REMEMBERING THE "FANCY ME"
Next week it will be almost 75 years since the Virgin Islands suffered its biggest disaster at sea. The "Fancy Me" was lost on a voyage from Santo Domingo to Tortola on the night of 26 July, 1926. Captain James Smith attempts to secure his vessel and passengers were in vain, the heavy anchor had, in fact, been stored under a huge shipment of sugar. Fifty-nine of the eighty-nine passengers died when the schooner encountered a merciless tropical storm in the waters south of Hispaniola. The vessel had left the port of San Pedro de Macoris on 25 July where a sizable workforce of Tortolians and Anegadians had found seasonal employment at local sugar plantations and farms. While a number of these Virgin Islanders had decided to settle in the Dominican Republic on a permanent basis, many returned home at the end of the harvest season. In those days, Santo Domingo was the bread- basket of the English islands enabling many Virgin Islanders to seek gainful employment there. The British Virgin Islands economy had hit the bottom at the end of the 1800s and was showing no sign whatsoever of recovering. Meanwhile, American capital had fuelled the revival of the sugar industry in Hispaniola. Enormous plantations covering millions of acres, utilizing the most modern equipment of the time, were willing to pay wages that looked exceedingly attractive to the workforce in the English islands. The St. Thomas-built "Fancy Me" was owned by the brothers James and Alexander Smith of Carrot Bay, Tortola. The passenger list includes many familiar names such as Smith, Henley, Connor, Hodge, Leonard, Donovan, Creque, Vanterpool, Chalwell, Penn, Frett, Malone, Hill, Lloyd, Thomas, Christopher, Freeman, Rymer, Nibbs, Brown, Wheatley, Hendricks, Barry, Fahie, Stephens, Lewis, Benjamin, George, Parsons, Blyden, Bild, Dawson, Martin, Rabsatt, Rogers, Frazer, Norman, Cills, and Jacobs. For those who wish to learn more about this tragedy, we would like to suggest Dr. Janet Smith's book - "Such are the hours to find peace". In her concluding notes Dr Janet Smith observes that the 1926 tragedy "must have shattered the dreams of many; it was nearing August Monday - a time toward which everyone looked to see old friends...For many years to come, August Monday must never have been the same; everyone lost someone..."