Saba and in her possession. It was in bad condition and I restored it myself. Somehow I felt that the two pieces belonged together.

There are three letters scrolled on the top of the vanity piece interlocking into one another. One day while meditating in the old chair, I, as the old people would say, deciphered the letters to read J.C.E. I then realized that it could only be John Carl Every at one time not only the richest man on St. Eustatius, but also one of the richest persons in the Eastern Caribbean. The wealthy people then were not only the biggest land owners, but they put their land into productive use. Much can be said now as to how they used it, but these islands were poor and had no local markets for sugar and other produce, so that people like the Every’s also had whaling schooners and regular schooners to trade with and supplement their income.

It is only when I found out that the vanity piece had belonged to John Carl Every that I realized why the two pieces of furniture belonged together. Mr. Arthur Valk and John Carl were brothers. Jocelyn Gordon used to tell me that the Bible does not mention anything about half-brothers so that the term half-brother should not be used.

For some reason I always thought that Mr. Valk was of mixed race ancestry (like Obama). However Kennth told me that his mother was a white woman. She was Margaret Ann Hodge born November 2nd, 1825 and died May 9th, 1900. Her parents were Thomas Hodge and Susan Elizabeth Valk. Seeing the stigma that being illigitimate carried with is, being that Margaret Ann was from an important local family at the time, Arthur decided to use the surname Valk for his entire life.

He was born on St.Eustatius on July 2nd, 1835 and died July 31st,1933 at the age of 78.

He was a teacher, co-founder of the public library, renowned historian and translator of documents from Dutch to English. He was a devout Methodist. He taught not only at the Public School but also had a private school at his home which was customary back then. People with some money would send their children to a private teacher. He remained a lifelong bachelor. On his death he bequeathed one of his houses to Kenneths aunt Miss Miriam Rhoda. Yes the same aunt whose coffin Kenneth used to “lend out” from time to time. Before he died he had sold one of the houses to Kenneth’s grandfather. And so the two large houses sitting next to each other next to the Old Dutch reformed church ended back up in the hands of one person, namely Kenneth.

Over the years I have heard much about Mr. Valk so I decided to try and bring him back on the scene.

He was so well known for his research on history and his great intellect that all of the dignitaries visiting the island would pass by him to hear him out. Some of his best books ended up as gifts to people from Curacao. The Inspector of Taxes Mr. van Werkhoven was loaned a prize first edition of Southey’s “Chronological History of the West Indies”.

Mr. Valk also translated into English all of the Dutch songs used for ceremonial occasions. These were published in 1899 as “The Celebration of The Queens Accession” in the Journaal “Geschied-Taal-en Volkskunde Genootschap” in 1899. The text of the translation can be read starting with page 17 of the Journal. They were also published in the form of a small booklet of which I have a copy in my collection.

Mr. Valk’s people in the time of the “Golden Rock”, the Hodge’s and the Valk’s had been among the wealthy families of the island. When Mr. Valk was growing up things had changed radically. The few plantation owners, who were also the largest employers, were obliged to live off investments made elsewhere.

The Government in the time of Governor van Grol tried through various ways to revive agriculture. But the combination of droughts, labour shortage and a mass exodus of the population to the USA, Bermuda and then to the oil refineries of Aruba and Curacao, had left the island with only a small population.

Whereas the population of the island in its glory days was 8124 registered in 1790, it had declined to 2668 in 1850 a few years before Mr. Valk was born. The population figures of the first half of the twentieth century show a steady decline.

Year 1900 a total of 1334 people, 1915 there were 955 people, 1925 only 1135, 1935 there were 1198, 1940 there were 1130, 1945 only 976 and 1950 a low point of 970 had been reached. In 1960 things started to change but only slightly. The census indicated that the population was 1014.

Mr. Valk grew up in a much quieter atmosphere than the islands have today. No motorized traffic, no boom boxes, no planes flying overhead. The peace and quiet was only disturbed at the break of morning when a myriad of roosters would break forth in a cacophony of song announcing the birth of a brand new day.

One can see how Mr. Valk was drawn to his books and research. He and Mr. Irvie Mussenden were the principal ones behind the establishing of the Public Library.

The library for many years was housed in the building opposite the Government Guesthouse (which is now the Government Administration Building). The building is owned by Mr. Siegfried Lampe now in his nineties and the last of the old white families living on Statia. The last man standing so to speak. Siegfried himself never married. His father was from Aruba and his mother a daughter of Governor A.J.C. Brouwer, so that technically his roots are not as deep on Statia as say the Pandt family who go back hundreds of years.

Mr. Valk being an intellectual curiosity for that period was referred to by all as the man to see if you wanted to know about Statia’s history. I also have a copy of history that he wrote, but now to find it. An archivarist would have a Herculean task to find all the paper work I have stored around the house.

Mr. Valk also maintained an extensive correspondence with friends and family abroad that had left the island to seek their fortune elsewhere. I will write an article on the French Hugenot families of Statia which include the Lespier family or l-Espier, one of whom is the grandmother of the late Joaquim Balaguer who for many years was President (some would say dictator) of the Dominican republic.

As for Mr. Valk, even though he was well known in his day, he is now only remembered in a small circle. That is why even though some may think he is only a ghost from the distant past, I want to highlight him as he deserves to be remembered.

The Heyligers in the Windwards

Many of you will remember the Roman Catholic Priest Father Alphie Heyliger. But most people do not know the history of the Heyliger family in these islands.

Henry B. Hoff in his introduction to his article on the “American Connections of The Heyliger Family of the West Indies has the following to say: “The purpose of this article is to outline known American connections of the Heyliger family. This is not intended to be a full genealogy of the Heyligers, one of the few West Indian families to be the subject of a recent well-documented genealogy. The family lived primarily on six of the Leeward Islands: the Dutch islands of St. Eustatius, St. Martin and Saba and the Danish (now U.S.) Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. This article also provides a genealogical bibliography for the six islands.

“An indication of the close relationship between the six islands and the United States is the fact that 75% of the Heyliger males in the third generation either came to the United States or apparently had descendants who did. Not surprisingly, trade (especially sugar) was the basis of this relationship. West Indian merchants in New York and Boston married American women while New York merchants on St. Eustatius and St. Croix married West Indian women. Moreover, the economic decline of the six islands in the 19th century caused many West Indians to immigrate to the United States. Another reason for the relationship was education. Impressed by the missionary work of the Moravians in the Danish Virgin Islands, many local planters sent their children to the Moravian schools in Bethlehem, Pa. In addition a few sons were sent to American colleges.

“The founder of the Heyliger family in the West Indies was Guilliam Heyliger (died circa 1734) who evidently was on St. Eustatius by about 1670 when he married Anna Ryckwaert. From her surname it appears that she was the granddaughter of Mathieu Ryckwaert who was among the first settlers on the island in 1636. As St. Eustatius was colonized by the Zeeland Chamber of their Dutch West India Company, it is likely that both Guilliam Heyliger and Mathieu Ryckwaert came from Zeeland or Flanders.

Guilliam and Anna (Ryckwaert) Heyliger had six sons and five daughters, and their descendants subsequently formed one of the largest families on the six islands.”

Mr. R.H. Calmeyer did an extensive study on the Heyliger and other related families from which he is descended. It is in Dutch and entitled “The Heyliger Generation” Planters, Ship Owners and Regents in the Windward Antilles.

By order of Jan Snouck from Vlissingen who as “patron” had obtained a charter from the West India Company, came Pieter van Courcelles on 25 April 1636 on board of an armed cruiser accompanied by a herring boat in the roadstead of the uninhabited Caribbean island St. Eustatius (originally called by him New Zealand) and took possession of the island. His troop debarked, consisting of the lieutenant Abraham Adriaensen (one my (WJ)’s ancestors), the flag bearer Matieu Rijckewaert, Jan Haet, supposedly the secretary, Hans Musen, commies on behalf of the Chamber of Zeeland of the West India Company, the surgeon Louis Thomas, and further 1 sergeant, 3 corporals, 25 armed citizens, and 6 boys.

Van Courcelles became Commander; the four first mentioned formed the Judiciary. This body later became the Council, consisting of five of the inhabitants of St. Eustatius (and from 1721 -1733 also of Saba) to be appointed by the Commander from ten nominated persons by the citizens, as well as the captain or lieutenant-captain of the citizens, who” qualitate qua” was a member. The latter replaced the Commander in his absence. Even though the members of council were appointed for life, it became customary, that they made their seats available on the arrival of a new Commander. The citizens then presented a double amount, from which – expecting in special circumstances – usually the same people were reappointed. The Council assisted the Commander in an advisory role and was then also known as the Council of Policy and Criminal Justice, charged with the administration of justice which took place in accordance with the laws of Zeeland. The Commander had an official at his disposal with the title of Secretary.

In contrast to the situation on Curacao where they had a regime of civil servants, a situation developed especially on St. Eustatius completely modeled after the situation in Holland, whereby an oligarchy of the elite developed that helped each other in the saddle and kept them there. From the original simple colonists in the 18th century when St. Eustatius became the “Golden Rock” powerful regents held the reins, among whom the Heyliger’s played the first violin. As “primus inter pares” they occupied along with the three other families the de Windt’s, Doncker’s and Lindesay’s, with their extended families, all seats on the Council and most public functions, as well as the positions of Commanders and Vice Commanders. Aforementioned island was also, because of the prime location for sailing vessels, in the first place a commercial center, whereby in 1779, with the transit trade with the British colonies, the top figure of 3551 vessels were given clearance from the harbor. The Heyliger’s took part herein, in family companies, an important part and even had their own large sailing fleets which carried on trade even unto the Mediterranean Sea. Besides that they were the family which owned the most plantations. In 1775 they owned 15 of the 75 plantations on St.Eustatius. On St. Maarten the government developed along the same lines whereby from 1748 onwards three generations of Heyliger’s played a leading role, but here the prosperity remained more moderate, though more stable, based on sugar cultivation, livestock raising, and gathering of salt.

When at St. Eustatius on September 30th, 1779 Adriana Heyliger, daughter of Johannes Heyliger and Elizabeth Molineux, married to William Moore, the teacher J. Hall made a document which was decorated with the coat-of-arms of the bridal couple of Heyliger and “Moore, descended from the earls of Drogheda.” It contains a legendary tale concerning the forebears of the family Heyliger (according to the document in former times also spelled as Highlegger, Highlager, Hylager or Hilygar) descended from three brothers who had been knighted by Charles the Great and presented with the following coat-of arms.

“On a shield argent quarterly. In the first grand quarter three human hearts flamboyant-guies. In the second a cross potent-azure. In the first inferior quarter three passion naies azure. In the second inferior quarter a demi Catharine wheel pierced in point by a sword proper guies. The crest is a demi Catherine wheel pierced in point by a sword proper also guies. The motto is “Cor magnum timit nihil.” In the Sands papers in The New York Historical Society a female descendant of Catharina Heyliger (1721-1799) and her husband Bertram Pierre de Nully there is a history of the Heyliger family.

One of the family members Johannes Heyliger was Governor of Berbice (1764-1767). The Heyligers intermarried with other prominent families such as the French Hugenot Godet family. And so for example we had at the same time a Theodore Godet Heyliger living on Saba while at the same time there was one living on St. Eustatius. The one on Saba died on October 16th, 1907 at the age of 73. He was born on July 2nd, 1834. His father was Engel Heyliger and his mother was Rebecca Beaks Dinzey. His wife was Ann Louisa Simmons. Her mother Ann Fantose Taylor was from Scotland. I have their family bible at home. The one on St. Eustatius Theodore Godet Heyliger was born on Statia on October 3rd, 1854 and died on April 18th, 1935 at the age of 80. His parents were Gideon Godet Heyliger and Ann Rebecca Holm. His wife was Isabella Cornelia Hodge who at the time of his death was living in the United States. The name Gideon Godet Heyliger also existed on Saba. He married Mary Every. The Heyligo name was also given to former slaves. However the name eventually became Heyliger. Gideon’s son was William James Heyliger a famous boatman. The Heyliger family was also prominent on Saba. Theodore Godet Heyliger was the Kings Attorney and Engel Heyliger was also prominent here. They intermarried with the Simmons, the Dinzeys and so on.

The last of the old white Heyligers on Saba was Mr. “Dory” or Theodore Sidgismund Heyliger who in 1900 married to Leila Winfield and when she died he married Olive Simmons, but he had no children.

