Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers
by Bob Kranich
The Cayman Turtle Schooner, (Part 1, Excerpt 65)
This is a story, titled The Cayman Turtle Schooner. This story will tell about the forming and history of the Cayman Islands, the green sea turtle’s habits and life style, the building of a dugout canoe, and then a schooner, and lastly about the historic two-masted turtle schooner, A. M. Adams.
The Cayman Turtle Schooner
In this story, the first two watercolors and sketch are of the A. M. Adams Turtle Schooner. I was privileged to be able to see, sketch, and watercolor this boat as it was docked at the Key West Turtle Crawls in May of 1969. This was to be only a few years from environmental laws being passed to prohibit the trading of green sea turtles. These laws naturally finished the turtle food business for the A. M. Adams, Thompson Enterprises, and Key West.
The A. M. Adams was a two-masted turtle schooner. She was commissioned by Norberg Thompson of Thompson Enterprises, Key West, Florida, and built in 1936 by the James Arch and Son’s Ship Yard in George-town, Grand Cayman. The Adams was one hundred and thirty feet long, with Cayman mahogany frames and Florida long-leaf yellow pine heartwood planking over these frames.
In the two watercolors, the Adams heyday is past. Its once proud sailing history is now left with reduced height masts, minimum sail surface, and the primary power of a diesel engine. The A. M. Adams has been lost to history. It was last seen on the Maroni River in French Guiana in the 1970’s.*
The following story is fictional. It is not about the A. M. Adams. Any resemblance to any person or a particular place is coincidental. Some history of turtle fishing is brought into this story. You will learn about the green turtle habits and lifestyle, the building of a dugout canoe, a Cayman lightweight turtle boat, and the proud sailing of a Caribbean schooner. (History, and topography of the Cayman Islands)*
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.”
Genesis 1:9 "And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear..."
Suddenly the earth began to shudder. Huge plates of solid rock cracked and moved, sliding across one and another in an east-west line. A huge trench dropped down, and at the same time a mass rose above the water forming today's Cuban Sierra Maestro mountain range. Some earth between the oceans could not reach above the waters. However, one hundred and fifty miles south of what is today known as Cuba and one hundred and eighty miles west-northwest of today’s Jamaica three small rocky tips appeared up out of the watery void.
The largest and furthest west was twenty-two miles long and four miles wide. Seventy-five miles to the east, the middle and tallest was twelve miles long, one to two miles wide, and one hundred and forty four feet high. Five miles farther east was the smallest, at ten miles long and one mile wide.
Today these are Grand Cayman, Cayman Brak, and Little Cayman consecutively. They are composed of two limestone formations, the core of bluff limestone and the surface of a younger porous formation.
Because the surface is so porous there are no rivers or streams, and consequently no runoff to cloud the surrounding sea. This leaves a dynamic visibility. These islands have sandy beaches, cliffs, caves, hardwood forests, lagoons, bays, ponds, and mangrove swamps and are surrounded by coral reefs. Past these reefs the bottom drops off for thousands of feet!
Genesis 1:10 “...and God saw that it was good.”
Ship’s record: May 10, 1503
“Believe storm has pushed us westerly off course.
We are in the central Caribbean.
Sighted two very small islands full of Tortoises as was the sea around them.”
This was Christopher Columbus’ last and fourth voyage to the Americas. He was heading back to Spain in his two small ships and was blown off course. He marked his map with two islands which today are the Lesser Caymans. He called them “Las Tortugas,” The Turtles.
Ship’s log: 1586, May, the fifth:
Back to sea after successful sacking of Cartagena and Santo Domingo. Getting low on fresh food and water. Keeping a lookout for islands or major land.
A knock on his cabin door. “Sir! Sir Francis.”
He opens it. The excited first mate. “Sir, we’ve just sighted land. Possibly two islands.”
“I’ll be right up.”
This was Sir Francis Drake, an explorer and military marine captain, famous for sailing around the globe. In this particular expedition he was in charge of a large fleet of 23 English ships. They had left England in 1585. Their mission from Queen Elizabeth the Second was to harass and plunder the Spanish in the West Indies. (Caribbean)
Ships Log: 1586, May, the Sixth
Sighted two islands. Dropped anchor and went ashore.
These may be the Caymans or as some are known, the “Las Tortugas.” the Spanish name, Caimans. We call Alligartas.*
We used both for nourishment.
Even though Columbus named these three islands “Las Tortugas” in 1503, by 1580 they were appearing on maps as Cayman Magnus, (Grand Cayman today) and, Caymanes (Lesser Caymans).
Over the years these islands became a place for ships to stop to get water from the few wells, obtain fresh turtle, crocodile and alligator meat, and careen* their boats.
It is thought the first inhabitants, two Welshmen named Bodden and Walters arrived sometime in 1658. They may have come from Jamaica after serving in the English army of Oliver Cromwell. Effectively the Caymans were under the control of Jamaica after Cromwell captured Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655. By 1670 they were officially recognized even by Spain as British. Visitors to the islands came and went, and the islands slowly acquired settlers.
From the Author:
My second full-length book , Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers is composed of 336 pages. There are 12 stories running from 6 pages to as many as 72 pages. It is fully illustrated with 88 watercolors and sketches. The watercolors I made roaming around Key West after I finished my 750 mile hike from Georgia to Key West. (See book or Don Browne’s SouthWest Florida Online News records, A Walk Across Florida.) As you read these stories you will experience Key West, the Keys, and the Caribbean. These stories span the time of the early 1800’s to 1969.
bkranich.wixsite.com/bobkranich
