John Frederick Bridgetower
John Frederick Bridgetower was born a slave in Barbados but was not content to end his life as one. There is no record of how he escaped from Barbados and made his way to Poland. There he worked in the family home of Austro-Hungarian Prince Esterhazy (Joseph Haydn’s patron) and learnt to speak English, French, German,…
The loss of The Kent – a letter in a bottle story
The Kent was an East Indiaman sailing for the East India Company. She was 40.5 Meters long, and had a beam of 13.2 Meters. She made two successful trips from England to India with Henry Cobb as Captain. On the 19th February 1825 she left the Downs with 20 officers, 344 Soldiers, 43 women, and 66…
Arthur Hutchinson’s abandoned Lime Kiln at Ragged Point, Barbados
To extract sugar from sugar cane Calcium Oxide (CaO) known as lime has to be added to the cane juice. This allows the impurities to precipitate and be removed from the juice. This is done in large settling tanks after the cane juice is heated. The residue, called mud, is filtered out and used to fertilise…
The Wreck of the SV Nordenskjold
The SV Nordenskjold was a 3 masted, wooden barque built in 1880 for Brunchorst & Dekke, Bergen, Norway. She was 167.8 feet long and had a beam of 34.5 feet. During the next 30 years she changed ownership 5 times and in 1910 was owned by Joh F. Juell. On the 18th of October 1891…
The Wreck of the SV Countess of Ripon
The SV Countess of Ripon was a steel hulled, fully rigged sailing vessel. She was built by Martin Samuelson & Co. in Hull, England and was one of four ships launched on the 29th October 1863. The first vessel launched was christened, by Miss A. A.Croome, the Countess of Ripon. She is a splendid ship, of above 200 tons…
Oistins Fish Fry – Barbados. Annies BBQ where locals go for lunch, dinner and a drink
Richard Ligon wrote in his A True and Exact History of Barbadoes (first published in 1657) ….which they called Auftins Bay, not in commemoration of any Saint, but of a wild mad drunken fellow, whofe lewd and extravagant carriage made him infamous in the island; and his Plantation standing near this Bay, it was called…
Keeping fish fresh before refrigeration
Before the introduction of refrigeration, keeping meat fresh was a problem. One option was to dry and and salt the meat and stored in a cool and dry place. For those who lived on the coast, salt water fish pools / fish ponds were often used. When a lot of fish was caught the excess…
Customer service. Efficient or Effective? Process gone wrong
This is a true account of a day dealing with a large international company. It could have been any that operate without any care for their customers or customer service. Their competition is no better. The office was recently remodelled. Instead of standing in line you went to a machine and selected what you wanted…
Scientific Studies of Coral Rock in Barbados
While researching the article on the Inverted Boulder at Bottom Bay I remembered that a test hole (well) was drilled on the coral cliff overlooking Bottom Bay Beach. Hans Machel told me that John Humphrey was involved in that project. I contacted John and he kindly supplied the following information. Hi William I believe we…
The bottom-up boulder between Bottom Bay and Harry Smith Beach, Barbados
I am not a geologist nor do I have training in any related field. This article is based on my own observations and reading. The land between Ragged Point and the Airport from the coast stretching inland between 500 meters and 1Km is flat coral rock with very little soil covering it. Before humans arrived it…
Advertisements
BajanThings
Bajan history. Interesting Bajan people. Hiking in Barbados and Overseas. International Travel…