I generally like museums, but the Bequia Heritage Museum was special to me. I credit the two docents. The stories they told, the songs, the history. . . it was all incredible.
But first we (Cathie, Greg, Michael and me) had to get there. We walked the uphill and downhill and uphill and downhill route to the museum from the anchorage. The views along the way were quite nice. The houses are so colorful!
There are two main rooms in the museum, each with a knowledgeable (and entertaining!) docent. We started in the boat room. Here, we learned about the history of boatbuilding and whaling in Bequia.
Whaling was introduced to the island in the 1870s. It brought with it a much needed economic upturn, which led in turn to an increased demand for boats, and an increase in employment for Bequia men.
Maritime activities were nothing new to Bequians at that time. The people had been dependent on inter-island trading for their viability for more than 100 years.
Some of the island’s earliest settlers who came to Bequia in the late 1760s, in particular those from the tiny Leeward island of Saba, were also shipwrights and seamen. With an abundance of indigenous white cedar, the development of boatbuilding was a natural – and essential – progression to ensure the islanders’ survival; carpentry and seamanship skills were faithfully taught, passed down or acquired through the generations, and these skills are still very much in evidence today.
The earliest known reference to a Bequia-built boat can be found in the St. Vincent Shipping Records of 1809, where clearance entries record the 31-ton Try Again, built in Bequia in 1799, and owned and skippered by Peter J. Hazall.
There are several stories about boatbuilders and boats in the museum, all very interesting. I am going to share one story, then show some pictures of the boats in the museum, then talk about whaling in Bequia, then end with another boat story.
Story #1: Boatbuilding
Shipwright and sea captain Reginal Mitchell built a boat on the shores of Belmont. He named her Gloria Colita. At 165 feet long (excluding bowsprit), 39 feet wide and 178 tons, the three-masted Gloria Colita is believed to be the largest wooden schooner to have been built in the Lesser Antilles.
The frame was built from carefully selected curved limbs of local white cedar; the three masts were hand cut and shaped from massive trunks of Douglas fir, imported from Canada. The launch in February 1939 took 21 days, with manpower and tide finally lifting her off the sand.
Once launched, the Gloria Colita successfully traded between British Guyana, Venezuela, Cuba, and Alabama, with cargoes of dry goods including rice, sugar and lumber.
In January 1940, whilst on a passage from Mobile, Alabama to Cuba with a cargo of lumber, the Gloria Colita was sighted in the Bermuda Triangle by a U.S. Coast Guard plane, floating half-submerged, abandoned and with cargo still intact. The steering gear and rudder had been disabled and the lifeboat was missing. There were no survivors.
There is a picture of them launching and sailing the Gloria Colita in the museum.
Story #2: Boats
The museum houses a 36-ft. Amerindian canoe, two 26-ft Bequia-built whaleboats and a 12-ft. Bequia whaleboat tender.
Dug-Out Canoe Couloura
Couloura was built in 2009 in Martinique by trainees from the Karisko Association,* following traditional construction methods as taught by Amerindian Kali’na of Guiana and Kalinago of Dominica, and as utilized by the indigenous people of the region for several thousand years.
The trunk from which the hull was dug out was cut from the national forest of the Gros Morne, strictly adhering to ancient sacred rites and rituals; the upper planks are Guianese red grignon, with the ribs and seats made from roble (Tabebuia).
Coupled with the exceptional seamanship and navigational skills of the region’s indigenous people, the dug-out canoe enabled the settlement of the Caribbean islands by groups from both South and Central America from about 4000 B.C. onwards, right up until the arrival of the Island Caribs (Kalinago) in about 1200 A.D.
*The KARISKO Association aims to create conditions for the Martinican people to reconnect with the 2500 years of history and heritage of the island by means of scientific research and cultural activities.
I don’t have any information about this next boat (my bad), but I can tell you that she is an old whaling boat and her name is Marbul.
Bequia Whaleboat Dart
Bequia whaleboat Dart and her sister whaleboat Trio, were both built in the late 1950s, on the strength of a successful season in 1958 which followed many years when few if any whales were caught.
