The Watermark is distinquishing itself among Grace Bay resort condominiums.

By Kathy Borsuk ~ Renderings Courtesy Apollo Developments

Being a person necessarily surrounded by paper, I’ve always associated the term “watermark” with the translucent design visible when a page of high quality paper is held to the light. It symbolizes a certain elegance and Žlan, a step above a sheet of utilitarian copy machine paper; and its message is sure to be worthy of attention.

In the Turks & Caicos, The Watermark is an aptly named resort-condominium project that is already distinguishing itself on Providenciales shores. Not only is it located on one of the best remaining sites on Grace Bay’s beloved beach, it offers an ideal combination of intimate luxury and investment possibility, and is the country’s first member of The Preferred Hotels & Resorts collection of properties.

The location

The Watermark occupies the last commercial property on Grace Bay’s western flanks, with 400 feet of beachfront for only 52 residences. Here, the beach is especially wide, with a gentle slope into the warm turquoise sea. Less densely developed than central “Gold Coast” sites, The Watermark’s eastern neighbor is another upscale condominium resort, The West Bay Club, and to the west lies 1,200 feet of protected national park land, allowing a luxurious sense of space and tranquility, while preserving views and property values.

In close proximity along the newly paved Lower Bight Road are the marina, restaurants, shopping and boat and diving charters of Turtle Cove Marina, a centerpiece of ever-expanding options. A trip in the opposite direction brings easy access to the supermarket, retail outlets and offices of Graceway Plaza.

And, of course, there is the beach. Nearly twice as wide here than in other areas of the north shore, the sand is fine and white, the expansive views those of azure ocean and show-stopping sunsets. A mere 800 yards away is one of the island’s best snorkeling sites; sailing, windsurfing and kiteboarding in the area are legendary, and 12 miles of unobstructed beachfront await exploration. The Watermark overlooks Sellar’s Cut, the island’s principal boat access through the barrier reef, promising a daily parade of yachts and fishing boats.

Plans are underway to improve the Lower Bight Community Park bordering The Watermark. Landscaped gardens, a small local craft market and a children’s playground will be managed by the nearby government Environmental Center.

The design

“Classic Caribbean style with a contemporary flair,” describes The Watermark’s sleek design, created by one of the Turks & Caicos’ most distinguished architectural firms, Simon Wood Associates (SWA). Blending traditional Bermudian-based design elements such as the curved, peaked roof, white rendering walls and colored shutters with modern, clean lines and the extensive use of glass brings forth an uncomplicated effect of intimate luxury, without formality.

The concept extends to the interiors of the studio, one, two and three bedroom floor plans, artfully arranged in two buildings over five stories. Each residence is beachfront, with ocean views of top priority. Expansive terraces, floor to ceiling windows and sliding glass doors blur the line between indoor and outdoor living. Oceanfront master bedroom “spa suites” introduce ocean view tubs (and glassed shower!) to let your senses soak in the exquisite seaside panorama; other bedrooms are raised with pocket doors to also take advantage of the seascape.

The 3,468 sq. ft. penthouse embraces 100 feet of deck, with a private rooftop pool. Open floor plans in every suite highlight light and space, with a variety of lockout options to maximize rental flexibility. Interiors, artfully created by Florida-based D’Amico Design Associates (DADA), emphasize simplicity and beach tones with the use of built-in appliances and natural wood in furniture, flooring and cabinetry. Units are pre-wired for the latest in communications and entertainment technology, with wireless, high-speed Internet throughout.

The amenities

The Watermark is one of few TCI properties to be designed and built from the beginning as a five-star resort, following the trend set by premium hoteliers such as the Ritz Carlton and The Four Seasons. The property will feature a world-class restaurant with indoor air conditioned and outdoor garden terrace dining, a chic beach bar, and spacious conference facility and business center. It will also include a spa and state-of-the-art fitness center, with four spa suites and a yoga pavilion opening into a tranquil garden retreat, with trickling waterfalls and fountains complementing the murmur of ocean waves and palm trees rustling in the gentle tradewinds.

Making first impressions count, owners and guests arrive at the cantilevered porte cochere and pass through the reception building’s entrance gallery into a sun-drenched central terrace, lushly landscaped with tropical plants. Along with their first, stunning ocean view, guests find the huge, infinity-edge pool, in which floating, palm-tree shaded “leisure islands” offer a signature twist (and unique place to relax). It’s a short stroll along the boardwalk to reach the beach, where lounge chairs and shaded tiki tables await. Pool and beachside catering and towel service make life even easier!

Underground tunnels simplify the transfer of luggage, laundry and room service, with minimal disruption to guests enjoying the peaceful seafront setting.

The developers

For this story, I spoke to Rob Ayer, managing director of Apollo Developments, a group of individual investors who are backing the project. Rob said the group chose the Providenciales location after visiting 16 other countries, including sites in the Bahamas and Nevis. He explains, “We believe that the Turks & Caicos Islands is a very special place, and that Grace Bay is the best beach in the world. The real estate and tourism market is quite vibrant right now, but we were also comfortable with TCI being a stable British territory, with the US dollar as its currency.”

Calling on his expertise in building long-standing, profitable businesses, including commercial development in Canada and the founding of a successful technology company in Seattle, Washington, Rob Ayer, a Canadian citizen and TCI resident, carefully selected a stellar team of local firms to develop and bring The Watermark to fruition. Besides SWA as architect, he chose the long-established company of BCQS Limited as project managers, with Saunders & Co. as legal advisors and Marathon Design Works for advertising and marketing.

The investment

Among the project’s most significant “watermarks” is its partnership with The Preferred Hotels & Resorts collection of properties. Preferred Hotel Group brands over 300 of the finest independent hotels and resorts in 52 countries, including such outstanding sites as Sandy Lane in Barbados, Peter Island in Tortola, BVI, Atlantis in Paradise Islands, the Bahamas, and Amelia Island Plantation Inn in Florida. The collection features over 60,000 hotel rooms and is known internationally for its premier locations and superior standards of quality, service and luxury.

As a result of this branding decision, Ayer explains, The Watermark will benefit from the Preferred Group’s strong marketing engine, global reservations system and high-end data base, which will support high occupancy, premium room rates and even select for a class of guest that is likely to “live lightly” within the rooms. He adds that this association is sure to benefit the entire destination, another indication that TCI is, indeed, “on the map” of luxury destinations world-wide.

With the decision to operate as a branded hotel made early on in The Watermark’s planning process, the developers invested $8 million in “back of the house” features to ensure its optimal running. This includes a dedicated reception area and concierge service. At the same time, the condominiums were designed with maximum flexibility, so they could readily be rented as studio and one bedroom hotel suites, with lock-out features to protect owners’ privacy. Other efficiencies, such as solar water heating, high-efficiency air conditioners and upper-end appliances, will help ensure that owners maximize their return on investment through rentals.

The Watermark will be operated and managed by Prism Hotels, a privately held hospitality company that has overseen projects such as The Hilton Hotel & Spa in Cancun, Mexico, The Marriott Grand Cayman Resort and The Plantation Resort & Golf Course in Crystal River, Florida. Ayer says they chose Prism based on their industry reputation for operational excellence among the hospitality ownership and franchise community.

Richard Sankar, the Prestigious Properties sales agent representing The Watermark, alerts potential investors to The Watermark’s excellent value and potential. He believes the decision on the part of the developer to engage a professional hotel management company early in the development cycle, combined with the resort’s membership in the Preferred Hotel Group will yield significantly higher than normal annual returns. This will differentiate The Watermark from other condo developments on Provo and translate into better appreciation for the buyer.

Ayer believes that The Watermark owners get the best of both worlds. “For their personal enjoyment, they get a luxurious vacation home designed by top architects and interior designers, outfitted with world-class amenities and run by a professional management company. As an investment, it benefits from the proven marketing and operational expertise and rental track record that properties in the Preferred Hotel Group have established. Even by Turks & Caicos’ successful standards, this is a one of a kind opportunity.”

