Arriving somewhere completely new is usually far better done by ship than by any other means of transport. This is a good example, the approach to the city of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St Thomas, American Virgin Islands. Mrs MW is in the foreground and the arm of Elizabeth, then aged two, can be seen pointing across the anchorage. One can almost feel the anticipation of the passengers watching the approaching port.
Even in 1973 Charlotte Amalie was on the itinerary of cruise ships, then part of a relatively young industry, except that the liners in those days tended to carry more affluent passengers - and this showed in the downtown retail areas where my memory is of jewellery shops with stunning window displays, with precious opal seeming to be a specialism.
It took us rather longer to disembark than the other passengers. We hadn't been made aware by the shipping company that St Thomas was US territory and that we would therefore need US visas not only to go ashore but even to be on a ship calling at the port. The agent managed to sort out the problem though the captain later told us that KNSM, the Dutch shipping line with which we were travelling, had had to pay a hefty deposit to guarantee that we would leave with the ship.
In retrospect I regret the attitude we had towards the places at which we called on that journey. We made no attempt to learn a little about them in advance, seeming quite content to go ashore and wander round. I didn't know until a few minutes ago that these Virgin Islands - there is also the British Virgin Islands - had for years been under Danish control and had been bought by the US in 1917, much as the US bought Alaska from the Russians.
This was one of the most pleasant of the ports we called at on our way out to take up a two-year teaching contract in the much less salubrious Kingston, Jamaica
No comments:
Post a Comment