Bequia Two-Boy Whaleboat Tender
Tender is 11′ 8″ long and 4′ 5″ wide. She is made of white cedar and spruce pine.
Built in the 1960s as a multi-purpose near-shore boat, Tender was also used in conjunction with the main whaleboat as a “shark catcher.”
Once the whale was ashore, small boats such as this one were engaged in keeping the sharks at bay while the whale was being flensed (butchered), using small iron shark harpoons and lances. (I would not have volunteered for that job.) The liver from the sharks was later fried out to make oil.
Outside of the whaling season, Tender was used as a fish-pot boat mainly in Friendship Bay. Following her sale in 1975, she was mainly used for bottom line fishing.
Unrelated to boatbuilding, but still a boat (and one mentioned by the docent), here is a picture of the boat that used to serve as the ferry. She is moored in the bay.
Story #3: Whaling in Bequia
From https://iwc.int/management-and-conservation/whaling/aboriginal/bequia:
Bequia has a population of just over 5,000 persons, and a land mass of seven square miles. The natives depend solely on tourism and the bounties of the sea for survival.
In 1876, just after the failure of agriculture for the export market, there was a growing need for a viable income, as well as additional protein in their diet, to supplement their corn, peas, and cassava diet. Thus whaling, patterned after the Yankees method, was introduced.
The same traditional methods of hunting, killing and processing of a humpback whale (as taught by the Yankees) continue today. The same implements are used, and the methods of harvesting and processing the whale remain practically the same as in the 1870’s. The only distinction is that the once vibrant export market for St. Vincent and the Grenadines has fallen from 4th in GDP to zero, as regulated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). (The IWC was established in 1946 as the global body responsible for management of whaling and conservation of whales. It is an inter-governmental organization with a current membership of 88 governments from all over the world. For more info: https://iwc.int/en/.)
Quotas and Cultural Practice
Presently the whalers of Bequia carry out their historical, cultural activity under the IWC’s regime, with the ASW quota of four whales per year since 2013. It follows a strict reporting mechanism. This quota was reached only once since it was introduced (2013), due largely to the weather conditions and the use of traditional open boats. Hunting equipment (harpoons, lances, bombs, guns and other tools and implements) are identical to those used over 140 years ago.
[ASW stands for aboriginal subsistence whaling. In some parts of the world, whale products play an important role in the nutritional and cultural life of native peoples. Four IWC member countries conduct aboriginal subsistence hunts today: Denmark (Greenland), Russia (Chukotka), St Vincent and the Grenadines (Bequia) and the United States (Alaska, and also potentially a resumption of hunts previously undertaken by the Makah Tribe of Washington State).]
In 2018, weather conditions were so severe that the boats (two in the current fleet) were able to sail for the annual hunt for two days only. This caused serious setbacks to the community and whaling families who look forward to a boost in their protein diet.
Whalers continue to practice their cultural tradition of “Blessing of the Boats” before the start of the annual hunt, which is followed by a festive party that sets the mood for the hunt and prepares the men psychologically for the dangers of the hunt.
The whales, when harpooned, are wrestled near the boat, where they are lanced or bombed until they are dead. In modern times, they are assisted in this process by other whalers, who use their normal fishing boats (speed boats) to help kill the whale quickly, using the darting gun. This process helps the whalers to satisfy the “Time to Death” criteria, which averages 17 to 30 minutes, and makes the process a lot more humane than earlier years. Once the whale is dead, the whalers must risk life and limb to venture into the water, which can sometimes be infested with sharks, to sew up the mouth of the whale, so that water does not enter the stomach and cause it to sink and be lost. The modern use of scuba gear also reduces the loss of dead whales to zero.
Small armadas of fishing boats with outboard motors assist with the towing of the whale and the whaleboat back to the flensing station at Semple Cay, where it is processed using traditional methods, and where the meat and blubber are shared using the same method introduced by the Yankee and Scottish whalers.
The owner gets a double portion for his share, as it is generally his responsibility to provide all the equipment and repair and maintain the boat. No financial assistance is provided, therefore some of the meat is sold to the villagers at a cost of East Caribbean $5.00, to help with the recovery of some costs. Following the stipulations of the IWC, the whalers do not sell any edible product outside of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Processing of the whale
The processing of a whale attracts hundreds of visitors and island people to the “Whale Cay” to join the festivities, take photographs, or to obtain a portion of the meat which is highly prized in the community and treated as a special treasure.
