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, was entitled “Remembering the Wagners.” Besides exploring history, it celebrated two recent Virgin Islands milestones: the first American Airlines direct flights between Miami and the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport; and Marina Cay’s reopening after its devastation by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
For part 28, on Jan. 9 of this year, I referenced Ms. Wagner’s description of her husband’s completion of the airstrip on Beef Island. This week’s instalment touches on the formation of Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT) and sets the scene for making the 1958 film based on Robb White’s 1953 book Our Virgin Island, about his early married life on Marina Cay.
Security house
On July 31, 1957, Mr. Wagner signed a contract to build a house for the security officer being assigned to the airport. He hastened its completion by replicating the design of his Trellis Bay cottages, which the workmen had already built, so they needed less supervision. The territory’s administrator was satisfied with the plan and approved the construction price of $3,000.
After the house was completed, the administrator accepted the keys to the building, surrounded by the entire legislature, who had come to examine the house, the airport and Trellis Bay for themselves. Ms. Wagner was amazed that the administrator seemed to have been the only one to have visited the development before.
She recalls that after viewing the cottage, Charles Brudenell-Bruce, who had moved to Road Town after selling Peter Island, opined that the cottage was well worth the $3,000 it had cost them, but the other legislators remained strangely silent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with him. Ms. Wagner criticised the government’s failure to acknowledge her husband’s abilities while yet wanting him to do more.
Even the administrator, who was their friend, urged Mr. Wagner to build an airport terminal housing an office with room for three to four desks, a main hall, a ticket counter, a waiting room and toilets, under pressure from Kittitian Sir Frank DeLisle, who had recently founded LIAT in Montserrat in cooperation with British West Indies Airways (BWIA).
Making a movie
However, an English company, Countryman Film Ltd., was making a film based on Mr. White’s book set in Marina Cay and wanted Trellis Bay (directly across the channel) to be its operational base. Meanwhile, the main cast of actors, directors and camera crew were to be housed at Guana Island.
In June 1957, the business manager of Countryman Films came to stay for a few days, with the art director, an assistant and the accountant. They had long discussions with Mr. Wagner about what the advance party would need. They planned to film on Marina Cay, at a cove just south of The Baths on Virgin Gorda, on Sandy Cay, and then in Road Town.
They also wanted a week or so on Eustacia, if Mr. Wagner could plant some large palm trees there that would sway in the breeze and build a cistern for a water supply. As they would be based at Trellis Bay, they would need to use its pier, a warehouse to store equipment, and an area to develop and edit films.
They also wanted the clubhouse for occasional meals, cocktail parties and meetings — and to show “rushes” as they arrived from London and needed a way to transport equipment and people, day or night, as required.
Slower pace of life
The Wagners did not want to discourage the company by suggesting that it would have to accept a slower pace of life from that in England. They could offer their boats Trellissa and Rubicon, but quickly moving equipment like the crew’s three one-ton generators and eight “sun” lamps, each weighing up to 500 pounds, would be difficult.
However, Mr. Wagner offered to construct a pontoon similar to the one he had made for the launch of the Beef Island ferry. It could be towed from one location to another and would be easier to load and unload. The director agreed and advanced $1,000 for its construction, then offered Mr. Wagner $300 a day for the use of Rubicon, barge services and crew.
The Wagners still had not found a club manager, Ms. Wagner wrote, so she was “hired” in that role. But she was not looking forward to travelling back and forth to the Cay in the dinghy every day, as its outboard motor would sometimes start, then just stop, leaving her adrift and pulling on the choke to try to get it restarted.
Nor were there any regular live-in staff except for Myrtle Penn (my future sister-in-law), who found some girls from East End as a temporary team to look after the film company. On Sept. 1, 1957, its advance party arrived from London, including an accountant, scene director and assistant, occupying three clubhouse rooms. A little later, more guests arrived, including some overflow from Guana, until every room and cottage were taken.
To start from the beginning, click here.
To continue “The Wagners of Trellis Bay,” click here.