Mr. Dory’s parents were John Joseph Dinzey Heyliger (brother of Theodore Godet Heyliger) and his mother was Mary Ann Simmons. Where the Windward Islands Bank is now located in The Bottom was the former location of Mr. Dory’s Rum shop and Grocery Store. The name Engel also frequently appears in the Heyliger family both on Saba and on St. Eustatius.

The Heyliger’s had their good times as well as their bad ones. The following letter resembles one of those face book episodes and is worthy of presenting to our readers.

At the age of 15 Adriana Heyliger was asked to marry the sixty year old rich merchant Charles Haggart, to which request her mother Elisabeth Molineux widow of Johannes Heyliger was in favour. The daughter had made up her own mind and her choice fell on William Moore. They eloped and were married on September 30th, 1769. The rejected lover and the aggrieved mother sought consolation with each other and they in turn married each other and had a son. This led to a break in relations between mother and daughter. Years later Adriana Moore (born Heyliger) now being in not the best of financial circumstances decided to write the following letter to her mother who was now living in Scotland.

The letter is dated St. Eustatius, November 24th, 1815 and reads as follows:

“Dear Mother,

For the last time does your unfortunate daughter takes up the pen to address you urged by no mercenary motive, but by feelings deeply wounded by injustice and unmerited neglect. Has my conduct ever brought a blush in your cheek for an unworthy daughter? Have I ever offended you except in the single instance of preferring the man I loved to one more wealthy? No, with truth I can say I never have.

Why then have I been treated as if I was a disgrace to you? Why then has the only surviving child of the man who sacrificed his fortune and his health for you and yours been so cruelly forgotten and overlooked. Mother I now no longer look for anything from you, but I think I have a right to remind you of a few facts which you seem to have entirely forgotten. When my Father married you he was independent and had good expectations from his Parents. Had independence the portion of which came to him on the death of his mother and a great deal of what he had a right to on the demise of his Father went to extricate your family in Montserrat out of their difficulties. The consequence was that he left his children thousands poorer. Of all his fortune you never gave me a single piece, for even a few chairs, the use of which you gave me, my husband had to pay the value of on your being about to quit the island – you disposed of many fine Tradesmen, the property of my different brothers and I was not one dollar the better for it. May I justly ask you if Mr. Thomas Haggart is more your child than I am that you have made over all that you are worth to him. I wish not for a farthing that he can justly call his, but the property which you possessed when you married his father I have a just and right title to, the more so as he does not stand in need of it. What I have written will probably displease, but I owe it to myself and children to recall those circumstances to your recollection. If you act justly to me and to them I shall be grateful, if not, my poor children will I trust have enough to prevent their being a burden upon their generous friends and at all events they will never ask any favors from my selfish and ungenerous brother.

Farewell Mother, my children I am convinced will ever show you the respect that is due to you. For myself I shall never cease to remember that I have a Mother, though that Mother has forgot that she has a daughter. May you enjoy much health and happiness and may that son for whom I have been so unkindly neglected be as attentive and affectionate as I would have been is the fervent wish of your still attached daughter.

Signed: Adriana Moore.

No shaking Mamma. In the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh in her last testament of Jualy 5th, 1817 Mrs. Elisabeth Hagart born Molineux leaves to her son Thomas Haggart the complete inheritance of 21,413.60 pounds. That was a considerable sum of money for those days. Not a word in the will mentions Adriana.

There is much more information on the Heyliger family and the interrelated families. There was also a Peter Heyliger born on St. Eustatius in 1707. He was a plantation owner on St. Maarten in 1728 and also managed there a plantation for his father. In a rebellion against John Phillips on June 17th, 1736, the Vice Commander of St. Maarten, in which the rebels chased him to Scotland, Peter was chosen to captain lieutenant by the citizens. After he heard from his brother Johannes Heyliger, then Secretary on St. Eustatius that the Council of that island had asked for the help of a Man-o-War from Curacao to come and put down the rebellion, Peter together with two other councilors from St. Eustatius offered his surrender. The aftermath of this rebellion went on until March 20th, 1744 when Johannes Heyliger, who in the meantime had become Commander (Governor) of the three Windward Islands, pardoned all who had taken part in the rebellion. (These documents are in the Bancroft Library in Berkley, California.)

And oh yeah! I nearly forgot this one. And then you have that fellow on St. Maarten known as “The Golden Boy” namely Commissioner Theodore Heyliger carrying on in the tradition of his illustrious ancestors. Not so much the Wathey’s who are of more recent vintage, but now that you know something about the Heyliger’s you will say to yourself; “No Wonder.” If he does well I will tell him more about the Heyliger’s, if not I will keep the rest to myself.”

The life of George Seaman (Santa Cruz)

Flying over the Atlantic Ocean just east of the Wide Sargasso Sea, my dear old friend George Seaman came to mind. I was on my way to Amsterdam via Paris flying in style on Air France. I was flying this same route when he died some years ago.

George was a man of many talents which in the end boiled down to the love of writing, of the natural world and women. That everyone should be so lucky to get some of life’s greatest pleasures from these sources.

George was born on the island of Santa Cruz in 1904 when it was still a Danish possession. He insisted that it was some years later. His son George Jr. told me that his father had lied so much to the girls about his age that he actually believed his own lie.

George Sr.’s father was a citizen of the United States who had been a soldier for the North in the Civil War. George was the product of a late marriage of his father to a Danish lady and an only child from that union. He never really knew his father who also had a son by an earlier marriage in the United States.

Before continuing with my personal memories of George here are some excerpts of his life from his book “Every Shadow is a Man”.

Liz Wilson a friend of his has the following to say about the author.” George A. Seaman’s life has spanned almost the entire 20th Century. This true native of St.Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands was born in the seaside village of Frederiksted in 1904 and his early childhood provided a rich preparation for his later years as ornithologist, explorer, naturalist, adventurer, poet, author and protector of wildlife.

However, it was at his stepfather John Dubois’ side that he learned how to fish and hunt and keenly observe plants, planets, stars, insects, birds, fish and the entire natural world around him.

This background prepared him for his first job at the American Museum of Natural History as a taxidermist and field collector which led to five expeditions in Central and South America and the Pacific.

He worked for Standard Oil in Venezuela and during World War II he conducted a successful search for wild rubber in Brazil to aid the Allies.

Returning to St.Croix in 1949 he was appointed Supervisor of Wildlife for the Virgin Islands, a position he held until his retirement in 1969.

Since that time, Seaman has used his years of environmental observation as the basis for his memoirs, his poetry, his poignant and often-times humorous yarns about birds, beasts, and humans. Throughout his books one eloquent thread prevails consistently – the need for tender stewardship and enlightened protection of his beloved island –St.Croix (Santa Cruz!).”

Ro Wauer has the following to say.

“Every Shadow Is a Man” truly provides insight into a different world than that which exists today. St. Croix during the first half of the twentieth century was a place of plenty, where a young man could enjoy the fruits of nature. The island contained an abundance of wildlife then; there was plenty of open space. George Seaman helps us to compare those “birds and times” with what we find today.

The value of George A. Seaman’s writings will undoubtedly only increase in time as St.Croix and the rest of the Virgin Islands continue to change. This book documents the status of several birds and their habitats that the author did not previously mention in his earlier nature writings: “Sticks from the Hawks Nest” in 1973; “Ay Ay: An Island Almanac” in 1980 and “Sadly Cries the Plover” in 1987. “Every Shadow Is a Man” is another very special contribution. The reader will find it of great value both for its natural history perspective and also for the pure enjoyment of exploring “back into birds and time.”

At an early age George became interested in nature. At the age of eighteen he shipped off to Panama where he joined an old schooner bound for the Pacific. He stayed for a year in the French Polynesian islands of Tahiti and the Marquesas. He was especially fascinated with the Marquesas. Later on he returned to Fredericksted to see his mother. After that he got employment with the Chiclet Company and also the ESSO. He was able to pursue his love and passion for nature by working in the jungles of Central and South America.

He explored the llanos of Venezuela and the mighty Amazon of Brazil.

In 1934 he visited Saba for the first time with “Tonce” Hassell whom he had met somewhere. Among my documents I have a copy of the Journal he kept while on Saba. Some of his observations on life here were remarkable for the time. He said that Saba was the only place where the children ruled the household. Fifty years later a person close to me observed the same thing. When she would go to pick up a four or five year old to go to Sunday school the parent would say: “He said he ain’t agoing today.”

Eric Lawaetz was also a good friend of George’s and came to see him on Saba before he died. Also Lito Vals of St.John also a writer and a mutual friend as well came to Saba to see George on occasion, as well as many other friends from his youth. George had moved to Saba in the 1960’s and had purchased a house in the area known as “Break Heart Hill” pronounced” Bracket Hil”. He remained here until his death in the l997.

In his last years I would often visit him at the home he rented in English Quarter. He was drifting then. In his mind he was reliving old love affairs and bringing them up in between scientific discussions. While discussing the formation of planets the conversation would suddenly switch to a love affair on the Tapanahoni River. Just as quick he would return to explain me the mystery of how European and American eels both breed off Bermuda and yet an American eel has never been found in European waters and vice versa.

At a Christmas dinner I remember him regaling us with a Christmas dinner story of his own. He was traveling up the Amazon from Manaus to Iquitos. The cook stuck his head out of the kitchen door at the end of the meal and asked if he wanted dessert. Turns out the cook was a leper with half of his face gone and looked like death twice warmed over.

Everyone of course was grateful to George for that vivid description of his Christmas dinner on the Amazon. And of course there was lots of dessert left over.

Another story he told me when he was about 92 or so was about a Portuguese widow who ran a guesthouse somewhere in a remote village on the Amazon.

George used to eat at her place. After months in the Jungle the widow looked more and more attractive. George finally convinced her to have a date. The widow was dead scared of losing reputation and so gave him specific instructions how to be careful in trying to gain access to her bedroom upstairs.

On the appointed night George approached the staircase shoes in hand. The first step creaked terribly. The second step was worse and by the third step the ancient staircase decided to interrupt George’s plans and collapsed with a terrific bang. Everyone in the place started screaming and George was halfway to Peru by the time he stopped running. Several weeks later he decided to risk a visit back to the widow’s lodge. When she saw him she immediately approached him and said to him:” Thank God you didn’t come to the lodge that night. A robber came and the staircase collapsed and it was one mess. And he got away when he ran into the jungle.” I told George at the time that someday I was going to write a novel on his escapades entitled “How to catch a widow.”

When I was Senator I had lots of time on my hands and every day a group of us would meet at Scout’s Place. Besides George there was usually also Elmer Linzey, Walter Campbell, Harry Nietschman, Carl Anslyn and the occasional visitor to the island who would join us to hear our take on world affairs.

I cannot write all here. I am sure all of these friends; especially Elmer will be laughing when they read these memories in the great beyond. Sometime ago when I dreamt about him, Elmer that is, he was in a suit in a parking lot in a strange place. When he turned off he told me goodbye. I told my wife “I think Elmer has reached his destination.” But lo and behold on Aruba he visited me in a dream, which I cannot remember now. In Jorge Luis’ book “Everything and Nothing” he goes into the meaning of dreams and nightmares. He writes, “I have cited Sir Thomas Browne. He says that dreams give us an idea of the excellence of the soul, seeing the soul free of the body, and engaged in play and dreaming. He thinks that the soul enjoys its freedom.”

George’s first wife by whom he had two sons was a Sicilian woman whom he met in Santo Domingo. He was working there as a foreman at the time. I remember once at the bar at Scout’s Place. Carlyle Granger and I were listening to George’s stories with Diana Medero serving us our coffee from behind the bar.

I changed my mind about telling this one. Santo Domingo and all of that you know. George’s stories usually implied subjects which only an experienced Calypsonian could think up.All I can say is that it had to do with the occupation by the United States army and how the rebels would entice soldiers on patrol to enter the cane fields with the same visions of Paradise as those of my friends in the Muslim world.

It is perhaps because of his many adventures that he decided to become a writer. As we all know writers see things differently from other people. They have a third eye.

I was on my way to Holland when I paid him his last visit in the hospital. We discussed the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He compared it to his years on Saba. I was secretly hoping that he would survive till I got back. Many times I had prepared his eulogy in my mind. Two other eulogies which I walked around with in my head were one for John William “Willie” Johnson my fathers’ cousin and one for my uncle Captain Charles Reuben Simmons. When they died I also happened each time to be in Holland on missions for the people of Saba.