With prices ranging from $450,000 to $2.5 million, by early December 2006 nearly 50% of the units had been sold. Ground-breaking for The Watermark is set for January, 2007, with anticipated completion scheduled for Fall, 2008 in a single phase construction process.

For more information, visit www.thewatermark.tc.

By Kathy Borsuk ~ Renderings Courtesy Windsong Resort

This slogan for a popular perfume commercial kept repeating itself in my head as I wrote this story. That’s likely because thoughts of the Windsong Resort condominium project conjured up the same dreamy, romantic notions as the perfume advertising . . . in this case, referring to a luxurious, carefree lifestyle on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Windsong is among the latest resort condominiums to be built on the western side of acclaimed Grace Bay Beach in Providenciales. It occupies a lengthy swath (450 feet) of sugar-sand beach between The Residences at Coral Gardens and a number of single-family homes. It’s part of a private, peaceful, neighborly enclave, made all the more so by the developers’ decision to limit Windsong to only four stories and 50 condominiums spread over three beachfront buildings.

Windsong is the kind of place where you’ll find a number of niches to feel at home. It might be on a lounge chair sunk into the deep, golden sand outside your door . . . or floating in the warm, tranquil waters with mask and snorkel, watching the lively action of a bustling reef just offshore. On days when you feel like relaxing around a pool, there are two from which to choose: one for quiet contemplation, sunbathing and reading, another for family-inspired fun. Both are front and center to the entrancing view: deep blue sky, glittering turquoise sea, and an extra-wide band of pristine beach. When hunger and thirst strike, satiation is as close as the open air oceanfront cafe. Accessed via a dramatic waterfall bridge and several steps down from the pool deck, diners have underwater views into the pool through a saltwater aquarium. In the evenings, entertainment will focus around the piano bar.

The Windsong offers a choice of one, two and three bedroom condominium suites, ranging in size from 650 to over 4,000 square feet and priced from $450,000 to $2,000,000. With something for everyone (including unbelievable penthouses with open roof decks complete with Jacuzzis), all enjoy outstanding ocean views, enhanced by “disappearing” pocket doors to balconies and terraces for maximum exposure to the magnificent Grace Bay seascape and refreshing tradewinds.

All master bedrooms also boast ocean views through private balconies. Travertine floors offer a visual extension of the indoor-outdoor feel. At the same time, all the details are taken care of. Stucco exteriors and an aluminum roof are well suited to the seaside environment and all buildings include sprinkler systems in case of fire. Many units are also designed with lock-out studios, to help owners earn a rental income when they are not in residence.

Molter & Company, an award-winning real estate project management firm, leads the development of Windsong Resort. Well-known as one of the preeminent development and construction firms in South Florida, the company combines a decade of hospitality management with over 20 years of real estate development, with projects ranging from luxury oceanfront villas, waterfront condominiums, single family homes and townhouses to clubhouses and marinas. Under the leadership of Jim Molter, the company has earned a long-standing reputation for innovative design, quality craftsmanship, sensitivity to community and environmental concerns and financial integrity.

Jim Molter is Windsong’s developer, and will serve as its resident manager once the doors open early in 2008. With a friendly, down to earth manner that complements his extensive knowledge of construction and hospitality management, Molter’s attitude mirrors the charm and intimacy only made possible in a smaller development with an on-site manager.

He enthusiastically describes a number of enhancements that will welcome residents and guests with open arms. “We have an elevator that will travel directly between the reception building and guest rooms, to make it easy to transport luggage, groceries, gear. There’s convenient underground parking and individual, secured storage spaces for residents. We have an open air pavilion that’s ideal for weddings and family gatherings and a business/conference center to cater to the small meetings market. Our spa and wellness center is a great place to unwind and de-stress.”

Most importantly, Molter wants Windsong to feel like a warm, welcoming home in the tropics, an echo of the way “old Provo” used to be. Towards this end, he says “I’m planning lots of special events to bring together guests, residents and our local neighbors, things like themed buffet nights at the pavilion, movie screenings in the conference rooms and game nights.” In spite of its peaceful location, Windsong is close-by to a number of excellent restaurants and the supermarket and within easy driving distance to the airport, shopping areas and the Provo Golf & Country Club.

Molter says that plans for Windsong have been in the making since 1999, when the land was purchased along with a residential home on site that is currently being used as the sales office. Windsong’s lovely design, blending sophisticated architecture with casual, carefree waterfront living, was created by the architectural firm of Peacock + Lewis, best known for their innovative golf course clubhouse designs in the southeastern United States. They teamed up with Conservative Architects, headed by TCI native Anthony Walkin, who provides knowledge and skill in working with the various local agencies. Landscaping is designed and implemented by Sages and Company, a Florida-based landscaper with over 25 years of experience in high-end residential estates and condominiums, specializing in landscape “themes” that complement a project’s architectural details. Construction by locally based JACA TCI Ltd. started in May 2006.

To date, over 70% of the units have been sold, many to savvy investors who anticipate an excellent return, not only due to property appreciation, but also to a well-managed rental property. But besides the financial incentives, an investment in Windsong is also an investment in your well-being: sun, sea, sand and a Windsong lifestyle will see to that!

For more information, visit www.windsongresort.com

Story by Suzanne Gerber ~ Photos by Barbara Shively

Whether you’re diving, snorkeling or shopping for cars or jewelry, it’s human nature to notice the big, splashy things first. A two-carat diamond or cherry-red Porsche will catch your eye long before that tiny chip of serendibite or a Sunbeam. It’s the same with the underwater world. New divers (and snorkelers, and even aquarium buffs) will gape at sharks and rays and the larger, more colorful fish. And for good reason. Those are exciting critters to watch.

But after their 600th parrotfish, many divers stop looking up and around and start training their gaze onto the coral itself, to see what tiny treasures they can spot. Veteran divers come to love the juveniles of any species – not only are they smaller, but they are usually much more wildly colored and patterned. Sometimes they’re so different you don’t even recognize the baby as the same species as the mature adult. An Emperor Angel, a Pacific Ocean fish, is a spectacular creature, but the juvenile, with its deep-blue swirling rings, is truly a sight to behold. And the Caribbean staple, the smooth or spotted Trunkfish, with its boxy shape and extended puckered snout, is a favorite of many. But the newly hatched baby is like a miniature die, smooth and round with just a hint of its future pout-snout. Finding one of those, for many of us, is better than hitting on a gold doubloon.

There’s a reason why divemasters, many of them with thousands of dives under their weight belt, seek out the tiny and unusual. And while serious underwater photographers love a great wide-angle landscape shot or a perfectly silhouetted reef shark, more often than not they’ve got their macro lens on and can be seen this close to tiny cracks in the reef, scoping out the small and rare critter.

In addition to the juveniles of all the species, there are real prizes among the small set. Worms might not sound appealing to landlubbers (except avid gardeners, that is) but marine species are gorgeous. Ditto slugs and snails. Sounds like something that has you running for the salt shaker, but in the water, these creatures (also called nudibranchs) are among the most sought-after and photographed. Some photographers create posters of their work and only include nudibranchs!

Barbara is one of these photographers, who doesn’t shy away from a killer landscape shot, but more than likely is looking down and squinting for tiny treasures. Together we’re gawked at miniature seahorses, their tiny tails looped around a soft coral. We’re hovered over soft, leafy gorgonian branches trying to find teensy slender filefish perfectly camouflaged within. And we’ve thrilled to find frogfish in the shallows, camouflaged in the coral. It’s always a joy to spot these creatures, partly because it’s so hard to do.

For many divers, this introduction comes from experienced divers or divemasters – or just with time. But we believe that if you get to know a little about their changing appearance, habitat and behavior, you’re more likely to spot them. Toward that end, we’re compiled a small compendium of some of our small favorites.

Fairy basslet

This small, colorful fish usually measures just one to two inches long, though they’re been recorded as long as five inches. It’s hard to believe, but they’re the tropical cousins of the familiar sea bass family. They come in a range of colors and patterns, but in typical animal fashion, the male is the more brilliantly colored.

