On BVI-USVI Friendship Day 2016, leaders of the two territories called on us to study our common history. What better (or worse) event to start with than the hurricane on Oct. 29, 1867?
The storm wrought death and destruction to both parts of the Virgin Islands archipelago. It was reported locally to a visiting English captain that Road Town had been “ravaged,” Virgin Gorda had suffered “considerable destitution,” and 26 houses had been destroyed on Jost Van Dyke. Moreover, St Thomas was in ruins.
About 50 vessels were wrecked and/or driven ashore, including six Royal Mail Steamships: the 750-tonne Wye was lost off Buck Island, the 791-tonne Derwent was driven ashore from her moorings at St. Thomas, the 923-tonne Conway was driven ashore at Tortola with mail from the Windward Islands on board, and the 2,737-tonne Rhone wrecked off Salt Island near Black Rock. Meanwhile, the 1,600-tonne Salem and 1,910-tonne Tyre were dismasted but still serviceable.
The Rhone had been built for the Royal Mail Packet Company only two years earlier, to carry mail and passengers between England and the Caribbean. At 300-feet long, with more than 300 cabins, she was uniquely equipped with both sails and steam power.
She had been anchored in Great Harbour, Peter Island, on the Oct. 28 with her passengers and most of her cargo of spices already on board. The boat’s captain had noticed a severe storm gathering overnight, but by then the hurricane season was traditionally finished. However, when the storm hit, the engine at full power could scarcely hold the ship at anchor.
Following a lull in the storm, the captain tried to take the ship between Peter and Salt Islands, but it was slowly pushed towards Black Rock Point, off Salt Island. The hot boiler exploded as it met the cold sea. The Rhone split in half, with the stern settling 35 feet below the surface, and the bow more than twice as deep.
The 1780 Lower Estate Sugar Works Museum contains a few artifacts from the Rhone in its basement area. For example, a small photograph shows a memorial in the Old Cemetery, Southampton, England inscribed “In Memory of the Officers and Crew of the Royal Mail Steamships Rhone and Wye lost during the Hurricane at St. Thomas, West Indies, October 29, 1867.”
The seamen were mostly from the Southampton area, like one listed on a Nicholas Family Tree as “William Keeping: born 13 December 1842 in Lymington, Hampshire, England; married Rosina Miles (20) at Holy Trinity Church, Southampton 9 August 1866; Lost at Sea on the RMS Rhone October 29, 1867.”
A few of the seaman (including one said to have been in an officer’s uniform) lie buried on Salt Island in unmarked, but neatly tended graves on the beach near the dock. I‘ve been told that other victims are at rest on Peter Island and possibly Jost Van Dyke, It was reported that the captain had ordered passengers be strapped in for their own safety.
One welcome result of the disastrous weather was the abatement of the yellow fever epidemic, which was incorrectly blamed on the arrival of ships from the Far East – yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes that flourish in squalid living conditions. It was many years before St Thomas shook off its reputation for unhealthiness, and attracted tourists seeking a climate conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
The long-term benefit of the sunken Rhone that’s so cherished today was the evolution of a new marine environment, comparatively untouched until the stern was dynamited about 60 years ago for safety of passing vessels. It remains one of the Caribbean’s most popular dive sites.
One diver who sailed from St. John to “dive the Rhone” described it on TripAdvisor as among the best ever: “They take only verified divers. The wreck itself was unbelievable. The stern in the deeper water is still very intact. The coral growing on the ship was very healthy, especially in such a touristy area. There are dives every day, all the dive shops seem to have taken great care of it. They took another dive to the more exposed part, the stern… The copper propeller, only the second one ever cast, is an incredible swim through.”
So as we start to prepare for that bittersweet 150th anniversary on Oct. 29, 2017, I would:
• Recommend the National Parks Trust and Salt Island Descendants Committee apply to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation for the registration of RMS Rhone Marine Park (established 1980) and Salt Island as World Heritage Sites. And, to that end I would suggest inviting interested university archaeological departments to propose surveys of the proposed sites, including a re-appraisal of the wreck and its fall-out area, attempts to identify the occupants of the sailors’ graves on Salt Island and elsewhere, and the production of a street plan of the houses and family graves in The Settlement.
• Call on the BVI and USVI governments to consider celebrating Friendship Day 2017 during the last week in October, which includes St. Ursula’s Day.
• Propose that the 150th Anniversary of the 1867 hurricane be commemorated with a programme of activities during that week, including roll-calling the victims, floating wreaths above the wreck, holding a service dedicated to those lost at sea a yacht rally, showing films shot on the site, issuing a set of postage stamps, and inviting identified survivors of the victims’ descendants, Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery, journalists and other contacts in Southampton.
• Invite H. Lavity Stoutt Community College to organise a multidisciplinary conference on the hurricane jointly with the University of the Virgin Islands. The conference should include a comparison with other “late in the season” storms, the organisation of family reunions, a seminar on the historical importance of the Royal Mail Steamships to St. Thomas economy, a seminar on the subsequent fate of all six of its ships hit by the hurricane, and the publication of the conference papers – with off-prints donated to the Salt Island Descendants Committee, the NPT and Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery for sale in aid of their funds.
• Invite the Salt Island Descendants Committee to consult with its members on its participation in the celebrations, possibly including proposals for a Salt Island Visitors Centre.
• Collect artefacts from the Rhone stored at the Folk Museum, 1780 Lower Estate Sugarworks Museum, HLSCC and BVI Tourist Board, and aggregate them at a display in a new section of the HLSCC’s Marine Centre.
This commentary is dedicated to the NHI and Dr. Maria H. Berracol, without whose skillful eye surgery it may never have been completed.
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