George is buried in what was known as the “Potters Field” behind the War Monument in The Bottom. This was the site of the first church on Saba, the Presbyterian Church. Now along with George, Ernie West, Robert Beebe and others are buried there; it has gone from potters field to the “Ricoleta” of Saba. On my last visit to Buenos Aires I visited Ricoleta and the grave of Eva Peron who finally made it into the Duarte family tomb.

Little did the people of Saba know that it was a privilege to have had a man like George choose Saba as his home and last resting place.

He loved islands and was full of stories of island life. I remember him telling me of the time when he visited the island of Jost Van Dyke in the nineteen thirties. The lady who rented him a room gave him a whole heap of scrambled eggs for breakfast. And for lunch. And for dinner. The next morning after another scrambled egg experien, he looked out the window, and saw the lady cleaning a whole set of freshly caught fish. Upon enquiry she told him that she was preparing them for her lunch. “And what about me?” George asked. Surprised the lady said to him: “I was told that you Americans only ate scrambled eggs.”

He and the Canadian artist Bob Richards told me that they would like to have Charles Borromeo Hodge’s poem “Those Bouncing Beauties” inscribed on their tombstone’s. However when Borromeo published that poem on Women’s Day it caused such an uproar that I decided to send the poem to Mauritania instead where those bouncing beauties are a national obsession.

The Spanish poet Fray Luis de Leon wrote:

Vivir quiero conmigo

Gozar quiero del bien que debo al cielo,

A solas sin testigo

Libre de amor, de cello,

De odio, de esperanza, de recelo.

(I want to live with myself,/I want to enjoy the good that I owe to heaven,/alone, without witnesses,/free of love, of jealousy,/of hate, of hope, of fear.)

George came to Saba to live alone, without witnesses, free of love, of jealousy, of hate, of hope, of fear. It was not meant to be, even on Saba.

He is survived by his sons George on St.Croix and Johnny in Florida (and I am sure also a good number of love children in the Amazon, Venezuela and Costa Rica.)

As I travel the islands and see what has become of the natural beauty which George so much admired from his youth, I am reminded of Jeremiah l2. 10-11

“Many shepherds have ravaged my vineyard

and trampled down my field, they have made my pleasant field a desolate wilderness,

made it a wasteland, waste and waterless, to my sorrow. The whole land is waste, and no one cares.”

So long George, your friend

Will

To the Island of Bequia

On April 20th, 2009, I visited the island of Bequia with my son Chris. The ferry from Kingstown, St.Vincent was a large one. As a matter of fact I was a bit surprised at the number of large ferries which service the Grenadines out of St.Vincent. The one we were on though large was rather slow and tossed about quite a bit. It took over an hour to do the nine miles between the islands.

I had never been to Bequia before. I had read somewhere though that some Saba people had migrated to that island in the eighteen hundreds. I also found in the archives here on Saba a document in which the colonial British government was encouraging people from here to emigrate to that island. I did not think much about it as I had never heard of anyone from Saba there.

However after visiting Bequia the following day in the meeting with the OECS Ministers of Tourism the young Minister of Tourism for St.Vincent and the Grenadines, The Hon. Glen Beache teased me that after the meeting was over we would have to talk passport. This after hearing me talking about all the family I had met there.

Here is what happened. When we arrived in Admiralty Bay I looked around the shore for the Frangipani Hotel. It belongs to the Mitchell family. The former Prime Minister “Son Son” Mitchell (Sir James) is from Bequia. He served as Prime Minister of the island chain for twenty years. I corresponded with him once and sent him a copy of my book about Saba. I also read his memoirs. I never did get to meet him in person. I was hoping that even though we were only spending five hours on Bequia that I would at least get to say hello to him. However he was of-island that day.

After having breakfast in the town we engaged a Taxi which was a pickup truck and decided to do a tour of the island. The driver would shout out from the inside of the cabin in order to give his tour. I had told him that I wanted to see the turtle sanctuary. He did his best to show us as much of the island as possible. When we arrived at the turtle sanctuary I saw Mr. Orton “Brother” King of whom I had read in “Destinations” magazine. I asked him if he was related to the King family on St.Kitts. I had not yet told him who I was. He said “I don’t know anything about them Kings on St. Kitts. I am a “Saybee”. And then he went on to tell me about his grandfather Robert Simmons who was the famous whale harpooner on Bequia and his other Simmons ancestors. He told me that he had been on Saba in 1984 for a few hours on a ferry. He had made it as far as Hell’s Gate. However he was disappointed that no one seemed to know anything about the Simmons’ family which he descended from. I then told him that I was from Saba and that my mother was a Simmons. It was like a family reunion. His turtle sanctuary is at Spring Bay.

Brother King insisted that I must see Nolly Simmons before I left the island. So the taxi driver took us up to an area called “The Level”. Nolly is an architect, a builder and part owner of the stone quarry and other businesses. Nolly was in the process of building a new home with a fantastic view looking down to the town. I joked with one of the workers in the yard to go and tell Nolly that I had come to take him back home. Nolly is in his late sixties, early seventies. A tall ,brown skinned, man. When he came around the corner of the verandah he looked intently at me. He said:”I understand you have come to take me home? Well the only other home that I have is Saba.” After talking with him for awhile he asked me, “You wouldn’t be Will Johnson by any chance?’ When I told him yes, he said;”Man I have read your book about twelve times.” Brother King had complained to me that Nolly was hanging out with the girls down at the Frangipani Hotel. I did not ask Nolly but after I got home I speculated that he had gotten my book from “Son Son” James Mitchell. I guess Sir James had heard him talking so much about Saba that he had given him the book.

After the tour was over the taxi dropped us off at the Frangipani. Nolly was there waiting on us and took us back to the ferry. We had a callalou soup at the frangipani. When paying the bill I joked with the girls that I had come to take Nolly back home. One of the girls said;” Lord I hope you joking. Where you planning to take Nolly?” When I told her Saba she said:” Don’t tell him that. He is my boyfriend. All he talks about is this Saba where his people came from.” The ladies promised me that when the Frangipani closes down for a month in September that they will be coming to see Nolly’s ancestral home. Some years ago when I was Acting Governor a lady named Mrs. Drewy from Virginia came to see me. Her family was Simmons’ and had been in Virginia since the early sixteen hundreds. They own vast tracts of land there. She told me that she had never heard of Saba. She had been visiting Bequia as she understood there were Simmons’ there. At the bar in the Frangipani she had been told by the bartender that a man from the Dutch island of Saba had written a book about the Simmons’ of Saba. I always wondered who that man could have been. That is until I met Nolly of course. He confirmed that it was he who had told the lady about me. Also he knew Linda Garfunkel quite well .She used to have a home on Saba. Nolly told me at the hotel about his father the famous sail maker. He also told me about his ancestors from Saba who at one time had owned large portions of Bequia along with the Hassell family (now spelled Hazell there). On one of my trips to the United Nations with Mr. Xavier Blackman, the lady who is chairman of the Decolonization Committee Margareth Hughes Ferrera told me: “You don’t have to tell me about Saba, Mr. Johnson. My ancestor was Captain Hercules Hassell of Saba.”

Nolly also asked me if “Brother King” had told me why he had started the turtle sanctuary. I told him that we had been too busy talking family. Turns out that after the Second World War Brother King had been shipwrecked on a schooner. He was the only survivor. He was more than two days in the water holding on to a piece of the wreckage. He could see that he was drifting in to the island of Martinique. He was about to give up from exhaustion when he drifted into a bay on the Windward Coast of the island. However he dreamt that his brother was telling him not to give up. When he awoke he could feel the sand under his feet. However it was rough and he was so tired he felt he would not make it. All the while he was in the water some porpoises and turtles had surrounded him as if to protect him from sharks. A man from Martinique on his way home from work saw what he thought was a large turtle coming in to lay her eggs. He told his wife about it. He got a friend to go with him to turn the turtle. When they got there,”Brother King “was being tossed about in the waves just about dead. The two would be turtlers recognized his plight and saved him. Brother King then made a vow that he would do everything he could to save the turtles and that he is doing today.

When I got back home to Saba I sent both of them my books and I looked up family information for them. I also found a book “Under the Perfume Tree” edited by Judy Stone with several short stories about the islands.

One of the stories is by Peter Stone entitled “Marooned by Pirates” taken from a family history entitled “Ten Little Islands”, and I quote from the book:

“After the European explorers came the European settlers. They did not have an easy time of it. Based on actual events, this extract from the family history ‘Ten Little Islands” recreates the struggles of several pioneering Dutch and English families in the late 18th century. Bound for a new life in St.Kitts, the emigrants’ first experience of the Caribbean was to be chased by pirates and marooned on the sheer rock now known as Saba. Peter Stone, late of Trinidad & Tobago and a direct descendant of the heroic master craftsman Hercules Hassell, tells how the settlers eventually escaped the island; how they encountered free blacks, the slaver Zong and an abolitionist: and how Hassell came to establish the famous boat-building industry in Bequia.

“The Dutch merchantman Van Dyck, out of Rotterdam, was bound for Wilhelmstadt. There were Dutch passengers aboard and two English families picked up at Plymouth to be dropped off at St. Kitts. These latter were Devon folk, the one family consisting of a schoolteacher named Simmons, his wife and two teenage children, a boy and a girl, and the other family a blacksmith, Henry Newton, his wife and infant son. The vessel had made the crossing in less than five weeks, and was still going well when, rounding St.Maarten, she acquired a tail.” You will have to read the book for the rest of the story.

Also in “Emancipation School” by John Hazell we read the following;” Following its settlement by Europeans, the island of Bequia flourished, and so did the Dutch-English descendants of Hercules Hassell, the hero of the preceding account. In his brief autobiography “The Life of John H.Hazell, Hassell’s grandson, who was to serve as Speaker and later President of the Legislative Assembly, Assistant Justice of the Supreme Court and Member of Queen Victoria’s Privy Council, sketches a contemporary view of the developing society in this tiny island during the early 19th century. I will quote briefly from his book:” I made one or two voyages with my father in his sloop ‘Messenger’, having been still fourteen years old when, in 1831, I had assisted at the repairs of this vessel, working as an apprentice at the ships carpenter’s trade. My father taking charge of his sloop and returning to his occupation at sea, I accompanied him. But I proved a very bad sailor, and suffered so much from seasickness that, after a voyage to St.Thomas and one to Barbados, I sought and obtained employment in the grocery and liquor store of Alexander Glass Esq., a Jewish Scotchman, whom I served until the early part of 1834. I then sought and obtained employment in the lumber and provision business of Adam Skelly Esq., a Scotch merchant and dealer in estates’ supplies, whom I served to the day of his death in 1840. I finally closed his business in 1841. Having accomplished this I commenced my own career in business, of which I will write hereafter.”

The following memoriam is placed at the Anglican Church in Bequia – “In Memoriam Hercules Hazell who died in September 1833 at the age of 84 years, and Elizabeth his wife, were among the early settlers in this island. Their son, Hercules Hazell died in September 1848, aged 63 years and with his parents is buried in this churchyard. His wife Elizabeth died in August 1869, aged 83 years and is buried in St. George Churchyard, Kingstown. This tablet is erected in their memory by John H. Hazell in 1876.

Another tablet reads: In loving memory of John H. Hazell who died at the island of Mustique 22 November 1886 and was buried at St.George’s Cathedral, Kingstown, aged 70.

If you ever visit Elizabethtown you will find Nolly Simmons at the bar of the Frangipani. If you want to hear history tell him that his cousin Will sends greetings from Saba. And now you know something about the “Saybees” of Bequia. The “Country Cousins” band, the Leslies will also tell you that via the Simmons’ they too have roots on Saba.

Zimmerman on vacation in
St. Eustatius

Without knowledge of the Dutch language many researchers are not privileged to a wealth of information about our islands in the Dutch archives. Such a letter is printed in the second volume of the West Indische Gids, 1919 II, pages 144-150, with an introduction by Dr. J. de Hullu, who was Archivist of the Algemeen Rijksarchief in The Hague.

This was translated into English by Mr. Siegfried Lampe. Zimmerman the elder (as he signs himself) was a young man from the mercantile class, who was sent to St. Eustatius and who took up his pen to tell one of his friends in the Fatherland what had happened to him in the four weeks he was there. Space will only allow a few choice quotes from the letter but there is much more to it.

