Walking Back

Progress From War Into Peace

Will Jackson

The Cayman Islands, the long forgotten,poverty stricken lands that they were after human beings thoughtto exist on their soils; for many years offered only a meagerexistence to those few who were brave enough to brave the tempeststhat often blew down on them as well as the mosquitoes that swarmedthrough their dwellings and the want and privations which oftenbeset them.

For a hundred years or more, from the veryearliest settlements on down to the mid 20th Century, the peoplelived primitively. As often stated, there were no industries wherebythe residents could live except by that of catching turtles, whichin a little while down the line they had extinguished locally;so they were forced to find fishing vessels much more efficientthan the canoes they had dug out of the huge trees that grew onthe land.

They set to work building themselves schoonersfor their survival, thus starting an industry for themselves,which grew and improved with the passing years, with seamanshipas the main occupation of the men folks.

Last week we talked about the great changesthat took place in seafaring, when sails became obsolete and motorand steam took over the scent. We saw our men fearlessly fightinga terrible war and celebrating with the victors. We saw familylife being changed from penury to decent living, all because theirmen were seamen who could master their jobs and thus claim a jobby which to earn more money than they had ever seen before.

May I venture to say that Grand Cayman andCayman Brac by the 1950s were experiencing a smiling change intheir living conditions such as never before. Many of the shantiesthat made up the settlements disappeared from the scenes givingplace to little modern bungalows with modern furniture and equipment.Up until the early fifties, because of the shortage of money inthe islands, there had been no need for a bank, but now that thecards were turned and the populace were obtaining winning hands,a bank was necessary in Grand Cayman. Previously the Governmenthad operated a little savings bank, but now a real commercialbank was necessary.

First the Barclays Bank ventured into theuncertain domain of business and not long after others began toventure in very cautiously as if treading on forbidden ground.Caymanians soon realised the pleasure of doing business with bignamed banks, stowing away their money and borrowing money forwhatever project they dreamed up. It can be proudly said of theCaymanian seamen that in all their traveling and earnings homefinancing was their top priority.

A story went around of an old lady whosehusband sailed the war through and she being very mean with hershillings and having no children, having a thousand pounds savedin the Government savings bank, always wondered what her husbandwould do with all of that money when he came home. A thousandpounds did seem like a lot of money to those dear people who beforetime thought of a five pound note as a great sum. Five hundredor a thousand pounds did seem like more money than they wouldspend in a lifetime.

Hardly was there anything to spend moneyon in those days, especially among the middle-aged people. Theyhad only to think of a few clothings and a small portion of food,they being accustomed to fish and local produce, but even theitems of food that they needed to buy were cheap and their clotheswere usually homemade. Incomes were low of a truth, but so wasthe cost of living in those days.

One old man whose nephew sailed the warthrough on an English merchant ship and came home at war's end,said of him that he was the richest man in Cayman with more moneythan the British Government. He said the young man went away Governorand he came back President ­ well, that was a stupid old manwho made that statement, but don't forget that this was the wayof many of those old folks seeing a pound note.

This was the condition that existed on theislands during the early years of settlement and transformation,from hoisting canvas to blowing boilers.

However, it is unfair I think to the oldsailing vessels that they have been allowed to die a natural deathand be buried out of sight and memory without even one hull havingbeen preserved for the rising generations to know for themselves­ this is how our forefathers struggled to survive.

One of the island's best loved schoonersof her time, the "Goldfield", a vessel that served theIsland keeping the channel open to the U.S.A. in the awful daysof World War 2, bringing the dire needed items to the island includingsuch items as gasoline and kerosene as well as grocery items andnot least of all the many people who worked in the States andwould visit their loved ones at home. Then too, the many homesthat received financial aid because of the men who crewed herfrom year to year.

This hull surely merited recognition bythe Cayman people, failing the appreciation of the Governmentby preserving her as a museum piece. She should have been turnedinto a lovely restaurant somewhere in the centre of town, butvery sadly after the dear old lady was so lovingly brought backto the island out of her exile condition, she was unceremoniouslyburied in the North Sound. This was the only old island hull tosurvive the turmoils of time.

The Caymanians, from earliest times, havealways been a self-help people in one form or another. The menof Cayman Brac were for the greater part what they called trappers­ they specialized in trapping hawksbill turtles for the shelloff their backs, which sometimes sold for goodly prices and ofcourse, the meat was sold fresh or salted. There were those whogathered bird eggs and sold them on the market in Kingston, Jamaica;then too, a lot of Brackers migrated to Jamaica where jobs couldbe found. Both local and foreign ships, there was always somethingto do differently from the Brac. Seldom was a 'don't care' familyman found, everyone sought out something for the betterment ofhis family. Even the islands' women helped the family's economyby making straw ropes ­ this was more prevalent in Grand Cayman.

Rope making was then really the Islands'industry.

There were but a very few of the Grand Caymanmen who bothered with shelling, but there were many professionalturtlers out there. Then, during the war days there was a bigdemand for shark and nurse shark hides for which men ranged onthe cays for months at a time catching the sharks and nurses andsalting their skins to be shipped to America.

So it was in bad times, the men always foundways and means of making their dumpling ­ they were willingto try anything that had to do with the sea. The sea was stronglyin their blood and they were not afraid to try for a living outthere.

Caymanian seamen from both islands can justlybe proud of their early achievements, with the help of the greatGod, in lifting these primitive islands out of slum living. Thecanvas under which they worked in those early days was very helpfulin their family's sustenance, but diesel and steam was what ittook to change Cayman, bringing the Cayman Islands into publicknowledge.

Now that seamanship is all behind us andtourism has become the big thing of the day, that may be lookedon as one big step forward from where the seamen left off.

May these islands ever progress in everyavenue of clean and healthy as well as prosperous living.

Will Jackson
Seafarer and noted
Caymanian Historian