In Part 14 of this series about the family of Polish captain Wladek Wagner, published on April 18, I explained that teaching material for the Wagners’ personal schoolroom at their Trellis Bay home had been ordered from an organisation set up to help families living in far-flung areas of the British Empire. The materials arrived from London on March 4, 1955.

Another link to the United Kingdom’s colonial past arrived on March 15, 1955, when HMS Triumph, part of the Royal Navy Training Squadron’s annual visit, anchored off Beef Island. Fifty or more of its crew walked through the undergrowth to get to Trellis Bay, unseen from the Wagners’ Tamarind House. The sailors had enjoyed beach parties there before, but the Wagners had been away.

Shadowy figures

The dockyard workers trekked home to East End at 4 p.m., and most of the sailors returned to their ship a bit later. However, the crew were grumbling that evening because there was insufficient rum on board for everyone to enjoy their customary tot.

So the chief medical officer, a Dr. Kerr, was sent to ask his friends at Tamarind House if they could spare any.

As he walked through the darkened undergrowth, the doctor felt a strange, inexplicable compulsion to hurry. His fears were heightened after he saw three shadowy figures near the house, and he sensed that something was wrong when Mr. Wagner responded to his knock by demanding to know who was there in a voice quite unlike his usual pleasant tone. After he had reassured Mr. Wagner and stepped inside the house, he saw that the captain was bleeding from serious head wounds. The Wagners’ shocking story tumbled out while he administered first aid.

Attack

When Ms. Wagner had seen so many strangers on their beach, she had kept the children indoors instead of taking them for their usual walk and swim. They went down to the yard after their workers had left to hear about Mr. Wagner’s day. Ms. Wagner noticed that three sailors who had stayed behind were trying to steal their dinghy, so Mr. Wagner went down to the dock.

Uneasily, Ms. Wagner took the children home and watched upstairs from Mr. Wagner’s office. Two men were already in their small boat, about to cast off. When they saw Mr. Wagner, they got off and stood on the dock. Ms. Wagner was horrified to see the biggest man holding her husband tightly while the other two were beating him up. She frantically hid the children in the clothes closet, telling them to keep quiet.

Mr. Wagner said that he had asked the sailors to leave the bay as the others had done, but as he turned to secure the boat, the biggest man had caught hold of him, while the other two hit him on the head with full cans of beer so hard that one can burst open and sank jagged metal into his wounds. The men kept hitting him, but when the big one shouted, “Finish him off,” Mr. Wagner managed to break loose and jump into the sea.

Revolver

Ms. Wagner found a small revolver they had taken off their ship Rubicon and returned to the window. She told the children to stay in the closet, then ran outside with the gun. Mr. Wagner walked unsteadily towards her with blood pouring down his face. Ms. Wagner threatened to shoot the men if they tried to follow them, although she had never handled a gun. Constantly looking back, Ms. Wagner stopped to wash off as much blood as possible with seawater, so the children wouldn’t see how bad it was, then got him up to the house and climbed the few steps to their bathroom on the upper floor.

In hiding

Ms. Wagner heard her son Michael’s tricycle kicked over and prayed the children would keep quiet. The men stood on the cistern and peered through the bathroom window. The big one shouted at Mr. Wagner to come out and threatened to break in. Ms. Wagner ran down to the back door and told them to go away. When Mr. Wagner heard them demand money, he forced himself unsteadily downstairs and grabbed the gun. When he appeared in the doorway, the youngest man muttered, “This has gone far enough” and persuaded the others to leave.

Ms. Wagner tried to bandage her husband’s wounds, then looked in the closet and saw Michael asleep in his sister’s arms. She had no way of calling for help and didn’t know what to do, but she had to keep track of the three sailors. It would be dark soon. From the top window, Ms. Wagner could see the engine room, but the generator would have made too much noise, so she dashed down for the kerosene lamp instead. The Wagners sat at the dining table not daring to speak, with the revolver on the table, although Mr. Wagner must have known there were no bullets for it!

Arrested

After Dr. Kerr had treated the wounds, he went outside and signalled towards his ship with the kerosene lamp. Two officers who had gone to find out why he had not got back spotted his signals and came straight to Tamarind House. Leaving the other officers there, Dr. Kerr went to the ship for medical supplies and had the three sailors arrested and taken to their ship. All three naval officers stayed with the Wagner family overnight.

The next morning, the ship’s military police brought the three sailors to Tamarind House for identification, although Ms. Wagner did not want to see them again. Mr. Wagner was then taken to the ship’s clinic and then on to St. Thomas for a thorough examination. X-rays showed his bones were badly bruised and dented, but none was fractured. However, Ms. Wagner wrote later in her book that he periodically suffered from violent headaches for the rest of his life.

To continue “The Wagners of Trellis Bay,” click here.

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