His first impression of the land and the people, as it appears from his letter, was favorable. The only objectionable part is like some men today who think that their wives love to be beaten up; he too was of the opinion of the day that the same applied for slaves. Other than that his long letter gives a very good impression of life on St .Eustatius in 1792. He found the heat burdensome and the mosquitoes a nuisance, but for the rest his new home pleased him greatly. “I am very lucky here he wrote. What particularly struck him about St. Eustatius was the free and easy atmosphere that prevailed there, the liberal pace of life that made him always a welcome guest at the parties to which the inhabitants gave themselves up so lustily. From this it appeared that in a manner of speaking he didn’t have eyes enough to look at all the strange and note-worthy that the island had to offer. Nature, climate, the way of life of the people, especially of the mulattos and the blacks, all awoke his interest and made him take up his writing tools to sketch the variegated scene for his friend. A lucky chance provided that his letter would not be lost. The unknown friend to whom it was addressed apparently considered it interesting enough that he provided a copy for the Pensioner Van de Spiegel, and the latter in turn found it too interesting not to give it a place among his papers, which, as is well known, have rested in the Algemeen Rijksarchief since 1895.

That Zimmerman’s letter deserved the honor no one who reads it can deny, it provides an appendix to the history of St. Eustatius of a sort that is unrepresented especially in official documents, and throws light on just what official papers all too often leave in the dark.

We will quote for our readers parts from the letter to give an idea of life on Statia in 1792.

“Honored Sir and valued friend:

I will not neglect my promise to send you this. Your Honor will have learned from the letter that I sent your honored father that we had a very speedy and prosperous passage. Thanks to God I enjoy the best of health, and hope to learn the same of you.

Once again, many thanks, my good friend, for the cakes that you provided for my trip, which spared me many dull moments, and I shall attempt to repay your kindness.

I will limit myself to giving you a short account of the situation of this island and of the way of life here. The island is about 2 hours long and a good mile across. All around, the sea washes against the rocky mountain, which is quite high and I should guess sticks up about half an hour’s above the sea. The so called “Punt” or “Punch Bowl” is the highest and is quite hollow inside for which reason it was a volcano. One morning I rode out there with my friends and went down to the bottom – or rather, clambered down through the stillness. In this deep cavern it is twilight and very little of the ground down there is touched by the sun except between 12 and 2 o’clock. In this hollow it is pretty cool. Nature reaches her highest peak of productivity there. Growing wild in this hole are grapes of excellent flavor, oval in shape, resembling little plums. You can find watermelons there of 20 to 30 pounds, rose –colored inside, shading toward the heart to light silver-white, and as 2/3 of the way speckled with black seeds, making a lovely appearance when you cut the melon open. Also ordinary melons, of exceptionally fine flavor, being much riper than any that I’ve ever had in Italy. Also there is mamee, as large as an ordinary melon and tasting like the Persian melon of Europe. Coconuts are plentiful; I’ve seen some that I’d guess weighed 18 pounds. The milk of this fruit is very delicious and is cool in the hot sun. Also cherries, a wonderful fruit, on the top of which a nut grows, but I can’t really describe it. Pomegranates are found in abundance, papayas, oranges, lemons, limes, medlars and a lot of other fruits that I don’t know. One can find wild coffee here, sugar cane, cotton, and wild pod-peas. Also a kind of string beans; 4 or 5 sorts of pepper, of which one kind is frightfully strong, much more so than the so-called Spanish pepper. I saw fig trees there too, but they don’t have the same fruit that I’ve eaten in Italy. On this island the pineapples are the best of the entire West Indies. I’ve seen them of 10 or 12 pounds’ weight, and very ripe. For 5 or 6 Dutch stivers you can buy one from the blacks, and they cost them, so to speak, only the cutting.

There are many sugar plantations here. On each plantation there is usually a village of 30 to 40 little huts, as in sketch #4, where the poor wretched slaves live. I visited a good number of them; most of the friends to whom I had been recommended are plantation owners, through whom I had the good fortune to examine everything minutely, which was very interesting for an inquiring sort of person.

He goes on to describe the houses, the way they are built and furnished and then he continues;” It is horribly hot here as it can possibly be, if it weren’t for the daily east wind I don’t believe I could live long. For instance, I have to change my linen 4 times a day and my other clothes twice a day. Sometimes the sweat runs in streams down my hands and face. I have one comfort; I’ve been told that once I’ve sweated out it’s all over. In the four weeks that I’ve been here I’ve become very thin and have become half Creole in color. I rather like it. I don’t know myself anymore.

At 4 o’clock each day I go with friends for a horseback ride making a tour of 2 or 3 hours, and torment the planters who lie on the high land. About 7 we usually come back to dine or else we stay with one or another friend. After that, from 8 o’clock to 1 every one goes about his business and I go from the mountain to the bay, where all the warehouses are – about 600, I should think. This makes a small city in itself. Down there it’s a good three times as hot as up on the mountain; the breeze being cut off by the mountain it is blazing hot. The roadstead is always full of Spanish, American, French and English barks that come and go every day and with whom we do business; the Bay is Little Amsterdam. I am quite fortunate to be able to speak with all these nations. The local language of the natives, as well as the mulattos and blacks, is English. So I’m beginning to be quite an Englishman and speak no Dutch except only with Lans, who knows little or no English.

About 1 o’clock some friend will send me a riding horse and I go up the mountain with it and stop here or there to eat. I’m always invited to 3 or 4 places. Little is accomplished in the afternoon. About six o’clock, or when it is dark, people go to look up friends and stay to be sociable or retire about 8 or 9 o’clock, and by 10 or 11 every one is at rest.

They hold many dances here. Recently I was invited to a ball where I found 64 ladies, all brilliantly dressed. The women here are not beautiful, but are good-hearted, which is the most important thing.

There are many mulattos here. Many of the women are kept by Europeans as mistresses. Those are well dressed, commonly in white lawn with linen edging of various colors and on their heads extra fine English beaver hats, and they have their slaves following behind with parasols. Among these mulattos are very fine and well-made women.

Day before yesterday the captain commandant came to fetch me and asked if I would like to see a Negro company and how they amused themselves. I don’t know that I’ve ever laughed so much. It was a Negro ballet. I wish you could have seen what wondrous and bizarre figures these gentlemen made. They were quite honored with our company and showed us all friendship. They were drinking their punch and grog, which the leader offered us and we accepted. Their music consisted of 2 tambourines, 2 vocalists and one piece of old iron that was beaten with a tenpin, and then a violinist who had probably never played before. There were some mulatto women there in that illustrious company, most of them doing English contra-dances. We danced 2 or 3 dances with them. After we brave ones were worn out we left the company and they thanked us greatly for the honor that we had done them.

From St. Kitts – I mean St. Christopher – vegetables are brought in daily; Saba provides excellent veal and mutton; St. Maarten can be seen in clear weather quite well, and provisions come from there too every day. In a word they have here all necessary food in abundance, and quite cheap. Bread is better on this island than in Europe; it is baked from good rich American grain. A 6 stiver loaf weighs the same as a 2 stiver loaf in Europe. There is excellent fish here which is a pleasure to behold, blood-red and swimming around in the water like goldfish; they are called “hang.” I have seen fish of blue and silver that could be mistaken for enamel ware. Lobsters here are four times as large as in Europe, but not so tender and delicious.

Potatoes come from the English islands and are much better than in Europe and are yellow as egg yolks. Lettuce is not of the best, not at all tender, but indeed we have plenty of other things to make up for the lettuce.

Every day I see new things here. Little or no sickness is known here. As soon as someone is sick he is either better or dead in 3 or 4 days; everything goes expeditiously here. It is so with burying; dead in the evening; buried the next day. The sorrow for a deceased friend is washed away with Madeira wine. Remarkable customs! There is a church here but no Minister!

About two weeks before my arrival there was a terrible cloudburst here. Part of the mountain was washed away and the old road to the top was entirely ruined. Damage at the Bay was reckoned at a million guilders. Perhaps your Honor read about it in the papers. It can rain unbelievably here. I once thought I was going to be swept away, house and all, and it never let up, but the burning hot sun dried up the water that a quarter of an hour previously had been running in rivers. It can thunder mighty hard here too, terrifying to hear, but people are used to it because they hear it every day.

I shall now bring this to a close, hoping that your Honor can make out my writing. I have written somewhat in haste, and will simply add that I am very lucky and am loved by everyone and am everywhere welcome, which is a great satisfaction for me and makes me content with everything.

I am respectfully,

Zimmerman the elder

St. Eustatius 10 July 1792.

Capt. Penniston of Bermuda on St. Eustatius

Many people nowadays are not aware of the trade and family relationships between St. Eustatius and Bermuda. Even after the commercial decline of St. Eustatius this connection remained. The author of this story is Captain William Hubbard Peniston known affectionately throughout Bermuda as “Bamboo Billy” of Paynter’s Vale, was typical of Bermuda’s outstanding sea-captains of his day. His obituary written in 1917, outlines his eventful life.

At the time this was written St. Eustatius was sparsely populated and the economic life of the island had declined and many people were leaving the island for the United States and yes also Bermuda to work in the Dry-docks on that island.

There is still evidence of the Bermuda connection though. Many buildings were built with Bermuda stone and the wall of the Dutch Reformed cemetery is built with these stones.

This is how Captain Peniston described St. Eustatius as it was in the 1850’s:

“Situation of St. Eustatius is about six miles S/W from the island of St. Kitts. It lies nearly east and west; its length is about 5 miles and its breadth 3 and one half miles; it bears N.N.E. from the Dutch island of Saba about 14 miles. The ancient town and roadstead is on the South side and sheltered from the trade winds by St. Kitts.

Sandy Bay on the North side is only frequented in fine weather by fishermen or turtles; at its most Eastern extremity is an extinct volcano called the Quill, but known to Seamen as the Devils Punch Bowl; fruit and coffee trees abound in it. At the Western end of the Island there is a high mountain called Tumble-Down-Dick, the flaws come down its western side with great force and many a topmast has been snapped off under it. The lower town is on the beach and was once a free port. All nations could trade there and sell or exchange cargoes. The remains of the Store-houses that once stood on the beach and rocks show that a large trade must have been carried on there once. The wide steep inclined road leading to the upper town is a great piece of work and when one reaches there (mounted on a little island pony), the view is an extensive one, to the East the Quill with its steep sides (both inside and out covered with luxurious growth of fruit and other trees) on the North is an extensive plain where fine sheep are raised; and just under the Eastern side of Tumble-Down-Dick towards the west lies Sentching Hook, a large sugar estate owned by the Martiney family with its ancient walls, its large sugar mills worked by mules. To the South West are extensive yam and sweet potato fields their only substitute for bread. There are also a few Cochineal fields.

The prison a little square building (with very strong and ancient looking iron bars), is the first building the visitor reaches. The government house is a fine building with marble floors, situated in the Northern part of the town and overlooking the anchorage. In 1776 Holland was added to the enemies of England. Mr. Laurens who had been President of Congress was taken by a British cruiser and the papers found in his possession proved the existence of a treaty between the Dutch and Americans. War was then declared and thus England was engaged with four enemies viz; France, Spain, American and Holland without a single ally. Admiral Romney who commanded the British fleet in the West Indies had charge of them; he had torn the Leeward Islands from the French and punished the Hollanders by taking the island of St. Eustatius and, three millions sterling of stores and money. He ran his ship the “Formidable” in near the town and ordered its surrender. The being refused the Ships guns were trained and the first shot fired entered the Governor’s Hall door, causing a speedy surrender. The town was chiefly inhabited by Bermudians Viz., Jennings, Penistons, Hills, Godets, Heyligers, Marshalls and many others, settlers from Bermuda who carried on a large and lucrative business as it was a free port. A great deal of Bermuda lime and building stone was imported. The Bermuda vessels flew what was called the Sawed-Stone-Jack, a white flag with a red cross, and when a vessel hoisted that flag the inhabitants knew she was from Bermuda with a cargo of sawn stone and Lime.

About this time the inhabitants were in great want of provisions owing to the English man-of-wars blockading the town, vessels then running were called “force traders”; many people in Bermuda were very desirous of sending their friends in St. Eustatius food and other necessities, a vessel was loaded, armed and made ready for sea, a brave Captain was wanted. After much persuasion, Captain Nicholas Trott of Walsingham, a young Bermudian, consented. He had had just been married to Miss Elizabeth Hubbard only daughter of Captain William Hubbard of the adjoining property (now known as Leamington). He soon set sail with his crew, one of whom, the gunner, a Negro named Harry Dilton, who was a good shot. On arriving off Tumble-down-Dick, an English man-of-war brig hove in sight and gave chase. She overhauled Capt. Trott’s vessel and fired into her, this was soon answered by a broadside from the “Mudian”, a sharp engagement followed. After a hard fight Capt. Trott fell mortally wounded. His gunner, Harry Dilton, then jumped on a gun, gave three cheers and, after pouring a broadside into the English brig, hauled down the flag and surrendered. The Lieutenant in charge of the brig stated afterwards that had another broadside been fired by the force trader he would had had to surrender as the last load of powder on board his ships was in his guns.

