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 an American named Ethel Morton. The pair had corresponded since Ms. Morton had visited Trellis Bay two years earlier, just after the Wagner family had moved ashore from living on their yacht Rubicon, much to Ms. Wagner’s relief.
I had assumed that Ms. Wagner was quoting from the correspondence between them begun then, while they were living in the small cottage her husband, Captain Wladek Wagner, had built next to their first shipyard on Trellis Bay. However, Ms. Morton’s intimate description of her affection for the Wagner children, Suzanna and Michael, makes it read more like a personal diary she may have bequeathed to Ms. Wagner.
The Mortons must have had to return their hired launch to St. Thomas, because Ms. Morton writes that Mr. Wagner was taking them to St. Thomas on his yacht Rubicon, as he needed fuel and butane gas that could not be loaded on his small launch Trellissa. As he was going to fly onwards to San Juan after a change of plans, he decided to leave Ms. Wagner and the children at their new home in Trellis Bay.
Ms. Morton commented that she was glad that Ms. Wagner would not have to endure the day’s sail as she often got seasick. Mr. and Ms. Wagner had interrupted their voyage from England to Australia on Rubicon when she became pregnant with Suzanna, so Ms. Wagner must have concocted an explanation for her nausea whenever she thought of sailing on Rubicon again. She much preferred the speed and comparative comfort in Trellissa.
‘Surrounded by love’
In contemplating their departure, Ms. Morton writes that the Wagner children were “surrounded by love and born to a family bound together by strong ties of affection.” However, she added that Michael “would be happily driving his new pedal car” but Suzanna “would be upset, I was sure. She and I were very close.”
While the dinghy was hoisted on board Rubicon, Ms. Morton sat on deck watching and waving to the onlookers, including Ms. Wagner, Suzanna and their housekeeper Myrtle Penn, sitting on the low wall surrounding the open porch of their home. Mr. Wagner had built Ms. Penn, my future sister-in-law, an adjacent tiny cottage to save the daily journey from East End.
Airfield update
Ms. Wagner also commented that by then the airfield was nearly finished and they hoped to use an angle bulldozer Geoffrey Allsebrook, then the administrator of the VI, had sent to level off and pack the fresh layer of earth.
However, it seemed to operate only when going sideways and left a wavy track behind it when its long blade faced straight ahead, so Mr. Wagner dismissed its operator and left Public Works to collect it.
Some workmen helped Hubert Frett manually level the strip perfectly. Ms. Wagner comments that their team of workers from East End were more reliable than most of the machinery and equipment they had.
Then the entire airstrip had to be uniformly covered for a landing platform. Mr. Wagner originally planned to plant grass: It was inexpensive but not his ideal, and Public Works had no ideas or materials, according to the account.
However, the Public Works bulldozer driver hit a hard, greyish blue mass he couldn’t cut or move on the centre ridge of the eastern boundary, just under the section of the road he was working on.
Natural gravel
Mr. Wagner recognised it immediately as a layer of decayed stone, like some he had used successfully when surfacing airfields in the Australian Outback. Broken up, it served as a high-quality natural gravel. Once spread, it had settled and returned into a hard, solid mass.
That was the first intimation I remember reading in Ms. Wagner’s book that her husband had gained experience of constructing airfields in the 1930s during a stopover in Australia to earn funds to continue his achievement of becoming the first Pole to sail around the world.
The Caterpillar bulldozer that the governor of Puerto Rico gave them used its well-tilted blade to break up as much of the hard mass as possible. Then John Winter, the “dynamite man,” blasted apart the rest. Between these methods, they produced enough gravel to surface the entire landing area six inches deep. Then the men spread it with spades and three-foot rakes.
Roadway
Meanwhile, the Public Works bulldozer continued to cut the road from the ferry landing to the main pier at Trellis Bay, attracting more and more visitors.
Mr. Allsebrook realised the potential danger from people and cattle straying into the paths of planes landing and taking off, so he sent across 50 rolls of barbed wire to fence off the area, keeping the airfield clear while leaving the road free for public transport.
Mr. Wagner used branches from local turpentine trees to make fence posts that could reproduce as trees, to save buying timber.
Part 28 of this commentary series is dedicated to the memory of Myrtle Penn’s younger brother Timothy and his son Carris, named after her father, whose lives were jointly celebrated at a funeral service on Dec. 14.
To start from the beginning, click here.
To continue “The Wagners of Trellis Bay,” click here.
