"The light that comes from wisdom never goes out"
I concluded Part 44 of this series, which was published on Dec. 11, by noting that Mabel Wagner never describes her Polish husband Wladek Wagner as a property developer. However, …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 45”
This series of commentaries is based on Mabel Wagner’s out-of-print book Lest I Forget: The Wagner Family, Pioneers of Trellis Bay, Beef Island, BVI. The memoir — which draws on …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, Part 44”
Polish Captain Wladek Wagner and his English wife Mabel once discussed writing “his” and “her” versions of their story. So she drew on his large trove of documents to write …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 43”
Mabel Wagner’s 2015 memoir Lest I Forget draws on her husband Captain Wladek Wagner’s business letters and meticulously kept logbooks, together with her personal diaries and correspondence, to describe how …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, Part 42”
This series of commentaries follows Mabel Wagner’s 2015 memoir Lest I Forget. The book recounts Ms. Wagner’s work with her Polish husband Wladek Wagner to transform the remote, bush-covered Trellis …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, Part 41”
I am basing this series of commentaries on Mabel Wagner’s out-of-print 2015 book Lest I Forget, which recounts her Polish husband Wladek Wagner’s development of Trellis Bay and construction of …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, Part 40”
I remarked in part 38 of this series (which was published on Aug. 5), that I wanted to test the accuracy of Mabel Wagner’s description of events in Lest I …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, Part 39”
I started this series of commentaries to celebrate the inauguration of direct flights from Miami and Polish Captain Wladek Wagner’s development of Beef Island airfield, as told by his widow …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, Part 38”
This series of commentaries — begun on July 20, 2023, to celebrate the inauguration of direct flights between Miami and Beef Island — is based on Mabel Wagner’s 2015 book …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 37”
In part 34 of this series on May 22, I explained that Mabel Wagner wrote in her book Lest I Forget — which chronicled her time developing Trellis Bay with …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 36”
I mentioned in part 33 of this series, published on May 1, that a Canadian bookshop stocked a copy of the out-of-print memoir upon which this series is based: Mabel …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 35”
In Part 33 of this series on May 1, I described Mabel Wagner’s account of events between a plane landing on the nearly completed Beef Island airfield on Sept. 1, …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 34”
I explained in part 32 of this series, which was published on April 3, that I wanted to make Mabel Wagner’s book Lest I Forget better known. Many of the …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 33”
Before Polish Captain Wladek Wagner died, he and his English wife Mabel had intended to write “his” and “her” versions of their story. So she drew on his large trove …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 32”
I began these commentaries on July 20, 2023, to celebrate the construction of the original airfield on Beef Island by Wladek Wagner, a Polish sea captain, as recorded in the …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 31”
I started this series of commentaries on July 20, 2023, after the inaugural American Airlines flight between Miami and Tortola, to celebrate the construction of the original airfield by Wladek …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 30”
This series of commentaries is based on Mabel Wagner’s out-of-print book Lest I Forget: The Wagner Family, Pioneers of Trellis Bay, Beef Island. My first one, published July 20, 2023, …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 29 “
In part 27 of this series, published on Nov. 28, I used Mabel Wagner’s lengthy quotes from an account of her son Michael’s 6th birthday on April 3, 1957, by …
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In part 26 of this series, published on Nov. 14, I described how the then governor of Puerto Rico gave the 1950s Beef Island airstrip project a Caterpillar bulldozer, delivered …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 27”
In part 25 of this series, published on Oct. 31, I noted that Mabel Wagner opined in her book Lest I Forget that her husband Wladek Wagner faced a mammoth …
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In his memoirs published in 1990, Howard Reynold Penn (1903-1994), who in 1956 was a member of the Virgin Islands government, recalled then-governor Sir Kenneth Blackburne seeking funding for “H.R. …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 25”
I started this series of commentaries on July 20, 2023, after the inaugural American Airlines flight between Miami and Beef Island and the reopening of Marina Cay, to salute the …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, Part 24”
In her 2012 book Lest I Forget, former Trellis Bay resident Mabel Wagner mentions Leeward Islands Governor Sir Kenneth Blackburne visiting Tortola on July 1, 1956, before sending London his …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 23”
On Nov. 17, 1956, several of 50-year-old Carris Penn’s brothers and stepbrothers from East End attended the opening of the clubhouse on Bellamy Cay, as recounted last Thursday in part …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 22”
In November 1956, Polish Captain Wladek Wagner and his wife Mabel Wagner opened their clubhouse on Bellamy Cay in Trellis Bay shortly before their boatyard reopened at the end of …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — The Wagners of Trellis Bay, part 21”