“In 1853 I visited the Island and found many descendants of old Bermuda families who vied with each other in extending hospitality to me. I was much surprised to find English spoken by almost everyone excepting the Governor on whom I called. He was living in his fine Mansion with its beautiful Marble Halls, and a garrison of 25 old Hollanders. There was a force of native troops in the Island, all fine looking men, neatly dressed, and well officered and when mounted on their tough native ponies they had a very imposing appearance. The horses are small but swift and very hardy. At that time their slaves had not been freed, and when one jumped from the boat on the dark sandy beach, a pony, saddled and neatly caparisoned, was held by a slave boy, ready for you to mount. The moment you were in the saddle it was off through the town on the beach and up the wide steep inclined road to the upper town. Your black boy attendant (who was clothed in one garment of course material with a primitive girdle around his waist) was there behind the pony hanging on to its long tail, and you may gallop as fast as you liked that swift-footed, negro boy was there at the journey’s end ready to take your pony’s bridle when you dismounted!

“I received a great deal of attention from two old gentlemen, Mr. James Hill and his brother Mr. John Hill. Any one from Bermuda could not help being forcibly struck with the style of the old buildings in the upper town, most of them being built of the Lime and Soft Sandstone brought from Bermuda in the 17th century. Many interesting accounts were given of Admiral Rodney’s proceedings after the capture of the Island. People resorted to many schemes to secrete their money and valuables. Mock funerals were the most general. Friends would procure a coffin, take it to one of their houses and put into it their gold and silver, spoons, gold and silver vessels then take it to a church and after going through certain forms place it in a vault. Rodney heard of these proceedings and sent armed men on shore with instructions to overhaul every coffin on its way to burial and also to open graves. This they did and in consequence found much of the treasure.”

“In many of the houses beautiful old furniture made of cedar could be seen, cedar chairs with cane seats and some with cushioned ditto, reminded me of an anecdote often related by my Grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Peniston, about one Richard Jennings Peniston (who was a relative of my grandfather, John W. Peniston) doing business in the Island of St. Eustatius, and a very rich merchant at the time of its capture by Rodney and his men. They took away everything valuable that could be found belonging to him and destroyed an immense amount of Liquors by setting the taps running. His wife Rebecca, (nee Darrell) fearing the island would be captured, employed herself many days before it was taken in carefully secreting Doubloons and Joes amounting to a very large sum in the cushions of the Bermuda cedar chairs. Mr. Peniston with his family was allowed to leave the island for Bermuda and take the chairs with him. He arrived safely and took up his residence at a place in Devonshire now known as Montpelier. By his will many of his relatives were left legacies of which however, they only received one half. My grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Peniston, was left one hundred pounds; she received only fifty as a shortage of the Personal estate was announced by the Executors which was doubted by the legatees. The remains of the immense warehouses of Mr. Richard Jennings Penniston and those of Mr. Richard Jennings with their ponderous Iron bars and hinges were shown to me near the beach.

“I have often visited the islands to purchase Sweet Potatoes and Yams, especially on my way to Bermuda from the Windward Islands. In 1857 I called there and after laying in a supply of Yams and Sweet potatoes I was induced to buy a few Ponies since their price was low. After buying them I was at a loss to know how I should get them on board and was thinking of swimming them off to the ship when Mr. James Hill said, “We never have any trouble in shipping them, bring your boat on shore and a light rope to throw them with on the Sandy Beach, tie their hoofs together after they are turned on their backs, and my negroes will lift them up and put them in your boat, cane tops being first put in the bottom. When you get alongside hoist them as you would a pig, they will be perfectly quiet. You can then tie them on deck, as they wear no shoes they will do the deck no harm.” I went on board, had the Yawl boat hoisted out, a tackle put on the yard arm then proceeded to the shore. The Ponies were brought down and handled according to Mr. Hill’s directions. They were soon on board where they were haltered and their hoofs loosened from the ropes. They jumped up and quickly began to enjoy the cane tops and provender put on board for their voyage.

“There is a tree growing on the mountain side whose Bark the fishermen get, and after pounding it, put it in bags and take it to the fishing grounds. They lower the bags to the bottom; shake out the bark and in a little while the fish come to the surface quite stupefied when they are easily taken.”

Captain Peniston in his short story give a most complete picture of Statia’s history and how the people lived and especially the Bermuda connection with the leading families at the time.

The Johnsons’ of Statia

Every now and then, someone living on St. Eustatius, will call to buy my property there. They are usually not familiar with the islands history.

The one they want to buy is not the property which I own on The Bay. They want to buy that large open lot leading from the main street to the old Synagogue.

Each time I have to relate to them, that even though distantly related to those Johnson’s. I am not descended from them, and therefore not an heir to the property. Some of the Peterson’s on Saba together with family in the U.S.A. are the heirs to this property. My Statia ancestors were the Horton’s, who were related to the Hill’s and the Hamilton’s.

Former Lt. Governor Max Pandt, ever since we were in Boystown Brakkeput on Curacao has been bragging to me that he is descended from Sir John Of The Hill, in England who lived in the time of William The Conqueror. So be it.

There were Johnson’s on St. Eustatius from early on, but not in the same numbers as on Saba. In a document of September 21st 1805 in the settlement of the estate of Venancio Fabio, among the properties listed is one on The Bay. It is described as follows; “Premises with house of wood, two stories, consisting of a cellar, a warehouse and 3 top rooms, a cistern, outhouse, furnace, kitchen at the Bay (Op de Baai), to the North a piece of land belonging to the widow Johnson.”

I remember at Captain Hodge’s Guesthouse in the nineteen sixties meeting a beautiful lady from the USA, who with her son, were on their way to bury her husband on St. Eustatius. He was a Johnson from that island. Besides his accomplishments in life, the lady was testimony to his good taste. As we would say in the West Indies; “What a sweet thing.” That is the equivalent of the more politically correct way of describing her as a beautiful lady.

She told me how she had met her husband. He was a banker in New York, high up in the ranks of the bank. She was a secretary. Each time she had to meet with him it was difficult to understand him. He retained his Statia accent all his life.

And so one day he informed her that since she could not understand him that he would be better off marrying her. And since he was a handsome man, she decided to accept his offer and they lived happily after. Years later I met with her children and told them that story and one of the sons said: “Yes mom was a knockout .”

One thing Johnson did not forget was his beloved St. Eustatius where he had grown up as a boy. He had instructed her to bring his ashes back home to be buried on native soil.

He was one of the many children of Henry Hassell Johnson who was a businessman on St. Eustatius. He also owned Golden Rock estate and other properties in town and on The Bay.

My old friend Charles Arnold knew him well. In Julia Crane’s book Statia Silhouettes, he had the following to say: ” And the Every’s, they came from Saba. One fellow came from Saba a small boy and he became the biggest merchant in the island. That’s Henry H. Johnson. The property across here, he owned that. And he raised his family here. But the boys, soon as they get big enough that they might want to be friendly with girls and everything he send them to the States, everyone, send them to the States to school. So all the boys went away, and then the girls come up. One schoolmaster from Holland, Schotborgh, he’s still living. He married to one o’ his daughters. And some o’ the others hardly they didn’t marry to them. And after he sent away, the girls went to the States also. The three boys they died, but I guess the most o’ the girls are still living.

And they come back occasionally, want to do business here, but they can’t get the property divided to suit themselves. About nineteen heirs to the property now, and they can’t get it settled. They won’t agree, you know, that they could use it.”

As Mr. Charlie said, Henry Johnson went to Statia as a young boy. His parents were James Johnson and Sarah Hassell. On February 27th, 1888 when he was 23 years old, he married Jane Elizabeth Schmidt (25). Her mother was Maria Elizabeth Schmidt and was descended from a Schmidt who had been the harbormaster.

Johnson’s first wife died at an early age. She was only 31 when she died on May 8th, 1894. As was the case many times back then she died , shortly after delivering her fourth child ,James Clarence Austin Johnson who was born on May 7th, 1894 and died on June 2nd, 1894.

They had three children who survived: Henry Stanley Johnson born September 18th, 1888. Florence Amelia Johnson born December 22nd 1892 and died October 12th 1895, and Helen Lucille Johnson, born August 3rd, 1890. Helen later married Captain Ralph Holm, another Statia/Saba family. Helen did not have any children so that the descendants of Henry Stanley Johnson are the only ones who are descended from Jane Elizabeth Schmidt.

Henry Stanley was the only one who remained on St. Eustatius and carried on the business of his father. He also owned a grocery store on Saba and was a Local Councillor here.

Henry H. Johnson’s second wife was Amy Hassell of Saba. She was a daughter of Henry Hassell Johnson and Joanna Beaks Hassell and she was born on May 10th, 187l.

The custom on Saba at the time was to have your mother’s maiden name inserted as a middle name. My grandfather James Horton Simmons was named so because his mother was a Horton. That is why you have a situation that Henry Hassell Johnson took as his second wife the daughter of Henry Johnson Hassell. Get it!

They had the following children: George Clarence Johnson born 17-September -1899.John de Veer Johnson born December 10th, 1903, Mabel Louise Johnson born October 3rd, 1903, and Ida Leolin Johnson born 1897 who married Johannes Wilhelm Theodoris Schotborgh (aged 22) on December 17th, 1914.

After his second wife died as Shakespeare would have put it; “Johnson was visited in his gray hairs by a young mulatto woman named Olive Woods by whom he had three lovely little people, two girls and one boy before going on to the Walhalla of old West Indian men.” Old soldiers and all of that you know.

Charlie Arnold in “Statia Silhouettes” goes on to say:” At the time the white people – we had quite a lot o’ white people that owned the estates but they didn’t work on them. All the work was done by the Negroes, the Negroes.

But they (the whites) never marry each other. The funniest thing – not a white man in Statia would marry a white girl. Never! I could never understand that. They didn’t marry but they would get children by the black girls. They always wanted the black girls. They kept them and they get children but they never do much marrying. Occasionally a couple o’ them get married to the girl. But the girl, the white girl that got married, is from some ministers came in, some people from England or something, Holland or something. But not one o’ the white men that born in Statia would marry one o’ the white girls. It’s very unusual, and I could never find out from a kid. I noticed it from a kid and when I grow – when I grew up then I could understand better. But not one couple that you can say, well a white man from here married to a white girl. The Pandts and the different one, all o’ them never got married. And we had quite a lot o’ white men in the island then, quite a few. Funniest thing, never married. If they didn’t get married to somebody off the island, they never got married. None o’ them that you can say, see.” Mr. Charlie has certainly made his point.

Some years ago at the airport on Sint Maarten, I introduced a Johnson cousin of mine to Miss Elrine Leslie of St. Eustatius. I told her that his grandfather was Woolseley Pandt of St. Eustatius. She gave him a good looking over and whispered to me:” Lord, Gena would have been happy to see he. She had like the colour you know.” She was referring to Eugenia Houtman (Ankar) who had 12 children by the white man Peter John MacDonald Pandt and so she would have been the great grandmother of my Johnson cousin who was unaware that his great grandmother was, as Charlie would have said, “one o’ them black Statia girls.”

The Mussenden family was also intermarried with the Johnson’s. However I have much interesting information on the Mussenden family and that will be the subject of another article in the future. As Mr. Charlie said; ” And then the Mussenden’s. They owned the most o’ the land on the South part o’ the island.” Senator Kenneth van Putten told me they owned all the land from Oranjestad to White Wall at one time.

The last Johnson to have lived on St. Eustatius was Miss Lillian Johnson (“Miss Lil”). She was an in-law of Mr. Irvie Mussenden. The Johnson’s must have left a good name behind though. In 1969 when I ran for Senator I pulled 232 votes on St. Eustatius out of a total of 503 votes cast on that island equivalent to 46% of the votes cast. You read me good Clyde? 46%. Now if you think you bad, try and beat that percentage Clyde if you can. 46%. All o’ them Statia politicians going to get out their calculator now to see how they compare.