The most common pattern in the TCI is a purple front and yellow rear. You’ll find fairy basslets close to sponges and corals, particularly in the shade of overhangs. When they’re hungry, they will often emerge from their hiding places in large schools and seek out clear waters where there’s a current running. Because of their vibrant coloring, they are a popular aquarium fish. However, due to overfishing of the species for the sake of collectors (along with pollution and other factors that negatively impact reefs), their numbers are diminishing and this delightful fish could become endangered if practices aren’t reversed.

Indigo hamlet

This species is still being studied – recently it was determined there are 11 distinct types of hamlets, and even more when you take into account hybrid color combos. But this gorgeous little fish (usually 3 to 5 inches in length) is easily recognized by his rich blue color and white vertical stripes. It’s shy and tends to hide in reef holes and under overhangs. While many fish species change genders within their lifetime, what’s a particularly interesting aspect of hamets is that they often exhibit traits of both sexes at the same time. And since they’re not shy about mating in front of humans, many divers have been treated to some memorable under-water performances!

Seahorse

Uncommon as well as hard to find even when you know they’re there, this species is a universal favorite. They are in fact a true fish: their family is Syngnathidae, but it’s the name of their genus that’s worth mentioning, if only for the snicker factor: poophead. In the TCI, they’re found in red, yellow, brown and black – some have white stripes or are translucent! Barbara hears that many locals, never having seen one firsthand, don’t believe they’re real. Perhaps the reason women divers are fond of these two to six-inch critters is that they’re primarily monogamous: they greet each other every morning with mating rituals (and often in the evening as well); and, best of all, the male carries the babies!

Blue chromis

This tiny member of the attractive Damselfish family grows to three or four inches and is a familiar sight on many if not most Caribbean reefs. The adults are highly protective of their turf, and usually settle down into a permanent home around a small hole in the coral where they can hide from predators, sleep at night and raise their young. You can often spot schools of dozens of them, their distinctive forked tails flittering together in the current like tiny electric-blue flags, feeding on plankton, their favorite snack.

Longlure frogfish

This guy is so ugly he’s actually cute. These masters of camouflage (particularly around sponges) are reclusive bottom dwellers. There are few sights in the water as entertaining as catching a frogfish going for a walk. He uses his pectoral and pelvic fins to slide himself along the floor, and in the process he wobbles slightly from side to side in the process. He’s described poetically as “short, fat and globular,” and he seldom grows to more then five inches in length. The three-incher pictured in this article was first spotted by Smitty on Grand Turk about two weeks before Barbara was due to visit. Upon arrival, she immediately asked to be taken to it, and was thrilled to find the little guy had moved only a few feet.

Slender filefish

This cutey is one of the smallest types of filefish in the world, growing to a mere three inches (but most typically found in the Caribbean at about one inch). Another master of disguise, this fish is usually found hiding out in the gorgonians, changing its color and even patterns to blend in with its surroundings. It gets its name from the forward single portion of its dorsal fin. When frightened, the filefish can tuck itself into a crevice and use the fin to lock in place, making it almost impossible for predators to extract it.

Christmas tree worm

Often mistaken by new divers or snorkelers for a coral polyp, this worm is one of most decorous things in the water. They usually grow in groupings on brain coral, and can be pretty much any color in the rainbow. It lives inside a tube, and the part of the creature we see, the head, is actually its radiole, which the inch-high worms use to filter plankton out of the water for food and to breathe.

Though beautiful to look at, they can be very hard to photograph. They’re hypersensitive to movement in the water and can sense creatures in the vicinity. To protect themselves, in the blink of an eye (or snap of a shutter), they will retract into the coral, not to re-emerge till you are long gone.

Social feather duster worm

With crowns (heads) only one inch across, these tiny creatures look like tiny water flowers. (They’ve been seen as large as six inches, but that’s very rare.) Like Christmas Tree Worms, each lives in its own calcium-based tube, about the size of a straw. They get their name from the fact that they look like old-fashioned feather dusters and live in clusters. Also like the Christmas Tree Worms, they pull in their heads when they sense danger. Delicate as the flowers they resemble, they’re vulnerable to divers’ fins and dangling equipment (not to mention anchors) and should be carefully minded by everyone who approaches.

Lettuce sea slug

The ruffles of this critter are so beautiful you’d swear they’re the petals of an exotic flower, but what you’re admiring is actually the tissues of a slug! This animal is a snail without a shell and is usually seen in shades of green and blue – though other colors have been occasionally noted. In this photo, the slug has lovely blue tips on its almost-white ruffles. These exotic creatures are good examples of why divers go nuts for nudibranchs!

Flamingo tongue snail

This beautifully patterned snail is usually about one inch long and found clinging to sea fans and other soft coral, from which they obtain their food. Move slowly through TCI waters and you’re sure to spot at least one on every dive. The pattern you’re admiring is the creature’s mantel, like a clam’s. When frightened, it will retract itself into the shell, leaving a plain cream-colored exterior. It’s called a gastropod (literally “stomach-footed”) because it eats with its feet. But note: this is not considered bad table manners in its social circles.

New York-based Suzanne Gerber writes about scuba, travel and health for a variety of publications. Book your next dive trip at www.worldofdiving.com.

Avid underwater photographer Barbara Shively discovered Grand Turk diving in 1997 and has returned every year since. It has become her passion to share the beauty of the coral reefs with friends and family through her photographs. See her work at: http://shivelygallery.home.comcast.net.

By Bill Keegan and Betsy Carlson

“THE ISLAND [Hispaniola] has a section called Caonao in which there is a mountain called Cauta and it has two caves, Cacibajagua, CAVE OF THE JAGUA, and Amayaœna, CAVE WITHOUT IMPORTANCE. From Cacibajagua came most of the people who inhabit the island.”

[Ram—n PanŽ 1496; from Antonio Stevens Arroyo, Cave of the Jagua, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1988, p. 137]

The first physical evidence for the native peoples who inhabited the Bahama archipelago was discovered in caves. When Julian Granberry wrote the first summary of Lucayan archaeology in 1956 he noted that 45 of the known sites were in caves and only 16 were in open-air settings. All but one of those 16 open-air sites was in the Caicos Islands. Today, there are about 111 cave sites and almost 400 open-air sites recorded for the archipelago.

The early discovery of cave sites resulted not only from the Tainos’ fascination with caves, but also from the extensive excavations of cave earth (bat guano) for use as fertilizer in the 19th century. During these excavations pottery, exotic stone cem’es, human burials, and wooden objects (including fishhooks, bowls and duhos) were recovered and petroglyphs (engraved images) and pictographs (painted images) have been observed in the Caribbean. The Tainos did not live in caves, although they may have used them as shelter from severe storms. The materials observed and recovered from caves indicate a far more spiritual association; one that is reflected in part in the opening quotation concerning their mythology. The Taino word for cave was xaweye.

Caves are common in the karst (limestone) landforms found throughout the Caribbean. They occur in two forms. Sea caves formed where wave action has undercut rocky cliffs and bluffs along the shore. An excellent example can be found at Mudjin Harbour on Middle Caicos. Due to their proximity to the sea, the Tainos used few of these caves.

Caves in the interior ridges (ruku) of the islands formed through the dissolution of the bedrock usually beginning along fault lines in the rock where acidic rainwater easily dissolves the limestone. These caves typically have two components. Vertical sections created by the downward flow of rainwater, and horizontal sections created by the flow of underground streams. The highest rate of dissolution occurs on the margins where underlying salt water mixes with the overlying freshwater lens creating what geologists call “flank margin caves.” In these caves, rounded tunnels are spaces that once were completely filled with water, while triangular and rectangular tunnels result from streams running across the floor.

Caverns are large openings where several tunnels meet. They often have very high ceilings with substantial amounts of collapsed rock from the roof lying on the floor and multiple openings in the ceiling. Lakes (xara) can occur where the depth of the cave reaches the water table. The longest explored underwater cave system in the Bahamas is Lucayan Cavern on Grand Bahama Island with passages extending for more than five miles.

