By Verna Penn Moll

“Liberty ahoy! Liberty ahoy!” was the cry alerting the villagers that one of the cargo boats on which the community depended for transporting foodstuffs from the larger islands had been sighted and would soon be unloading. From the 1920s to the early ’60s, each village had its fleet of cargo boats that brought grain, straw, lumber, furniture, cloth and port. Much of the export cargo was livestock, primarily cows. Red Bay, Fat Hogs, Baughers Bay, Road Harbour and Cane Garden Bay were some of the busy wharves on Tortola, while Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda and The Settlement on Anegada were just as active.

The shipwrights, captains and sailors of the Virgin Islands were regarded as some of the most ingenious in the world. They sailed the seas of the Caribbean and beyond and traded with neighbouring islands and others as far away as Santo Domingo, Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad and Jamaica. And so the Virgin Islands are credited for their rich boatbuilding tradition, from which the Tortola Boat — unique among Caribbean sloops — evolved.

That was a tradition that went back as far as 1774, when the Tortola Commercial Fleet engaged in a roaring intercolonial trade. The fleet, owned by Virgin Islanders and crewed by slaves, eventually consisted of 51 sloops, schooners and scallops, and sailed to Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, St. Eustatius, CuraÁao, Philadelphia, New York, Newfoundland and Baltimore. The cargo transported included lignum vitae, boards, bread and flour, candles, codfish, shingles, meats and rum.

The art of boatbuilding was handed down through the apprenticeship system, and the boatbuilding industry was concentrated in the East End and West End villages. Shipwrights from those villages often went to The Settlement on Anegada, St. Thomas Bay on Virgin Gorda and Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke to build commissioned boats and to teach the skill.

Reviving the Art
Cultural activists seek to revive traditional boating skills and ensure that the indigenous knowledge is preserved. That’s why the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) undertook the restoration of the oldest Tortola Boat — the Vigilant, built in 1880 by Willie Penn of East End. The restored boat is to be used as a teaching and learning laboratory in the craft of boats and boating. This venture was followed by the building and launching of the Youth Instructor, another teaching boat, built by the late Osmond Davies in May 2000.

The timely opening of the Marine Centre at the HLSCC by Princess Ann in 2005 heralded the start of the Virgin Islands Maritime Museum. Curator Geoffrey Brooks and his team put together photographs, old traditional tools, textual descriptions, models and boating/sea tales that tell the fascinating story of traditional boating in the islands. Artefacts from the famous 1867 HMS Rhone are also on display. The show is aimed at students, tourists and seniors. The goal is to have a boat under construction at all times and to capture the interest of young people.

The Endeavour II restoration project is another boating conservation initiative sponsored by the Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society. The goal is to restore the oldest 32-foot sloop built on Jost van Dyke, and to pass on modern boatbuilding and sailing skills to the youth of Jost Van Dyke and the BVI while celebrating their seafaring heritage.

Book your hotel, plan your trip or wedding in the British Virgin Islands now. Book direct and save!