The St. Kitts Advertizer and Weekly Intelligence

I have scanned into my computer a copy of the St. Christopher Advertiser and Weekly Intelligencer. It is dated Tuesday February l2, 1861 Vol. 78, number 4056.

The paper was started by the Cable family in 1782. They were a free coloured family with roots in Antigua.

Sir Probyn Inniss in his book ‘Historic Basseterre’ has the following to say about the paper; “ In 1782, Richard Cable started publication of a weekly newspaper, The St. Christopher Advertiser and Weekly Intelligencer. Incidentally, Mr. Cable was one of the persons instrumental in bringing Dr. Thomas Coke to the island in 1787 to stimulate Methodism. The newspaper was published continuously until 1909. For the 126 years of its existence it remained in the exclusive control of the Cable family.

For over 100 years ‘The Advertiser’ Printing Office was situated at the same spot in Fort Street. This is believed to be the spot now occupied by the business premises of Mr. A. C. Heyliger (of Saba). In 1900 ‘The Advertiser’ moved to premises a few yards to the north at the corner of Cayon Street and Victoria Road.

It is a testament to the courage and dedication of several generations of the Cable family that this newspaper survived for so long. It was evidently a source of great pride and satisfaction to Richard Cable to note, on the eve of the closing down of ‘The Advertiser” that it had missed only five issues in its 126 year history.

In 1843 after the Great Earthquake it became necessary to remove the press to temporary premises while repairs were done to the building; hence for the first time one week’s issue was lost. The issue of 9th July,1867 was not published because of the Great Fire. However the ‘Advertiser’ rising like a phoenix from the ashes resumed publication the following week, on 16 July 1867. The other two issues not published were due to the non arrival of newsprint in 1878 and a complete break-down of the aging press in 1905.”

There were a total of 677 newspapers in the colonial period in the British West Indies, ranging in names from the ‘Hummingbird’ (Trinidad, 1904) to “The Jack-Spaniard” (Montserrat 1898).

The first newspaper in the British West Indies was ‘The Weekly Jamaica Courant”, published by Robert Baldwin, which appeared in 1718.

Although a few of the papers have published for considerable periods, no papers from the eighteenth century are still in print. Only five public papers from the nineteenth century are still issued; Royal Gazette (Bermuda 1828), Daily Gleaner (Jamaica 1834), Nassau Guardian (Bahamas, 1844), The Voice of St. Lucia (St. Lucia 1885), and the Barbados Advocate, (Barbados 1895).

Survival of newspapers in these colonies seems to be a function of the longevity of individual editors or family involvement in the publication. The Moseley family, for example, operated the ‘Nasssau Guardian’ from its founding in 1844 until the founder’s granddaughter sold the paper early in 1952. The Dupuch family has owned and operated the Nassau Tribune since its founding in 1903; Sir Etienne Dupuch, who became the papers editor in 1919, was still writing for the paper in the mid-1980’s; Donald McPhee Lee operated the Royal Gazette (Bermuda) from 1828 until 1883, a career of some fifty-five years, and Joseph H. Steber operated the Dominica Guardian for thirty years from 1893 until his death in 1924.

The Cable family was unique in that they were a free coloured family from Antigua, and ‘The St.Christopher Advertiser and Weekly Intelligencer’ remained in their hands until its demise in 1909.

There is an extract from this paper in the 5 April 1794 Bahamas Gazette. This paper is referred to in the 21 September 1843 Independent Press (St. Lucia). The 7 December 1864 issue of ‘The Dominican’ reprints the obituary of James Gordon who had been editor of the Advertiser. The obituary further noted that he was involved in plans for the establishment of a paper on the island of Nevis. The 26 January 1906 issue, of the ‘Dominica Guardian’, reports the celebration of Cable’s paper reaching the 124th year of its existence. On 11th October 1911 the ‘Dominica Guardian” says Richard Cable became the Editor in September 1877, after the paper had been put out of business through the efforts of the Governor. The article further states that Cable started the ‘Daily Express’ six years later (1884). In an obituary for Richard Cable in the 15 April 1915 Dominica Guardia, it was stated that Cable’s father and grandfather had been associated with this paper from the early 19th century.

The American Antiquarian Society has a sizeable number of original copies of this paper. The location of the original one I have for this article is known to me, and I will pass the information on to St.Kitts.

The Cables like so many of their class owned domestic slaves in their printing office but were themselves subject to the injustices of the racial hierarchy of the British West Indies.

A notice from 28 September 1813 from Mr. G. Cable in the paper reads as follows:

Run-Away, from the subscriber about eight weeks ago.

A young Negro man named John, of a yellow complexion, about 5 feet 4 inches in height; he has been in the habit of serving the newspapers about the country sometimes from which circumstances he is pretty generally known. ‘Tippy’ is a name by which he is also known. It is supposed he is harboured at the Canaries estate of G.W. Mardenborough Esq. at Monkey Hill, where he has a brother.

All persons are cautioned not to harbour or employ, and Masters of Vessels against carrying him off the island. A suitable reward will be paid on his apprehension and delivery to the subscriber, from whose service he has absented himself without any cause whatsoever.”

In describing the situation in the years 1807 to 1810 John Augustine Waller wrote “No property, however considerable, can ever raise a man or woman of colour, not even when combined with education, to the proper rank of a human being, in the estimation of an English or Dutch Creole. They were always kept at a respectful distance.’

Act 524 passed in 1830 granted Samuel Cable and thirteen other free coloureds the right to enjoy all civil rights, privileges and immunities of other free citizens.

It was not till after the abolition of slavery that the Advertiser showed significant political direction. Samuel Cable infuriated the local planters so much that they had him thrown in jail and fined for contempt of Court in September 1835.

Sir Proby Inniss continues: “It was inevitable that a newspaper which was as outspoken as ”The Advertiser” was in championing the cause of the masses would have incurred the wrath of the establishment.

In commenting on the outcome of a particular case which had been heard by the court, the Editor made this observation:

“Constituted as the Court is, the majority of its members have a direct interest in reaching the conclusion to which they have attained.”

Mr. Cable was thereupon cited for contempt of court fined and sent to jail. After 35 days in jail Governor Sir Murray McGregor intervened and freed Mr. Cable.

In 1909 the ruling class got its revenge. It enacted the Newspaper Sureties Ordinance which required the publisher or proprietor of a newspaper to enter into a bond in the sum of two hundred pounds with one or more sureties. The Advertiser was unable to meet these statutory requirements. And so, this gallant newspaper was forced to close down. It was then the oldest newspaper in the West Indies.

The paper circulated among the islands in the Eastern Caribbean considering the notices placed in it. In the paper I have in my computer there are several notices from Saba and from St.Barths.

The notice from Saba is dated 6th February 1861 and reads:

“On the authority of a dispatch received from His Excellency the Governor of Curacao and its dependencies. It is made known. That as the Light House on the island of Little Curacao is to be repaired the light will not be exhibited during the present month. Edward Beaks, Lt. Governor of Saba.

There is an article from St.Barths on the 50th wedding anniversary of the Harbourmaster Bron August Ridderhjarta and his Lady.

There is also an obituary for Sir Antoine Sapinnk Deslisle Esq. who died at the age of 61. He was born at Padillac in France had emigrated to St.Barths around 1821 and for more than thirty years he had been elected town councilor. He left to mourn his wife and four children.

I want to dedicate this article to my friend Mr. Erasmus Williams who had such great confidence in my knowledge of history.

One Saturday some years ago as I sat down for lunch on my verandah the phone rang. I suggested to my wife that we not answer it. But then conscience tripped in and when she answered the phone it was Erasmus calling from the office of Prime Minister Dr. Denzill Douglas on St. Kitts.

He informed me that there were some folks visiting with the Prime Minister and they were looking for their ancestors who had lived on the “Somers Islands.”

They had looked up every available chart but no “Somers islands” to be found anywhere. Erasmus informed those present that he was a good friend of probably the only person in the Eastern Caribbean walking around with the answer readily available in his head. I told him that he was in luck as the “Somers Islands” was the original name of Bermuda. I could hear the Prime Minister exclaiming in the background “But I was in Bermuda just last week.” Anyway I was in luck that time and after exchanging some pleasantries with my friend Erasmus I got back to my lunch much relieved that I had not disappointed Erasmus or the Prime Minister and was in good standing with the Government of St. Kitts.

During its long history the ‘Advertiser’ was also possible because of the leading role which the island of St.Kitts played in the Eastern Caribbean. With the imminent break up of the Netherlands Antilles the Dutch government should talk to the government of St.Kitts and in so doing foster renewed good relations between the Dutch dependencies of St. Eustatius and Saba and the island of St. Kitts.

St. Kitts Dominant

Once when I was a member of parliament I received a call from Drs. Eric Kleinmoedig. At the time he was head of the department of foreign affairs for the Netherlands Antilles . At the time mrs. Maria Liberia- Peters was our Prime minister. Drs. Kleinmoedig informed me that the Prime Minister had been invited to give a lecture on St. Kitts at the PAM party,s annual convention. He went on to say that Maria had told him that since I knew everybody,s business that perhaps I could prepare a speech for her as she knew very little about St. Kitts.

When she arrived back on Curacao she called to thank me. She having been born and grown up on Curacao had no idea of how important a role St. kitts had played in the Eastern Caribbean and especially in the Dutch Windward Islands in the past. And what was astonishing to her was that most people in the St. Kitts audience were unaware of this as well. She told me that after her speech many people in the audience came up to thank her and bombarded her with questions about their country,s former important role. She said she told them that only recently when planning this trip, coupled with the speech I had written that she herself had become aware of this part of our interesting shared history in these islands.

The waters which separate us also bind us. This was especially so in colonial times before the advent of aviation. The island of St. Kitts had been the mother colony for both the British and the French in their first colonial adventure in the Caribbean then considered the private domain of the Spanish empire.

After one hundred years of fighting over the island the French finally left, but the names Basseterre , Dieppe Bay and so on are yet reminders of the French period when the two extremes of the island were owned by them. The troubles were so much between the British and the French that the English. Colonizer Sir Thomas Warner is quoted as saying that he “would rather have two devils for a neighbor than one Frenchman.”

St. Kitts has often been referred to as the “Mother Colony” of the former British West Indies . A little known fact to most people today is that St. Kitts up until the late nineteen fifties functioned as a mother to the Dutch Windward islands as well.

One must remember that the population of the Dutch Windward Islands up until recent times was quite small. For example the population of the three islands in 1924 was as follows: St. Maarten 2265, Saba 1615 and St. Eustatius 1103. These population figures hold true for most of the period between 1860 and 1960. During that same period the population of St. Kitts was always in excess of 20.000 .

It is regrettable that the relationship which existed in colonial times between the islands suffered such a setback after St. Maarten started to rise and St. Kitts decline. Instead of moving closer together we have drifted apart. Recently though with the fibre optic cable and with a few strategic phone calls to the authorities on St. kitts a start has been made to bind the ties between St. Kitts, St. Eustatius and Saba .

The Dutch ( and also the French) islands of the Eastern Caribbean not only used St. Kitts as a transit point to their onward journeys to such destinations as Bermuda and the United States . Transportation in those days was provided by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company from St. Kitts. For our people the town of Baseterre was the metropolis of the Eastern Caribbean . It was the place to also visit friends and spend vacations. Old timers on our islands of Saba and Statia still reminisce about such hotels as ” Shorty,s Hotel”, ” Montesaires Hotel”, “Miss Ada Edmeads Guesthouse”, “Barclays hotel” and so on.

St. Kitts was also the island with the general hospital . Cunningham Hospital started in 1848 functioned as a regional hospital and doctors such as Dr. Shaw first worked on the Dutch islands before moving on to St. Kitts. My friend the Governor General Dr. Cuthbert Sebastian more than once told me the story of a young man brought to his hospital from Saba in the late nineteen forties. I later found out that it was Gerald Hassell. Dr. Sebastian told me that he had a ruptured appendix and there was no hope for him, yet he wanted assurances from the doctor that he would live as he had a wife and two small children. What could the good doctor do under the circumstances but assure him with a white lie that all would be well and Gerald died shortly thereafter. Back in the nineteen twenties my mother had a good looking cousin Joseph Simmons with whom a nurse fell in love while he was hospitalized at Cunningham Hospital . He died but she remained single and kept in contact with our family until she died in the nineteen sixties. Even after the nuns started the St. Rose hospital on St. Maarten people from Saba and Statia still continued to use the medical facilities on St. Kitts. The dentists and eye specialists were the reason also given to visit St. Kitts. These medical specialists also visited the Dutch islands from time to time. One of those dentists fondly remembered, not so much for his dental abilities but for his foul tongue is Dr. Losada.Oh but Dr.Losada could speak a bad word old timers will tell you.