There is nothing quite like being deep in a cave and turning off your flashlight to be surrounded by complete and utter darkness – duck-walking through a low and narrow chamber as thousands of bats rush past you to escape your approaching light, or entering an interior chamber with the floor alive with scurrying cockroaches and cave crickets. In the Turks & Caicos, Conch Bar Cave on Middle Caicos is the most spectacular and nearby Indian Cave is also easily accessible. It is easy to arrange a tour and well worth the experience (and both are sufficiently open that you won’t come into close contact with bats or roaches).

The Tainos did not live in caves, but they used them as sanctuaries for ritual purposes. They recognized three main divisions of the cosmos: a sky world, the land world of living people, and the world of subterranean waters. Caves were the portals to the subterranean world. As the myth at the beginning of this article tells us, the Tainos believed that all humans shared a common origin. However, only the origin of the Tainos was considered important. They had emerged from the Cacibajagua (Cave of the Jagua), a reference to the jagua tree (Genipa americana), whose edible fruit produces a black vegetable dye used for body painting. This black paint was used in conjunction with a red dye derived from the bixa or achiote plant (Bixa orellana) for ritual purposes that served to reinforce the sense of communality among the Tainos. (Most of you probably don’t realize that you have eaten bixa/achiote. It is today used as a food coloring called annatto that gives American cheese its lovely orange color, and other foods as well.) In contrast, the Cave of Amayaœna is translated as the “cave without importance.” In sum, the Tainos are the one true people who emerged from the sacred cave, while the rest of us came from a cave of no importance!

The importance of caves in Taino mythology is expressed in their association of animals that frequent or live in caves with the ancestors. Bats and owls are especially important in this regard. Moreover, the decoration of cave walls with petroglyphs and pictographs enhanced the ritual significance of these passages to the underworld. Petroglyphs have been reported from only one cave in the Turks & Caicos. This cave is located near Jacksonville Harbour on East Caicos and was visited by Theodoor de Booy in 1912 when the East Caicos Sisal Company was in operation and bat guano was being excavated from several caves. Several efforts to find the cave have been unsuccessful. There are no cave paintings reported for the Bahama archipelago.

The symbolism that these carved and painted images represent is difficult to interpret, but they include both anthropomorphic (human forms) and animal imagery. Hartford Cave on Rum Cay in the Bahamas is one of the most elaborately decorated, and included the representation of a canoe paddle (until it was hacked out of the wall and brought to the New World Museum on San Salvador!). Painted images on the walls of caves in the Dominican Republic are especially evocative. One scene depicts the cohoba ritual in which the cacique ingested a hallucinogenic snuff to induce a trance that facilitated his communication with the spirits. When viewed in the flickering of torchlight the images appear to come alive.

One of the questions we are frequently asked is, “Where did they bury their dead?” Unfortunately, we do not have a complete answer. In some places the Tainos buried their dead in cemeteries. At El Chorro de Ma’ta in Cuba and Maisabel in Puerto Rico, the dead were buried beneath the central plaza. This burial location reflects a close association of the dead with their ancestral homeland. Knowledge of previous burials at Maisabel was so complete that despite hundreds of interments over a period of 800 years not one disturbed a previous burial. Evidence for formal cemeteries is lacking from the Bahama archipelago. To date, all of the burials in the Bahamas have been found in caves.

Blue holes and sinkholes (xawei), caves whose vault has collapsed to expose subterranean lakes, are also associated with ritual activities. Cottage Pond on North Caicos is a perfectly circular inland blue hole that measures 165 feet across and sits in a beautiful natural depression that supports rare plant and animal species. It has a 30 foot layer of freshwater that was certainly valued by the Lucayan inhabitants. The Nature Reserve is open to the public and easy to access and one of the many sites worth visiting on North Caicos.

Human burials have been found underwater in caverns and blue holes on Grand Bahama, Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera and Providenciales. In addition, a small wooden canoe was recovered from a blue hole on Andros, and the extremely well preserved skeletons of crocodiles, tortoises and birds recently were found in a sinkhole on Abaco. The most spectacular finds come from caves and caverns in Parque National del Este, in the eastern Dominican Republic. This region of Hispaniola is quite arid, and water sources are limited. It is therefore not surprising that a substantial number of broken ceramic bottles used to collect water (potizas) have been found in several flooded caverns.

Yet water collection was not the only activity associated with these flooded caverns and sinkholes. Divers have also found decorated pottery bowls that are poorly suited for water collection. And the objects recovered from the Manantial de la Aleta are reminiscent of the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza (the Mayan city on the Yucatan Peninsula). A wide variety of objects were “sacrificed” in this sinkhole, and the anoxic (lacking oxygen) waters surrounding the finds have resulted in a remarkable state of preservation. Along with pottery vessels, stone tools, complete baskets (haba and makuto), cordage (cabuya), wooden handles for stone axes, and a war club (macana) have been observed in the sediments at the bottom of this sinkhole. To date, only a few of the objects have been retrieved because they require special conservation techniques that are of limited availability in the Dominican Republic. This discovery has opened an entirely new vista into the world of the Tainos. (For more information on these finds, see volumes 2 and 3 of the Journal of Caribbean Archaeology at: www.flmnh.ufl.edu/JCA/current.htm.)

Objects recovered from caves figured prominently in the early days of Caribbean archaeology. Over the years most archaeologists have turned away from caves to open-air sites where a more complete record of Taino lifeways is preserved. With the development of new techniques for safely exploring submerged caverns and the development of formal techniques for studying rock art, these portals to the subterranean waters are once again receiving the attention they so richly deserve.

Dr. Bill Keegan is Curator of Caribbean Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville. Dr. Betsy Carlson is an Archaeologist at Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc., Gainesville, Florida.

Digging up the past of Salt Cay’s most famous house.

Story & Photos By Michele Belanger-McNair ~ Historic Photos Courtesy the Rosalie K. Harriott Collection

Imposing from the air and on the ground, the White House stands as both a sentinel and icon to the history of tiny Salt Cay, of the Turks Islands themselves.

Built in the early 1800s by ancestors of the last salt proprietors, this historic home of the Harriott family has been both very public, and very private. Few visitors have ever heard its true stories and history, let alone seen the interior. The White House is not a public museum or tour open to viewing by any visitor to Salt Cay. It is certainly a curiosity and the subject of much lore, speculation, bad information and sketchy history.

I shared that same curiosity and heard all the various stories of “salt barons” and slavery; the fantasies of imaginations gone wild and storyteller embellishments; Islanders’ recollections from their perspective in the salt ponds; the memories of a young woman who grew up in the White House; and the men and women who worked in and around the house itself.

Among the last people to live in the White House during the salt proprietorship days was Rosalie K. Harriott. Now living in a tiny mountain town in Canada, Rosalie has collected the photographs, history, documents and heritage of her family, and of a very tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean. (Much of Salt Cay’s history is preserved by passing on stories and incidents, and little is written down or photographed in historic detail.)

The eldest child of Franklyn Harriott and Marjorie Durham Harriott, Rosalie lived in the White House from her birth in 1933 to 1949 when she left for school in Canada. In 1950, Rosalie and her parents, brother Hyatt and young sister Blyth left Salt Cay. Her parents never returned.

The history of Salt Cay is not just the Harriott recordations, but also the memories of the same events by the people who worked for the various salt businesses, and those who lived and otherwise worked on Salt Cay during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.

There were three classes of people on Salt Cay: the Whites, the Lights and the working class. The Lights, usually mulatto, were the middle class, who owned shops and businesses that catered to the working class of Salt Cay, sailed on foreign ships around the world, or owned smaller salt ponds. Each has their unique perspective of Salt Cay’s history.

Being from Salt Cay was “saying something.” Saturday night was like “Christmas Eve every week,” says Antoinette “Nettie” Talbot, a lifelong resident.

