Book Review
LOVE'S DANCE - The CatboatOf The Caymanes
Lynne Byles / Tower Marketing
A little before Christmaslast year a book made an appearance that has come to mark a turningpoint in the appreciation of Cayman maritime history. The bookis called LOVE'S DANCE - The Catboat Of The Caymanes and its authoris H.E. Ross. It is the first book of Caymanian maritime historythat deals exclusively with Caymanian seamanship.
Other Cayman history books concern themselves with the land endeavoursof the Cayman Islanders, only mentioning the sailing heritageas an emphasis or a balance for the seemingly more important functionsashore. LOVE'S DANCE keeps the reader in the waters of the CaribbeanSea, both near and off shore.
Mr. Ross, an experienced sailor himself, came to the Cayman Islandsspecifically to record maritime stories and to publish them ina series of nautical books and articles. This work shows nineparaphrased, for the most part, interviews that range in aspectfrom the construction of a Cayman Catboat to storm, to turtling,to the future of the vessel.
The 127 photographs and 14 illustrations in the 137-page book,seeks to portray the seafaring culture of the Caymanian as one,"... striving for perfection in a love's dance upon the horizonof the practical and the romantic."
Academically, there is some argument on the Island about Mr. Ross'contention on the evolution of the design and his historical conjecturein general, but without a thought to all of the references neededby professional historians, his general historical backgroundseems logical.
What is at the crux of the material are the stories of the peoplefor whom the Cayman Catboat means so much. The Caymanian utilisedthe Catboat for most forms of transportation throughout the firsthalf of the 20th Century, and other designs of small boats beforethat.
The Catboat symbolises the refinement of the ideas of a seafaringnation about the small boat that would carry them in peril andin safety and for pleasure. Three quotes will tell what is neededto see if you would wish to own this book:
Ms. Havilah Jackson's: "My favourite boat was the last boatmy father owned. He used to call her Time. She was a small boat.He made her small so that his girls could handle her."
Captain Gleason Ebanks': " I was ranging one time in 1952and we got caught in a heavy nor'wester. It blew 95 miles an hour-a hurricane, actually. It was bad weather. I went about thirty-oddmiles out in that open Catboat. I didn't get to where I wantedto go, so I had to go somewhere else."
Captain Paul Hurlston, "...That was a beautiful sight, tosee ten or twelve boats racing under sail. And the skill in sailingthem, that should be preserved. That is an art."
And now in the Islands, directly because of the spirit of thisbook, the Cayman Catboat is seeing a renaissance. It was estimatedthat there were between two and three Catboats on Grand Caymanat the release of LOVE'S DANCE. Now, there are 17 in various stagesof restoration and refinement.
There are regattas and a Cayman Catboat Club.
LOVE'S DANCE - The Catboat Of The Caymanes has become the guidebookfor the explorer of Caymanian maritime lore, in that it givesa basic background to ask the next question for which, as H.E.Ross writes, "...the response is so excited and fresh andstimulating that it leads to another response, equally charged,and a reference given, and a suggestion of somebody else thatone just has to go see..."
LOVE'S DANCE - The Catboat Of The Caymanes, is on sale at Hobbiesand Books, Book Nook, Tropicool Gifts, Atlantis Submarine Tours,Pure Art, the C.I. National Trust, the C.I. National Museum, theNational Museum in Cayman Brac and other outlets. It is a perfectgift for the year surrounding Christmas.