Captain Ernest A. Johnson in his Memoirs speaks for many former Dutch Windward Islanders when describing his first trip to St. Kitts in 1900:

” On the 2nd May, 2 am the weather was moderate and we were close to West of Brimstone Hill. Two tacks and a hitch, and the good sloop “Lillie” was safely anchored in Basseterre , St. Kitts. There my maiden passage ended. I was stopping at the Montesaires Hotel waiting for the steamship “Tiber” to arrive, for Bermuda was the second part of my voyage. On the 15th of May the ” Tiber ” arrived to sail that day. There was much social interchange between the people of St. Kitts and those of the Dutch and French islands in the Eastern Caribbean as well. Leading famlies from the islands intermarried.

In Mr. J.C. Way mouth,s book “Memories of St. Martin (N.P.)” he mentions St. Kitts on numerous occasions, giving an indication of the importance of St. Kitts to the people of St. Martin in those days. On a more personal note he writes:

” The writer, during the interval from 8th June to July 18th, 1927 was absent from the island attending the wedding at St. Kitts , of his youngest daughter Anna to Mr. C.S. Dickson of that island.”

Mr. Waymouth, in his book, dealing with the year 1915 also had the following to say: ” The year saw the following events ( some of them not upon our soil but still affecting it) -. The establishment of the Royal Bank of Canada at St. Kitts. The disappearance by death at St. Kitts of Mr. R. Cable, publisher of the “Daily Express and Weekly Advertiser “, and the appearance of the St. Kitts-Nevis”Daily bulletin” which is still published by Losada and Uddenberg, were of this nature.”

This also indicates how important the banking system was for our people on the other islands where there were no banks. The newspapers on St. Kitts were widely read in the other islands and had correspondents on the other islands who regularly contributed articles and public notices. Up until the nineteen sixties Capt. Randolph Dunkin who traded with his sloops would be carrying money for the merchants of Saba to be deposited in the banks on St. Kitts.

Several of the leading families on the Dutch islands also played an active role in the economy of St. Kitts as well. The largest sugar cane producing estate on St. Kitts, ” Brothersons” at the turn of the last century was owned by Mr. J.G.C.Every of Statia/Saba background. His two sons were among the 14 Windward Islanders and French St. Martinets who were lost on the schooner the ” Verdun ” which left Nevis harbor in a hurricane on August 24th, 1924. Among those lost were the Mayor and Judge of French St. Martin , and Mr. Gaston Chance an elder brother of Senator Leo Chance.

In the labour riots which broke out at Buckley,s estate in 1935 among those killed was a Simmons from Saba a foreman on the estate. At that time there were a number of Saba and St. Barths families who had established themselves on St. Kitts. Coming to mind is Mr.Clifford Heyliger of Heyliger,s Jewelry store and across the street from him Mr. Eric Skerrit who owned the drugstore, both of whom were from Saba , and there were the Dinzey,s and so on. Capt. Ben Hassell of Saba and his brothers had extensive schooner trade relations with St. Kitts from Barbados . Capt. Ben is the grandfather of the Goddard family who own Goddard Enterprses and they still own businesses on St. Kitts. If you see Richard Goddard you see his grandfather Capt. Ben. Also John Gumbs who had a large trading company was married to not one, not two, but three Leverock sisters from Saba . Those Leverock sisters must surely have sweetened Mr. Gumbs cup of tea. Also Capt. Edward Anslyn was for many years the captain of the ferry between St. Kitts and Nevis . His son Capt. Arthur Anslyn known as “Brother” followed in his footsteps. We also have a number of people from St. Kitts and Nevis living here on Saba and married to Saba people.Space will not allow the full story of a Johnson relative who went to St. kitts and had dinner with the Khoury family. He came back puzzled as for desert they had served him something which according to him was jumping all over his plate and was still alive when he swallowed it. His brother brought light to the situation by informing him that what he had eaten was something new called JELLO.

It would be false and misleading to portray the relationship between the islands as always having been smooth. In World War I the Dutch government took a neutral position in the war for fear of being overrun by the Germans. The then colonial authorities at St. Kitts branded the people of the Dutch islands as followers of the German Kaiser and made trade difficult for a time. Schooner captains from Saba were accused of supplying German U-boats with food supplies. To add insult to injury these food supplies were purchased at St. Kitts at times.

In matters of trade, well into the nineteen sixties St. Kitts played a dominant role in the Eastern Caribbean . The Dutch government owned schooner the ” Blue Peter” maintained a weekly scheduled service to St. Kitts and the motor vessel the ” Antilia” made a monthly call. Our people continued to trade with St. Kitts to do banking transactions, to visit doctors and to just go for vacation. When I was Commissioner my assistant Dave Levenstone, who had roots in Monkey Hill, each year we would have th St. Kitts- Nevis defense force band come to Saba and liven up the “Saba Day” celebrations and our people would love it. Every opportunity I get with Dutch officials I stress the need to open up a dialogue with the government of St. Kitts- Nevis to better our relations. On a personal level the former leaders of St. Maarten, Claude Wathey and Clem Labega enjoyed excellent relations with Chief Minister Llewelyn Bradshaw, and Claude chose as his bride Miss Eva Wrack of St. kitts, related to the Uddenbergs.

An attempt must be made in this part of the Caribbean archipelago to bring thaws islands closer. The islands, independent, British, Dutch and French background are all in view of one another and should be tuned in to the heartbeat of each other’s people and the history which unites us. As an independent state St. Kitts-Nevis can start the ball rolling by appointing Honorary Consuls in the other islands, and since we are united by at least a fiber optics cable now, perhaps the television station on St. Kitts can transmit programs to Statia and Saba so that we can follow more closely developments there as starters.

Vaucrosson

The following is a story of how I acquired a famous property on the Bay in the historical Lower Town of St.Eustatius. But more than that, I want to highlight the fact that how historical hobbyists through their research are unraveling many mysteries of the past. This property is located not too far from where my ancestor Mark Horton had a warehouse building. This building is now being restored by Mrs. Leontine Durby and her husband.

I was good friends with A.J.C. Brouwer better known as “Jan”. His father was the well-known “Broertje” Brouwer of the newspaper “De Slag om Slag” which he published back in the nineteen thirties. Jan was named after his grandfather A.J.C. Brouwer who had been Governor of the three Windward Islands for thirty years.

This was back in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, when the three islands had their own Governors. So that A.J.C. Brouwer had served 7 years each as Governor of Saba and then St.Eustatius and after that he served for sixteen years as Governor of St. Maarten. Jan’s mother was one of the Van Romondt’s. In those days people were no different than now. Allan Richardson used to tell me that Broetje’s brother took the blame for him. However Allan used to deliver the newspaper for Broertje and one day when Broertje had a little too much to drink he gave Allan an intense look and said “Don’t tell anyone, but I am your father.” Years later Allan told me and Jan confirmed that he always had that suspicion and so case closed.

Jan studied engineering in Holland and got stuck over there during the Second World War. His father’s tragic death left a scar on him which he carried with him for the rest of his life. When he returned to the Antilles he was in charge of Federal Government buildings. Stationed in Willemstad he used to visit all of the islands. He married late in life to a Jonkhout whose family is partly from Saba (Barnes). Jan lived well into his eighties. He had a son and a daughter and was able to see some grandchildren before he died on Aruba where he had lived for many years. Jan was also a cousin of the well-known Siegfried Lampe who recently passed away on Statia.

Once, years ago, in a conversation about property Jan informed me that he was part owner of a property on the Bay in Statia in the former “Lower Town”. He said he would like to acquire a piece of land on Saba. I made a joke with him that I would trade a piece of Saba for his land on the Bay. Years later my brother Eric told me that a Mr. Brouwer had called one night when I was off-island about land on Statia. Negotiations started and I gave him considerably more land on Saba than he gave me on Statia. Siegfried Lampe also signed the transaction. After Jan died I bought the adjacent piece from his widow and children. Since my ancestors Mark, James and Richard Horton, in the seventeen hundreds, lived not too far from where the property is located, I am quite sentimental about my property on the Bay and I intend to do something with it.

After I acquired the land, Senator Kenneth van Putten told me that his mother “Maachie” used to call the property “Woocaussin” and that there was a well on the property. This information intrigued me and I went in search of “Woocaussin”, and I found him. There are a lot of records around about these islands which have survived hurricanes, fires, George Rodney and other modern arsonists who seem to get a kick out of burning down Government buildings and destroying archives.

Let me share some correspondence which I had with researchers who are working on piecing the puzzles of the past together.

Friday, May 5th. 2006. Dear Will, Thanks for stopping by the archaeology site a couple of weeks ago. We were away last week and have just received a reply from Ron Wetteroth who has built a database of Statia residents. I will try to track down Vaucrosson’s will. Below please find the information that Ron has for Vaucrosson. Regards, Grant. (R. Grant Gilmore III).

May, 05, 2006: Ron, The Island Council Member on Saba, Mr. Will Johnson, owns the land that Vaucrosson had his house/merchant home down on the Bay. This was directly across from our current excavation site. This may mean that he also owned the warehouses that we are excavating. I am trying to find a will that we have of his. Will keep you apprised. Cheers Grant.

Grant:

Antoine Wachter Vaucrosson was born on Guadeloupe probably around 1740.

The name is variously spelled Veaucrosson, Vancrasson, and Van Crasson. He is listed as a Jongman in his 1769 marriage to Maria Louisa Haley who was born 28 Feb 1745 on Statia and died there 20 Aug 1795. She was the daughter of Daniel Haley and Maria Louisa Audain (There were two Daniel Haleys at the time; her father is probably the one born Statia 1717, whose father, also a Daniel, was listed in the 1699 Census.)

Antoine and Maria Louisa had six known children all born on Statia. Louisa was born 1771, and married Walter Clifton of St.Kitts in 1790. James Antoine was born 1772. Ann was born 1774 and married Francis Forbes of St.Kitts also in 1790. Jean Jacques was born 1775, Rosetta was born 1783 and died 1795 and Lise was born 1788. I assume Vaucrosson was still alive in 1795, since his wife is listed as his “huisvrouw” (housewife) rather than his widow in her 1795 death record.

May 19th, 2006. Grant: As I look at the records, I become more convinced that Daniel Haley born Statia is in fact the father of Antoine Vaucrosson’s wife. My main reason for this assumption is that Olivier Oyen was a witness to the Vaucrosson/Haley marriage. Oyen (one of the signers of the 1781 surrender to Rodney) was this Daniel Haley’s brother-in-law. Looking further, we get an interesting set of marriages here. Just as the plantation owners intermarried, so apparently did the merchants. Daniel had four known sisters who married what I assume were merchants. Catharina married Christoffel Emy, Anna married Jan Godlieb Frederick and then Cornelis Low (the first cousin of Adolphus Roosevelt) Maria married Oliver Oyen (Governor in 1785) and Sarah married Joseph Low, who I assume is related to Cornelis. Another witness to the Vaucrosson/Haley marriage was Elisabeth Texier, tied in with Texier and Chabert families from Guadeloupe (where Vaucrosson was born) who was born Audain and I assume was the sister of Daniel Haley’s wife Maria Louisa Audain. Best regards Ron.

May 21st, 2006. Dear Will, Having learned from an E-mail this morning from Daniel Blanchard, the present chairman of l’ASBAS that l’ASBAS still have two copies left of WWW and intends to acquire more copies of WWW, I recommend you to contact Daniel, when he is back from his trip to Sweden. He is now in Paris and all friends of St. Barthelemy are very much looking forward to meet him and his group of islanders in Sweden on June 1st. Anyway, he is now informed about your interest in WWW.

May I use this occasion to tell you that I am of course mostly fascinated by the former Swedish island of St.Barths but also by its neighbor Saba. Arriving under sail I have had the privilege to step ashore twice on your island ( first time way back in Feb 1976, was met at the top of Ladder Landing by a policeman named Peter Johnson and was driven around the island by a taxi driver named Joseph Livingstone) and I like it a lot. With my very best wishes. Per (Tingbrand).