But everyday life on Salt Cay (and the Turks Islands, themselves) was no easy feat for any member of any class. The Whites, meaning the Harriotts, just had more “stuff” than anyone else, and so it all was relative to the other Islanders. The Harriotts were believed, and perceived, to be rich and powerful. “Powerful,” yes. “Rich,” was apparently fleeting and rare.

It is this dichotomy of life on Salt Cay, looking through the windows of the White House and the eyes of the people who worked there, that is so fascinating to me and many visitors to this tiny island of less than 100 souls. It is through these eyes and the photographic collection of Rosalie Harriott, as well as aging Turks Islanders, that we can explore and revisit this grand old home and learn what life in the White House, Salt Cay style, was really like.

Imagining the past

The house does exhibit the wear and tear of two centuries and a multitude of hurricanes, wind and rain. As I shot photographs, took notes and wrote parts of this article, the shutters banged away, the ocean hissed and lapped over the old stone walls and wharves in the background, the tradewinds blew through and I tried to absorb all I could of life in this old house.

For those anxious to know if the spirits of Harriotts past spoke to me, haunt the house or otherwise make themselves known, the answer is “no.” But truly this house does speak to you in its own way as you see the added electricity, antique furnishings, beds where numerous babies were born and proprietors died, windows where once Mary Olivia Harriott watched the workers and stamped her cane on the floor, and verandas letting in cool tradewinds and providing a window on the world going by.

What it must have been like to have young children playing about, no television or stereo blaring; folks singing simple songs to entertain themselves while they worked; the smell of bread baking in a fire-stoked brick oven; a bell ringing the time of day; the sounds of men at work in the salt; breezes cooling the house to the constant sound of the sea. To sit here for a few hours and let your imagination wander is sheer delight.

Four generations of Harriotts

Prior to 1800, the Salt Cay, Grand Turk and South Caicos triangle was one of the major sea salt producing areas of the world. Bermudan salt rakers had come to the Turks Islands, settling it with slaves and proprietors and establishing a trade with Bermuda.

Slaves came to the Turks Islands from Bermuda and the Bahamas, having been sold. They lived a hard and difficult life in the salt industry. Others were free workers, slaves who had managed to obtain their freedom by work, gift or, eventually, legal edict.

Daniel Harriott was an early salt proprietor. Born around 1807, Harriott was a Bermudan who came to Salt Cay for a future. Apparently not a man of wealth, he acquired money with his marriage to Mary Olivia Hyatt, daughter of Captain James Hyatt. It was during this marriage that the White House was built and the Harriott family, as the leading salt proprietors, was born. The Harriott salt producing and exporting business was formally begun in 1829.

In approximately 1825, work on the White House began and went on for 10 years. The two story house is made of Bermuda limestone and built in the Bermudan style of architecture. The upstairs originally consisted of a large living room and dining room, with six bedrooms and two verandas on the eastern and western sides. Downstairs was the larder and traditional kitchen, consisting of a large brick fireplace and smaller baking oven. There were several large rooms and a huge cellar for salt storage. The entry foyer housed Mr. Harriott’s office.

The White House was built as the center of a compound of buildings that included warehouse, offices, home, stables, mill, cistern, farm and garden. Though large in appearance, the house is surprisingly small when it comes to usable living space on the top floor. The entire ground floor, with its large green doors all around and dug-out basement, could hold an enormous amount of salt, safe from rain and hurricanes. There was always salt in the bank, so to speak.

Mary Olivia Harriott, Daniel’s wife, was apparently a woman who spoke her mind and protected her investment. When she looked out a window, there was no part of the salt operation that was not visible. If Mary Olivia thought someone was slacking off, right or wrong she would stomp her cane and make her displeasure known. Mary Olivia did not yell though, for ladies did not yell out of windows.

Islanders felt this behavior, and that of later proprietors, was wrong, as the work was hard and hot and the day long. But taking a break could raise their ire easily. If you lost your work in the salt, you lost your ability to feed your family.

After Daniel Harriott’s death in 1859, his eldest son, Alexis Wynns Harriott, known as “the Skipper”, became the next resident proprietor with his wife Alice Cowles of Connecticut. Alexis Harriott had a long reign, and his wife bore him five children, three of whom were sons who also became salt proprietors on Salt Cay. If any one Harriott enjoyed financial success in the salt industry, it was Alexis. The time was right in terms of demand and world stability for the industry to prosper.

Alexis and Alice’s three sons were Daniel (Niel), Edmund and Howard. Two daughters were not part of the industry, one having died in childhood and the other going to England to live after her marriage.

Niel became the resident Harriott in the White House until his death in 1910. Niel Harriott is buried at St. John’s Church just up Victoria Street in the plot he set forth in his will. A low white wall surrounds his grave, under a tree he planted, to the north of the chancel he desired be built, and his grave is that of clean white sand.

Niel’s brother Howard Fessenden Harriott was first married to Rosalie Hinson Harriott, who bore him three children: Franklyn, Gladys and Natalie. Rosalie died in about 1912, from tuberculosis at a young age. Her letters apologize to her family for being sickly and leaving young children without a mother. Howard later married Winnie Rigby of Grand Turk in 1917. As the elder salt proprietor, Howard Harriott lived at “Sunnyside” (known today as the Brown House), another wood and stone Bermudan great house. In 1931, Howard released the reins of everyday operations to his only son Franklyn.

From Niel’s death until 1931, the White House sat empty. But when he returned to Salt Cay with his bride, Marjorie Durham Harriott of South Caicos, Franklyn Harriott installed the necessary “modern” conveniences. This included electricity from their own generator as well as indoor plumbing. The master bedroom has a private bathroom, though a tall man such as Franklyn Harriott would have had to stoop, it seems, to shower.

The original kitchen was a typical wood burning, attached stone building on the ground floor. The chimney is reminiscent of Portuguese and Moorish styles. Known in the Caribbean as a “Bermudan chimney,” the style apparently originated with Portuguese fishermen who settled in Bermuda after the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The same style chimney is seen at the Residency on Salt Cay as well as St. John’s Church’s kitchen.

When I first toured the White House five years ago, I wondered why a house with such a large formal dining area had such a small, inadequate upstairs kitchen. I wrongly assumed that the upstairs kitchen was part of the original plan. The truth is that the present kitchen is a converted bedroom and butler’s pantry. It was made part of the upstairs living quarters after one of the cooks accidently set fire to the old kitchen in the late 1930s/early 1940s.

After the near disaster, Marjorie Harriott decided she should keep a closer eye on the daily workings of the kitchen and installed a kerosene stove upstairs for the family’s cooking use. Islanders, working in the kitchen, used the traditional coal pot on which to cook.

The original stone kitchen is now in disrepair and unused, except to store roof tiles needing reinstallation. All that remains are the old ovens. Also, an equipment room with generator, circa 1930, was put in the old kitchen area to modernize the house for electricity and plumbing.

The living quarters on the second floor connected with a bridge to a salt warehouse and living quarters immediately next door. Given English real estate law, public rights of way existed (as they still do) allowing access to water and beaches.

The alley between the White House and the wooden building known variously as the Paymaster’s Office, Warehouse or Treasury building, is a public right of way and cannot be blocked or eased. All that remains of this wood and stone building is the foundation, the wooden structure having fallen victim to Hurricane Frances in 2004. What is left of the bridge is now an observation deck at the back, upper door.

The earliest known photograph of the White House compound is from the 1890s. The “aeromoters,” large windmills that worked salt grinding machinery, are present. These were obtained during the Chicago Exposition of 1893 by the Harriotts and serve as a landmark in photographs thereafter. The other wind machines were for pumping water through the salinas and for grinding salt. When kerosene became difficult to get, Franklyn Harriott obtained a roof top “wind charger” which charged the huge batteries for lights in the White House. But this device damaged the roof tiles.