It takes about two days for an adult whale to be completely processed, and to clean up afterwards. The ropes must be dried, harpoons straightened and sharpened, and preparation begins for the next hunt or the storage of the boats until the next season.
Whale meat which traditionally was eaten in one of two ways – deep fried (doved) in its own oil, or salted and dried in the sun (corned), and boiled with potatoes – is now eaten in every conceivable manner, or stored in refrigerators for very special occasions. The bones are dried and processed into souvenirs and other handicraft, and sometimes used as handrails and banisters in homes, as well as decorative pieces in restaurants and bars. While these bones present an opportunity for our skilled artisans to design and build souvenirs, jewelry and trophies, the imposition of the CITES treaty limits who will buy these gifts on the local craft markets.
(CITES, officially known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is an international agreement that regulates the trade of wild animals and plants to ensure it doesn’t threaten their survival. It’s a legally binding treaty for participating countries, requiring them to implement CITES through their own domestic laws.)
Importance of Subsistence Whaling for Food Security
Such frenzied activity as described above helps to cement the need for improved food security.
This rich source of protein allowed the community to supplement its diet. Largely because of the tight family structure and its tradition of sharing resources, hundreds of dollars in foreign exchange were saved, which would otherwise have gone to import meat products.
The only picture I have to accompany the above story is of “Whale Cay,” where the citizens – including school children who are allowed to leave school to attend – congregate to celebrate.
Story #4: My Final Boat Story: A Move Away from Whaling
But before I go there, I wanted to share a bit about the second room of the museum. It contains dozens (over a hundred?) of artifacts from the waters near Bequia. The docent in this room must have been a teacher at some time. If she wasn’t, she would have been an excellent one. She knows how to tell historical stories as they should be told, the result being that you are hanging onto her every word. And she was funny! When she went “off script” she would sit down on the bench up front, cross her legs, lean forward, and fill us in on a tale or fun fact.
Outside of that second building was another boat. There was a sign accompanying the boat, and that is the story I am going to share with you now.
First, the boat. This is Bequia Whaleboat Rescue.
Rescue was built in 1996. She is 27′ long and 7’4″ wide. She is made of Bequia white cedar, Guyanese Silverballi, and imported pitch pine. She was in use from 1996-2013.
Retired whaleman and former owner of Rescue, Orson “Balaam” Ollivierre comes from a long line of whalers. His great, great-grandfather, great grandfather, and father were all huge figures in the whaling industry. (Another article: https://www.sierraclub.ca/from-whaling-to-whale-watching-sccf-gets-a-first-hand-look-at-the-green-transition-in-action/)
Orson’s first venture into whaling was at the age of 13, when he joined the crew of whaleboat Dart (pictured above in this post). He then learned boatbuilding and carpentry from his extended family. He built Rescue assisted by his father. He named the boat “Rescue” because he feared that whaling was coming to an end, and (at that time) wanted to “rescue” Bequia’s unique tradition from falling into obscurity.
Given this extraordinarily deep and extended connection to whaling, Orson’s decision in 2013 to lay down his harpoon and to cease entirely his then leading role in Bequia’s generations-old maritime activity, was all the more remarkable – and courageous.
Orson was encouraged to stop whaling as part of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Nations Trust’s overall efforts to promote a shift towards sustainable marine tourism. In Orson’s case, this meant a move away from whaling and towards whale-watching, and his final decision came after attending a whale-watching conference in Australia, organized by the International Whaling Commission.
In February 2014, Rescue was handed over to the SVG National Trust, which in turn donated it to the Trustees of the Bequia Heritage Foundation who have created the space to display it in this museum.
When asked about his decision to stop whaling, and turn the whale watching, Orson’s response was simply: “After one time is another.” The initiative to develop whale-watching in SVG’s what and dolphin-rich waters is ongoing.
I will share our hike of Mount Peggy (“Ma Peggy”) and more in the next post.