A few months back, when we were in Trinidad, one of the day trips that we had, at the time, opted NOT to do, was to go visit Pitch Lake at the Southern Tip of the Island.
Pitch Lake, as we read in the brochures, is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world (initially discovered by Sir Raleigh in 1595). It truly was something that would have been interesting to see, however, believe you us, in the midst of a Trinidadian Summer and hot, hot, heat, walking on a large pool of hot black asphalt was truly was NOT making the Number One spot on our list.
Today, we are in Antigua and anchored in Deep Bay, watching the unmarked (but well charted) hazard to navigation appear and disappear off in the distance. And if you keep on reading, there is a link between Pitch Lake and this water-logged bobbing hazard.
When we hiked Goat Hill that morning, we had noticed a bit of a dark shape in the water, there, behind all the anchored boats, sort of grad to spot.
And having a beer, earlier, at The Andes Restaurant in the Grand Antiguan resort,
provided a bit of added detail to what this was.
So after our walk, we took dinghy and followed the shore just up a ways, before entering the middle of the channel,
and as we got closer, it appeared bigger and bolder and more solid. Sure wouldn't want to bump into this at any time with any boat !
It being one of the three masts belonging to a steel barque built in England in 1874.
Named the
Andes, she left Trinidad on the 5th of June 1905, loaded with 1330 barrels full of pitch. She was heading towards Chile where the pitch was going to be used to pave the roads there. Since there was no Panama Canal at that time, the boats had to first sail Northeast to catch the trade-winds before they could head South.
As the
Andes approached Antigua, smoke was seen wafting out from below.
The
Andes called for help hoping to anchor in St. Johns Harbor, but the Harbourmaster knew that St Johns was too busy a place with the incoming/outgoing traffic of vessels and told the ship with the smoky problem to go around the corner.
On June 9th, Capt'N Rees Griffiths brought his ship to anchor in Deep Bay. What had happened is that the barrels of pitch were rubbing against each other, creating a lot of heat and smoke. And when the crew opened the hatches, the added oxygen that rushed in, ignited the pitch, and the ship burst into flames, burnt and sank, bow first, in less than 30 feet of water.
The entire crew made it to safety.
Today the
Andes shipwreck is protected by the Marine Areas Act of 1972, nothing can be taken away from this site.
It's been sitting in the water for over 100 years now, as evidenced by the sea life which has totally engulfed the protruding mast.
But this was as close as we got to seeing it, as the burly weather, winds and seas had us nixing the idea,
of doing any type of snorkelling in the middle of the Bay.
Not only is Antigua home to 365 beaches, I have no idea how many forts, and now, I've learned, some 127 "documented" shipwrecks.
Time to zoom back home, and have some lunch...
we were pretty hungry from our morning of Adventurin'.