The White House today

The White House is now owned by Ian Dunn and his late brother Michael’s estate. Michael Dunn passed away in the summer of 2005. The Dunn family are the heirs of Natalie Harriott Dunn, the youngest daughter of Howard and Rosalie Hinson Harriott. After the death of Franklyn Harriott in 1960, his widow, Marjorie, inherited the White House. Believing the property should stay in the Harriot family, she traded the White House to her sister-in-law, Gladys Harriott, in approximately 1968, for Gladys’ inherited interest in Sunnyside. Marjorie Harriott, a strong proponent of the inheritance of property, wanted to be sure the White House stayed in the Harriott family and was loathe to sell it.

The salt industry was nationalized in 1952 and the property surrounding the White House, including outbuildings, became part of the business known as Turks Islands Salt Company. The White House remained the property of the Harriott family, but sat idle for a good many years.

It then took the salt industry another 10 years to become extinct. With that, Salt Cay lost its primary industry, its population and its means of livelihood. Once the home of approximately 600Ð900 people, the island is now home to approximately 80 full time residents. There is no real industry other than tourism.

The White House still stands as the largest stone building in the Turks Islands, but is in growing disrepair. The limestone roof needs refurbishing and reinstallation. Large, six inch thick limestone tiles wait in the basement for reinstallation by expert masons. Shutters need repair and replacement. Termite infestations need addressing. Water damage to walls, floors and furnishings from roof leakage is taking its toll as well.

Repairs are not simple under the best of conditions on Salt Cay. This is an island with no hardware store, no natural building materials and no deep water harbor. Nothing is easy on Salt Cay. The work force is limited. Grand Turk is nine miles by boat and any large deliveries come by ferry or barge in good weather.

A tour back in time

Without doubt though, a tour of the old White House is a tour back in time. The furnishings impart the beauty that the house once had, the style and grace of the women who lived there and the care that allowed it to remain intact for so long.

Photos of family patriarchs and matriarchs adorn the walls, as do photos of the salt industry and the people of the island. Books and photo albums fill a large glass-fronted bookcase in the living room as well as a large double-sided hutch between the rooms. A whale’s rib hangs above on the wall. Many books reflect the fact that children were taught not just in school, but at home, with geometry, English history and other educational titles in the library. There is also Captain Hyatt’s handwritten account of his early 1800s California sailing trip.

The greenery that Marjorie Harriott used to decorate the house is long gone. Chaises and decrepit chairs grace the verandas, side by side with modern plastic lawn chairs. The piano is now an electric keyboard and a stereo sits incongruously on a centuries old mahogany table.

Electric wire snakes down corners and the edges of crown molding, visible now due to the rusting of the staples that held it in place. The dining table awaits eight guests for dinner and the sideboard is empty save for its lace runner, sitting under a double electric wall sconce, with other sconces dotting the walls. Here too is the barometer – so necessary to know if a hurricane was coming – evidencing a touch of green on its brass face and frame. It and the thermometer are at the eye level of a tall man.

The bedrooms hold old four poster beds, double in size. Canopies were added by a later inhabitant, as they were unheard of during Rosalie’s residency.

Several rooms have privacy curtains on frames, with pegs in the walls to hold clothes and towels and a small washstand with flowered enamel basin and jug. Large armoires are in each room to hold clothing as there are no built-in closets.

The floors are wood, and showing their age (almost 200 years) along with the wear and tear of leaky roofs, and lack of care and maintenance. Overall, though, they are in surprisingly good shape for bearing the traffic of so many generations and decades of salt-filled air.

The walls are about two feet thick. Few cracks appear, except over the occasional window frame. Each frame affords a deep place to sit and look out through the multi-pane, double hung windows. Each window has an exterior pair of shutters which can lock open or lock shut. Each shutter is louvered so light filters in even when closed and air can circulate.

The veranda to the west, where the shoreline is, consists of jalousie windows. These are large louvers that open and close with the placement of a wedge in a holder. From the veranda, the Harriotts could watch the comings and goings of the Islanders at the end of their day or on Saturday night or Sunday. Who went to church? Who didn’t? Who was seeing who? Was a ship on the horizon?

The veranda on the eastern side is fronted with glass windows and shutters. The banister for the stairway to the entrance still stands, but without the scarf of greenery with which Marjorie Harriott once draped it.

A taste of Hollywood

I remember a scene in the movie Bahama Passage where stars Sterling Hayden and Madeline Carroll are standing on the stairs, talking. In the bedrooms, I visualize Leo G. Carroll sitting in his rocker with the privacy screen behind him, just as it appears in the first bedroom to the east. I can picture Madeline Carroll with Dorothy Dandridge, the maid, trying on high heels for the first time, stumbling across the room. I think of sisters Ruth and Louise Simmons, who worked in the White House at the time and what they might have thought of the black actress playing their role.

But other than some stair and doorway shots from this 1941 movie, little of what is depicted as being the White House really existed, and is mostly a Hollywood movie set, not the actual house. However, the exterior shots really are how the island and White House appeared in 1941. Very little has changed over the years.

Madeline Carroll stayed in a White House bedroom during filming. She was not allowed to live in a tent, as the rest of the actors and crew did. Rosalie Harriott was then a precocious eight year old and remembers the filming quite well.

One of Rosalie’s memories is that the Harriotts were very angry at being the basis for the book Dildo Cay by Nelson Hayes, on which the movie was based. Lawsuits were threatened. Winnie Harriott thought the best- selling book “scandalous.” Rosalie recalls, “Granny said ÔI cannot for the life of me understand how a woman like Miss Carroll could consent to be in such an immoral movie’.” This was all learned while the Paramount people sat around the Harriott living room in the evenings talking and little Rosalie kept her ears peeled for adult news.

The Harriotts were invited to the Paramount camp each evening to dinner, and the children could watch Mickey Mouse movies and the adults a feature film. Scenes from the movie were shown as well.

The day’s film was rushed off to Miami in one of Paramount’s sea planes. “It was all completely new and interesting; nothing like this had ever happened in the entire history of Turks Islands,” says Rosalie. She recalls, “My parents knew a thing or two about the Hollywood film industry. When I told the assembled company at dinner how Miss Carroll helped me swim from Dunscombe’s Point all the way to the White House dock, the Paramount publicity man suddenly became very interested in me and wrote a story. My father refused to okay this account as the family did not want to see me in a movie magazine having been Ôsaved from drowning’ by a famous movie star. Granny and Grandpa certainly would not have liked it. But I did not care one way or the other because Miss Carroll was my friend.”

Different points of view

People who worked in the salt industry for the Harriotts still remember the stories and legends, and the difficult working conditions. Not every Harriott is remembered fondly, though hindsight and time have made many stories poignant and humorous over a layer of resentment.

As one son of Salt Cay who no longer lives on island said, “The history of Salt Cay is not the Harriotts’ alone, it is the history of everyone on the island. The Harriotts were there, but not necessarily a part of the island’s culture.” And that is the pivotal point of the stories of the White House, the Harriotts and Salt Cay. Everyone has a recollection, and everyone’s recollection is part of the history and fabric of this small place in the sun.

In the 1940s and ’50s, many men left the island for steamships to avoid the tedious, laborious and debilitating work in the salt pans. Raking salt in brine to your knees, barefoot, on clay bottom pans, in blinding hot sun from sunrise to sunset was extremely difficult work. Only “whompers,” sandals made of cut up tires and rope, helped to protect the rakers’ feet to a small degree.

Holton “Poley” Dickenson is now in his 70s. When he was 19, his father drowned on a Saturday. On Monday, his father already buried, Poley went to work raking salt to provide for his family. The first chance he had, he left for the steamships and became a ship’s steward. When he retired from the steamships, with his background in carpentry, he became an island contractor and the Catechist of St. John’s Anglican Church. His feet still bear the scars of raking salt.

Rosalie Harriott remembers her grandfather, Howard Harriott, as a retired, elderly man. He did the books in the old Paymaster’s Office while Franklyn managed the business. He would read aloud to his grandchildren, and was always much in demand. He had a beautiful blue china eye that he popped in and out at night, and put in a bedside drawer. He had a bad leg and walked with a cane.