Per Tingbrand is the author of the book Who Was Who on St.Bartholomew during the Swedish epoch? Two editions of this book have appeared in the Swedish language. The English edition contains more than 6000 (six thousand) names, representing a serious attempt at listing samples of the people, cross-sections of men, women and children, who in times gone by once breathed the salubrious air of St. Bartholomew regardless of nationality, social positions and reason of his or her being on the island, be it friend or foe. It does not lay claim to include more than a fraction of the people living on the island or just passing by between 1783 when Viktor von Stedingh arrived, and 1878, when the last Swedish officials left the island. During the Swedish epoch many of the leading families of St. Eustatius and Saba, wanting to take advantage of the increased economic opportunities on St. Bartholomew, moved to that island. Among the many people from St. Eustatius who moved to St. Bartholomew was Anthony Wachter (the Elder) Vaucrosson born around 1724(or 174?) and died 1813.A merchant of St. Eustatius married to Marie Louise Haley. The shipping business and his family home of the 1780’s in the Lower Town of St. Eustatius is described by Dr. Johan Hartog in his History of St. Eustatius (1976, pp.43-44) in the following manner: “Soon there was a double row of dwelling-houses and warehouses along the beach below the fort, extending for a mile and a half. Some merchant houses on the bay were of palatial dimensions. The house of a certain Vaucrusson topped them all. The rooms were richly upholstered and from the upper gallery a bridge spanned the street to a garden laid out on the roof of a warehouse; listed as Anthony Waghtar Vancrasson in Admiral Rodney’s list of burghers in St. Eustatius, February 1781; moved from St. Eustatius to St. Barths after Sweden’s acquisition of the latter island and set up a business house in St. Barths; the transfer seems to have taken place at the earliest in 1789 because there are no members of the Vaucrosson family listed in the censuses of 1787 & 1788; according to the register of town lots of March 28, 1791, Vaucrosson had already in 1787 bought a lot from Aron Ahman situated in the quarter b.b. (p.41); this block bordering in the south to Storgatan (Rue Chancy), in the north to Kopmansgatan (Rue Duquesne or Rue de Pitea), in the east to Strandgatan (Rue Jeanne d’Arc) and in the West to Hwarfsgatan (Rue Schoelcher) but he may have bought it for the purpose of storage only since he was not listed 1787/8 (dated June 10, 1788); most probably he relocated his business to St. Barths at the earliest in the latter half of 1793; a widower after his wife’s death Aug 19, 1795; listed in the census of 1796 as head of a household in Gustavia counting 23 people, of which 5 white men, 1 white woman, 15 slaves and 2 female slaves; in the autumn of 1797 he became involved together with two sons in the notorious so called Vaucrosson coin lawsuit in which the family was suspected of circulating false gold coins. They were arrested and after a long appeal His Majesty the King of Sweden dropped the charges.

One of the sons was Jean Jacques Vaucrosson (1775-1837) born April 19th, 1775 on St. Eustatius. He assumedly witnessed as a young boy Admiral George Rodney’s punitive expedition against and subsequent pillage of St. Eustatius in February 1781; he lived lifelong together with the free mulatresse Jane Wallace from St. Kitts and became in that relationship father of at least nine children.

When his father retired on January 1st, 1805, he continued the family business together with his brother Pierre Auguste Vaucrosson. Among the vessels belonging to the family business were the schooners “Minerva”, “Diligente”, “Iphigenie” as well as the brig “Union”.

I have much more information on the Vaucrosson family but not relevant to this story. The family name as far as I can tell from the telephone books does not exist on any of the islands anymore. So many more former prominent families from all of these islands have disappeared into history. This goes to show the futility of living just to accumulate wealth. It also goes to show that only a historian like myself would be interested in knowing the history of a piece of property.

However as you can see it is interesting to know the history of things which you own and can pass on this information to the next generation. If a lesson can be learned from the Vaucrosson family it is that a “poor island boy” descendant of the Horton neighbours, down the street from their palatial building, ended up with their property on the bay. I cannot promise to duplicate the Vaucrosson mansion, but who knows, if I make a start one of my descendants can complete it.

Some of the Vaucrosson’s were married into the Simmons family. If I can establish that from that branch they are related to me then the Vaucrosson property would have come full circle back to me where it should belong in the first place.

In his own words
Ralph Simmons

In the nineteen sixties and early seventies Dr. Julia Crane did Saba and St. Eustatius an immense service by recording the lives of many of our people in her two books “Saba Silhouettes” and “Statia Silhouettes”. Much of our oral history would have been lost without these two books. I consult them often for information when writing articles and the interviews bring back so many memories of friends that I knew and the stories of life which they tell of life on these two islands in former times. Those were the days when we were independent and survived from the land and the sea around us. One of these persons was Ralph Milburn Simmons born on Saba on July 25th, 1912 and who passed his last years on St. Eustatius. He was a good friend of mine but also of my brother Freddie. They were always exchanging packages. Ralph would send jack fish and yams from Statia and Freddie would send red snapper and Irish potatoes from Saba. Ralph used to live right next to the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Statia. I used to stay by Mrs. Wilda Gibbs right across the street from him. I started staying by Wilda in 1969 when I was running for Senator. I had such a good showing on Statia in that election that I would go over there on weekends from St. Maarten. I can see her before me now reading her Bible by the old kerosene light. She used to tell me stories about the past as well.

Ralph took me under his wing and used to give me advice as to who was a crook and who was with me. Good things to know in the treacherous world of politics. Furthermore he informed me that we had to be family as his grandfather was a white man William Augustus Simmons born June 7th, 1844 who died July 2nd, 1893. His parents were William Simmons and Rebecca Haddock Beal. He was 48 years old when he died. He had remained a bachelor but had fathered a child William Augustus Simmons by a lady of colour Catharine Heliger when he was 19 in the year 1863 .

Ralph’s brother Adrian Williston born 26 May 1910 was a good friend of mine as well. He came back to Saba in his old age. He had a laundry in Jamaica, New York and did well. I used to visit him in a large two story brick building there. His wife was from Virginia. My cousin Lenny Johnson as well as Lenous used to visit him in Jamaica. He fixed a pension for my uncle Leonard from the Seaman’s union. When he was on Saba he would always be passing at the office to speak to the “Kings Attorney” which was my brother Eric. I always thought of that as a cool title to have. That was what the old timers used to call the Public Prosecutor. That title conveys images of the King coming around to your office or home to look for advice. Now that Saba is back under Holland we should start referring to that position as the Kings Attorney. That depends though who holds the office as he might get carried away with it.

Adrian built a house on Saba in his old age and he left it to his brother Ralph. Their mother was Rachel Heyliger. Their father at the age of 24 on June 12th, 1885 had married Alexandrien Linzey, age 19. They had only one child Emerald born in 1891 and who died a month later.

After his first wife died he then married Rachel Heyiger on April 13th, 1910 when he was 48 and she 24. In the books her name is Richard Heyliger. Can you imagine naming a girl child Richard. Anyway someone in the office must have realized that there was a mistake and gave her the name Rachel. Her parents were Laurence Heyliger and Clothilde Cappell. Together they had five children.

Ralph’s father who was a seaman by profession died at the age of 58 in 1922.

I will let Ralph tell his own story as recorded in Statia Silhouettes in the year 1970. He was so into the name Will Johnson that in the interview instead of Capt. Will Leverock he has me as one of the captains which he sailed under.

‘My name is Ralph Milburn Simmons. I was born twenty-fifth o’ July, nineteen hundred and twelve. I was born in Saba.

My father used to be a cook on the four-masted schooners. He was named Augustus, my mother was named Rachel. And they had five of us, three boys and two girls. I’m the second. The one that died in the States, he was the first. Adrian, myself, Sylvie, Thelma and George. But then my brother went to St.Thomas. The oldest brother, when he was only about seventeen, eighteen. Then, those days, anybody could go in, no trouble, but not now.”

“Our father died in Saba in 1922, and I was livin’ in Barbados with my aunt at that time. “Cause my aunt had liked me, and I lived with her. I went Barbados twice. And the first World War I remember seeing some o’ the soldiers comin’ home disfigured and all that. But I was just a small boy then. I was about seven years then. Yeah, that was the first time then. And then that was around 1919 so. I used to go Bay Street Boys School. They were pretty strict in the school there, yes, pretty strict. I remember the teacher was a man by the name o’ Taylor. He used to teach the third class. Good fields to play ball on. But we didn’t play with no big boys; we played with just small boys those days. And those boys, if they saw you was a stranger, they all looked to make trouble with you and tease you and all that, you know. And then my mother went up there with some o’ the children, and things wasn’t so nice up there in Barbados. And after that as I told you, I came back to Saba with my mother. I think about four of us. Maybe the whole five, the whole five of us was up Barbados. I was twelve years when I came back from Barbados. We came down on the schooner, got off St. Maarten, and then we came home. Well, the house was there for us to live in. It was a British schooner. The schooner was named “Florence Stream”. And then after that we were there with our mother.

“We had to help our grandfather with the cow. Never had more than one cow. We had to go and cut grass. And sometime we plant some potato, just in the hill above us. That was when we came from school in the evenin’ or early in the mornin’. Those days we didn’t go school until nine o’clock. Nine o’clock in the mornin’ till twelve and from one to three. But at that time our grandfather was livin’, my mother’s father (Laurence Heyliger). And then after that we came a little bigger, about thirteen years, then our mother got in some trouble. Somebody stole something and they give it to her, and then she had to try and get out ‘o the country. She went and she lived in St. Barths, and from there then she went St. Thomas. The oldest boy and the eldest girl was there with her. And she died down there in 1926. Then we still used to go down on the bay and make a – well, you know, something they called a shilling. Make a shilling or two shillings sometime. We were still minors, and we stood there a couple o’ years after that. But that time our grandfather, his first wife Clothilde, she died; and we had – he married a younger woman. And we used to live with her, the balance of us. But she wasn’t very nice. She was young, and she more keep with the younger sets. At that time he used to sail on those schooners goin’ to St. Kitts and St. Maarten.

“And then Curacao open. Then I got a job on the schooner that used to transport passengers to Curacao, what we call “moose boy.” Yes. Five dollars a month in those days. But five dollars was plenty money those days. There were no real tourists, just immigrants, immigrants. The schooner used to carry immigrants down to Curacao to find work, you see. So in between you may find a couple- ‘cause they was no steamers those days. In between you find a big shot then would be travellin’. Those schooners would belong to Tommy Vanterpool. I don’t know if you heard about him. He died in St. Thomas. He died in St. Thomas.”

And then after that I learned how to steer a ship. And then there was another schooner named the “Three Sisters”, three-mast. A ship came in one day while I was down there, in Curacao, and they said they wanted some men. And I asked the captain – the captain was named Will Johnson, from St. John’s – and I asked the captain to let me stay off, and he told me all right. And there I started my way up. Curacao was good in those days, those early days. Things were pretty cheap, very cheap. Sometimes a bunch of us used to,live together. I remember when we used to be sailin’ on those ships. The wages was seventy-five guilders a month. Every three months they used to give you a tin o’ butter, a five-pound tin o’ butter. That was good money! Good money those days. We used to go on a ship with our suit, suit and necktie. Change it when we get on board the ship, put on our workin’ clothes. We used to go to Maracaibo. Every three days so we come back. Two trips a week. When it was your turn to come town you come town. Otherwise you stay aboard till maybe the next trip you come town. But you ahd to have somebody aboard. The food was very bad those days. The officers were pretty good, from Holland. In between about three ships you used to find captains from England. About three ships.

“I stood a couple o’ years there in Curacao, came back to Saba, then keep goin’ and comin’. Then finally, when everybody said they was going I went to Aruba too, and I got a job on those Lago boats, around 1931, around 1931, for twelve years. But at those time when I became improved to more manhood I used to drink plenty you see. I used to drink plenty. That was only eighty guilders a month at those days. The wages was a little more than Curacao, a little more; but you didn’t have to dress down there like you dress in Curacao. You’d go ashore rough and ready. Yeah the ship was much better. The food wasn’t so nice because they had Chinese, Chinese cooks take it and throw if after you like that. Yeah. Mostly all ships had a Chinese. And after that I stood there, year run into year. Sometime I lost me job and I’d be sitin’ down quite a while. Then I came to Curacao. And then finally I met a woman in Curacao, after I came up to Curacao, and we got married, in ’48. She was born in St. Kitts – or Santo Domingo somewhere. But she came here to Statia. At that time she used to work with the Pandts. You know the Pandts down by the cottage? Well she used to work with them. And then she went to Curacao, and there I met her and we got married. We had four children in Curacao