Poley Dickenson and Percy Talbot remember him as a stern man who had little tolerance for children – the black children – of his workers.

Howard’s wife Winnie Harriott is remembered by many as a kind and gentle lady. Winnie regularly gave the children extra food, eggs, candy, whatever she had to spare. Howard objected to this spoiling of the children, which apparently fed Winnie’s desire to sneak treats even more.

Holton Dickenson recalls that Winnie would say, “Come child,” and indicate they come around to the blind side of Howard Harriott so he couldn’t see what she was doing. Going to Howard’s blind side became a regular game with the children who were around him regularly. Percy Talbot got into trouble more than once for his blind-side mischief. But however gruff Howard Harriott may have been, and however stern he was with his workers, the memories of such shenanigans brings laughter to many of the men who remain on Salt Cay today. For some, there remains a bitterness that will never fade.

The death of Howard Harriott

In the spring of 1945, just prior to the end of the war, the salt proprietors of the Turks Islands met on Grand Turk. Among them was Howard Harriott. Franklyn Harriott was not amongst them, being in Jamaica.

The Morgans had gone by sailboat to Grand Turk, leaving from the eastern shore of Salt Cay. Howard, with three oarsmen, took a boat without a sail and also departed from the eastern shore, rowing. At the conclusion of the meeting, the afternoon brought a rough sea and the threat of weather. To return to Salt Cay that day the boats had to return to the eastern shore, where protective creeks allowed a safe arrival. To get there, one had to cross the foot of the reef, a dangerous place even on a calm day.

Lillian Kennedy recalls that her father was at the meeting, but stayed on Grand Turk with her and husband Ned. “It was not weather to go back to Salt Cay in. My daddy stayed with me,” she related. Franklyn Harriott would never have allowed any of his family or employees to leave had he been there . . . but he was not.

Howard, in three piece suit and dress shoes, set out with his three oarsmen, Jamer Smith, Thomas “Tomboli” Morgan and Manuel Simmons. Simmons was a top notch seaman and ship’s pilot and knew the waters well. Morgan was a noted seaman, who had already survived one harrowing disaster off the Silver Banks and was a spinner of great yarns.

The boat capsized crossing the foot of the reef and could not be righted. The oarsmen kept telling each other and Mr. Harriott to “hang on.” But the rough side of the boat was not easy to hold onto and Howard Harriott, in less than ideal swimwear and with a bad leg, could not hang tight. Manuel Simmons (a strong swimmer believed to be trying to save Harriott) and he perished from sight, never to be found. The two remaining oarsmen swam the capsized boat the remaining five miles to Salt Cay.

After this, “Tomboli” was involved in another capsizing off the Salt Cay lighthouse. This third time, his sons swam to safety and Tomboli’s luck ended with his drowning.

The missing false teeth

When Howard Harriott and his wife Winnie resided in Sunnyside, rats were a fact of life. They love a big, old, wood-framed house that has food and goodies in it. One morning Winnie awoke to find her false teeth missing from the bedside table. False teeth are not something one usually misplaces and all members of the family were enlisted to find the teeth, to no avail.

Many years later following Howard’s death, Winnie moved out of Sunnyside to return to her family’s home in Grand Turk. When a large armoire was removed from the bedroom, the workers found amidst a rat’s nest a number of bright and shining trinkets, jewelry, and Winnie’s missing false teeth – all part of one rat’s lifetime collection of Harriott memorabilia.

The goat project

The White House had its own stables, animal pens and fenced garden area. Marjorie Harriott was a determined grower of plants and animals to feed her family. In the 1930s, especially during the war years, food stores were not easy to come by. Everyone tried to grow what they could on an island known for producing salt, not potatoes.

One of Marjorie’s early endeavors was raising goats. As Rosalie Harriott recalls, “My mother decided that a goat was the thing – smaller, easier to feed than a cow. So Nanny and her twins, Ajax and Hector arrived. In no time the goats must have realized they had hit upon that very rare type of human, an goat-loving owner.”

Apparently Nanny didn’t much like being milked by anyone and the holding pen for milking became a dueling ground between Marjorie Harriott and Nanny. “Mummy and Felix Lightbourne attempted to milk a stamping, whirling Nanny. They never got more than a shot glass of milk,” says Rosalie.

Soon, Ajax butted Marjorie from behind while she was attending to a small papaya tree, causing her to fall head-first into the sand. Ajax then sealed the fate of the goats when he got into the enclosure where laundry was hung and ate a precious sheet.

This brought an end to the goat experiment. Unwilling to slaughter them for food, Marjorie Harriott exiled the goats to Cotton Cay where they freely multiplied, with Ajax as head billy goat.

However, according to Percy Talbot, the goats were not forgotten by the people of Salt Cay. The population was eaten into extinction, usually as part of cricket match celebrations involving roasted goat with peas and rice. Though Nanny and the kids may have failed to provide for the Harriotts, they did provide years of feasting.

World War II

The final straw in the death of the salt industry was World War II. Wracked by the Great Depression of the 1920s and early ’30s, the salt industry took further blows with the entry of England into the war with Germany. Being a British colony, the Turks Islands rolled from Depression to feeling the effects of war.

By 1939, the Turks Islands became even more isolated as war in Europe raged. Coming and going were not really an option, as German U-Boats were known to attack the smallest of ships in these British waters just to record a sinking. Food and supplies were even more precious.

To wile away the hours, Marjorie Harriott would intercept coded radio transmissions between Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos. Being intelligent and prone to problem solving, Marjorie figured out the encoding being used and decoded the messages. This allowed her and Franklyn to know what was going on in the war and, most important, which ships were in port. Otherwise, they were in the dark except for what they could glean off the telex, which was heavily censored. Unfortunately, this came to a halt when word got out that Marjorie had broken the code. The code then changed almost daily and her problem solving hobby could not keep up.

For almost the entire war, the Harriotts remained on Salt Cay with the occasional trip to Grand Turk or South Caicos on the Kathleen, a small sailing ship which carried mail between Salt Cay and South Caicos.

The war brought fear to people unused to world war and the problems of other countries. Young Rosalie Harriott feared the Japanese landing on island, and could just “hear their boots up the back stairs, come to capture and torture Salt Cay people.” Her child’s imagination was assisted at night when as she recalls, “On calm nights I could hear, along with the quiet lapping of wavelets on the seawall, the thrum of engines. They said you could hear the U-boat engines going through the Turks Island Passage.” Trying to be courageous, Rosalie said nothing of her fears.

The U-boats were real enough to the Islanders. They knew ships which were torpedoed and small sloops that were sunk. A Harriott order from the Montgomery Ward catalogue went to the bottom of the sea, their new beds, clothes and toys gone forever.

On a night passage across the channel in the Kathleen, Rosalie’s grandmother Winnie was almost run down by an American sub-chaser. Out of the dark, there was, as Winnie recounted to her granddaughter, “the roar of powerful engines, a sweep of searchlights bearing down on the Kathleen and little time to do anything. The sub-chaser suddenly changed course and roared off, leaving the sloop to plunge about in its wake, trying to stay afloat.”

In reality though, the Islands were mostly on their own, with England far away. Cable & Wireless employees who had been on Grand Turk, relaying communications from undersea cable transmissions, were friends of the Harriotts. Moving on to Singapore and Hong Kong, they became prisoners of war.

Gladys Harriott went to England to work in the war effort in the NAFFI canteen in London. Everyone waited for letters, “torn to tatters by the censor’s scissors, to read aloud and discuss the war and read of the bombings in London”, says Rosalie Harriott now.

For entertainment, the Harriotts would sit round the piano at Sunnyside and sing old songs, or go to concerts on island where a collection would be taken up for the War Effort. The stage at the Benevolent Hall was Rosalie Harriott’s first singing engagement.

After two months on Salt Cay, I am sitting on the western veranda of the White House, looking out through the shutters. The surf is pounding onto the old, crumbling wharf and sea walls of the White House. I walk around the house, wishing I could have been a fly on the wall so many years ago.

The sound of the ocean waves breaking is a constant here, and very real. What is missing are the sounds of children at play; many workers talking, whistling, singing; the hustle and bustle of a busy island made of salt; the ring of the bell. And then the smells emanating from the old kitchen, the sight of schooners and steamers just off shore at anchor. If only a short wave radio was scratching out Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood.”

The Boat House, once a large, two story building, fights to save its last pieces of wooden structure. Where once captains stepped their lighters’ masts to embark on another day of hauling salt to steamers and schooners, there are now several fishing boats moored. The old stanchion where boats tied off, so prominent in old wharf photos, is almost rusted to nothing.

Dunscombe Point, once a vital milling, grinding and bagging building, is now the shell of an old stone building. The jetty is still there, but fading fast. The beach there is beautiful and the white sand plentiful.

No workers surround the White House and, thank goodness, no one is in a pond, raking salt, anymore. Where once 900 people lived, shopped, walked Victoria Street in front of the White House and crossed the Follies across the salinas, now 80 people look for something to do; grow old and remember times past.

Diving and tourism are the industry now. Not even gourmet salt is made here. Donkeys and cows, once penned and used for carts and food, now roam free, grazing off the land. No Harriotts live on Salt Cay anymore. One ancestor is a divemaster on Grand Turk.

The White House slowly but surely loses a little of itself with each day and each storm. How long will it tell its history? One constant remains: the azure blue waters of Salt Cay, patiently waiting to take back the shores, the wharves and sea walls. Ever patient, always there.

By Brian Riggs, Fernando Perez and Dr. Thomas Goreau

While the Turks & Caicos Islands still have some of the best remaining coral reef in the Caribbean region, it is clear from recent fieldwork that even our corals are slowly declining due to episodic damage and progressive increases in environmental stresses, both natural and man-made.

The current state of Caribbean reefs in general, and TCI reefs in particular, was outlined in the Summer 2006 edition of this magazine. We reported that even though our local reef systems were in much better shape than those of most of our neighbors, Turks & Caicos reefs were still feeling the effects of higher than average sea surface temperatures over the past decade. Another problem that may face our reef habitats in the future is the pollution and sedimentation from marine works that accompany accelerated development, especially in Providenciales, Grand Turk and North Caicos.

Collecting the data . . .

The first statistics of reef health were provided in the 1970s in a report by Ray and Sprunt. In the late 1980s, when TCI played host to one of the first Operation Raleigh expeditions, teen volunteers collected coral coverage and growth data as a one-time environmental project and passed it along to the Department of Environment. But regular and systematic coral monitoring started over 15 years ago when permanent monitoring stations were set up by Dr. Gudrun Gaudian under the auspices of the Ministry of Natural Resources. These original stations on Grand Turk and newer ones on Providenciales and South Caicos have been monitored over the years by department employees, School for Field Studies students and diver-volunteers from many of the professional dive operations around the Islands. This data, along with regular diver statistic reports over the past decade, have given us a pretty clear idea of the state of Turks & Caicos reefs.

A widespread reef survey project in early June 2006 covered the original monitoring sites but also went further afield to have a look at almost all of Grand Turk’s and Providenciales’ seaward coasts and areas from East to South Caicos that were not covered by the monitoring stations. Information from this wide-ranging survey, showing perceptible coral declines even in areas well away from diver pressure or development, led to the inauguration of a project to develop a National Sustainable Strategy for Coral Reef Restoration. The Project was paid for by the TCI Conservation Fund, a special project fund earmarked for environmental studies and work. (The Conservation Fund was established in 1999 to sustain and expand ongoing management of our Protected Areas, and to safeguard our country’s national and historic treasures. It is financed by 10% of the Accommodation Tax collected at Turks & Caicos hotels and dining establishments.) The Sustainable Strategy is now in the implementation phase which is being funded by the Conservation Fund and the private sector.

What it means . . .

The recent survey puts us on notice that even with the best and most complete recycling efforts and treatment of wastewater on land, the level of stress from factors beyond local control is likely to increase. Global sea temperature rise, associated coral bleaching and disease outbreaks and more severe storm activity are likely to escalate rather than decline in the future. Therefore, there is an urgent need to begin coral reef restoration studies and efforts now, in the early stages. The aim is to preserve coral reef species diversity, fish habitat, the shore protection functions of a healthy reef and, of course, our eco-tourism potential.

The northeastern part of Providenciales and the southeastern part of Grand Turk were specifically identified as good spots for the introduction of artificial reefs to provide additional areas for snorkeling. These easily accessible, near-shore snorkeling sites should ease the pressure on existing natural snorkeling and diving reef resources.

A pilot demonstration project using the relatively new BioRock technology was recently started on Grand Turk. The long, official names of the process, “electrodeposition of minerals in sea water” or “mineral accretion technology” give us a vague idea of how the process works. Developed by architect Professor Wolf H. Hilbertz and coral ecologist Dr. Thomas J. Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, BioRock technology may have profound implications for coral propagation, the preservation of existing corals, coral reef restoration, shoreline protection, and even mariculture.

The essence of Biorock technology is to apply a low voltage electrical current to a metal structure in shallow water. The current causes dissolved minerals to precipitate quickly on the structure. The mineral coating of calcium carbonate then becomes a substrate that easily attracts the floating embryonic polyps of a wide range of sea creatures. New Biorock structures are soon populated by a full range of coral reef organisms, including fish, crabs, clams, octopus, lobster, sea urchins and barnacles. Another astounding effect of the weak electrical current running through the structure is that corals, in particular, grow as much as five times faster than in surrounding habitats due to the electrical stimulation. They are also much more likely to survive and thrive in polluted or degrading conditions.

In a BioRock structure in the Maldive Islands, an area that has suffered greatly from high sea temperatures in the past several years, only 1 to 5% of corals on some reefs have survived. On Biorock structures in the same areas, between 50 and 80% of transplanted corals have survived. While our reefs have not suffered anything like the devastation of Indian Ocean reefs, it will be good to know that there may be a relatively simple technological solution to a problem of which we are beginning to see the earliest stages.

Building a reef from scratch . . .

The Grand Turk Reef Project is a joint effort between the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources and Oasis Divers, Grand Turk’s largest and most active dive operation. With materials supplied by Captain Everette Freites, and under the direction of Dr. Tom Goreau, the Oasis crew built a group of substantial structures from construction re-bar. They were then installed on a sandy open space in 20 feet of water just offshore from the Oasis Dive Center, near the new cruiseship terminal on the south end of the island. Four quonset hut shaped structures, 20 feet long, were built on the beach and moved into position. They are temporarily hooked up to shore power by a long cable buried in the sand, but it’s possible that they could eventually be powered by buoyed solar cells directly over the site as they are in similar projects in Japan, Jamaica and the Maldives.

Oasis divemasters, DECR staff and a number of volunteers, including Joel Johnston from Grand Turk’s new Cockburn Farm and Village Visitor Centre, visited reef sites near the newly built cruise dock and salvaged a number of small hard and soft coral fragments that had been affected during the construction. These were affixed to the BioRock structure after it was put into place.

After less than a month in the water, Everette reports that the structure already has a thin skin of limestone and the manually attached coral fragments are quickly accreting to the structure. The “electric reef” is attracting hundreds of fish and other creatures. It’s already an interesting site for snorkelers.

It is expected that within a few years the structures will be densely colonized due to the increased growth rate of the transplanted corals, providing a new habitat for an array of reef creatures. These in turn will attract the myriads of gorgonians, worms, crustaceans and larger animals that live in and around them. Calcareous algaes will be producing sand particles for beach renourishment and the solid, self-repairing structure will be fulfilling one of the natural reef’s most important functions, the defense of the nearby shoreline from the battering of stormy seas.

The production of seemingly “instant” reefs being formed by the BioRock method is only one of a number of strategies that are being investigated for the preservation of our most important natural asset, but there is room for many approaches in a national strategy to protect and maintain our important reefs.

For more information about Electric Reefs, go to http://globalcoral.org/.