​When the Macqueripe beach in Chaguaramas was closed to the public in March because somebody allowed a big hole to form in the seawall and the staircase railings began falling off, everybody got stopped from bathing there, while they fixed it.
Then no less than a minister of Government reopened the beach months later, only for the health authorities to realise that the Covid-19 virus loves it when plenty people squeeze into a space the size of a football field.
So we all got blanked again, with the ban this time extending to bi­kers, hikers, joggers and those yoga people in the Bamboo Cathedral.
Trinis, you might take comfort in knowing that all of this happened before, when Macqueripe was a place you were not allowed.
That is, unless you were working for, or had business with, the United States military.
In fact, the beach and much of the Chaguaramas peninsula became virtual United States territory during World War II (September 1, 1939-September 2, 1945) when 135,000 American troops were assigned to Latin America and the Caribbean, with the majority of that force coming to Trinidad.
The Americans got a 99-year lease to the Chaguaramas area in a deal known as the “Destroyer for Bases” agreement, with the British getting in exchange 50 ageing battleships as they fought the German advance in Europe.
The area was acquired under two separate agreements, the first of which, in April 1941, involved 7,940 acres of Crown land, including the five islands in the Gulf of Paria.
Land acquisition deal
The initial plan was for a naval air station with facilities to support the operation of a patrol squadron of seaplanes and the development of a protected fleet anchorage in the Gulf of Paria as a means of projecting American might, and to protect the vital Panama Canal from a sea attack coming from the south through the Caribbean.
Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, the US declared war on the Axis powers, and Trinidad became of greater strategic importance, accelerating the construction of the Wal­lerfield and Carlsen Field airbases.
And with German submarines prowling the Atlantic and sinking merchant ships in the Caribbean Sea and in T&T’s territorial waters, an airship (blimp) base was developed and coastal defence artillery and bunkers set up around the island. Some of this impressive infrastructure you can still find remnants of in Los Iros, Cedros, St Margaret’s, and Moruga. There are also installations you can still find in Cap-de-­­Ville where a concrete-fortified administration building became, of all things, the home of the Beast of Biche, Mano Benjamin, after he served his time for his atrocities.
To ensure military security of the entire area, a second land acquisition deal was brokered in December 1942, involving 3,800 privately owned acres, with four bays —Carenage, Chaguaramas, Teteron, and Scotland, and two valleys— Chaguaramas and Tucker—becoming areas of separate naval activity.
The Seabees
The US had been using civilian contractors on the projects pre-war, but when it officially entered World War II, this had to stop. The use of civilians was not permitted since a non-combatant resisting the enemy would be deemed a guerrilla and summarily executed.
And this is how the Naval Construction Battalion came to be, units of men capable of fighting and building, and given the phonetic name Seabees.
These were men, aged 18 to those in their 60s, who volunteered, and later selected, to help the homeland win the war by building what the military needed.
And they came with more than 60 skills—craftsmen, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, equipment operators—capable of building anything alongside the Civil Engineering Corps.
More than 325,000 would serve in World War II, in more than 400 locations.
Several of these battalions, each comprising about a thousand men, would sail to Trinidad during wartime—the 11th, 30th, 80th, 83rd, and 559th Construction Battalions, and be deployed on every coast of the island (they particularly loved Manzanilla). 
All of this is mentioned because much of what you see around Macqueripe (the bay was also a US submarine station) was built by the Seabees, with the help of local labour, from the road network and 150-room Tucker Valley naval hospital to the officers’ quarters and beachfront recreational facilities.
Macqueripe in the 1940s.
Source: U.S. Navy Seabee Museum
And because we had to forfeit this area of the peninsula and beach access at Macqueripe when the Americans entered the war, it was agreed that the United States would build and turn over to the colonial government a road to Maracas Bay as compensation.
Before then, the only way to get to Trinidad’s iconic beach was by boat or mountain trail.
Amazing feat
The historians record that work on this seven-and-a-half-mile road was started late in March 1943 by the contractor, continued by the Seabees upon termination of the contract in June and completed and turned over to the local government in April 1944.
The records of the 30th Construction Battalion gave an account of the feat thusly: “The road to Scotland Bay was our toughest project. The men had to cut through solid rock most the way and dust and heat did not ease the work. But the road went through and later a complete recreation centre was built at the bay. Our men on the Maracas Road detail did a job there that would have amazed even the most agile of mountain goats, as they manoeuvred around the high rock cliffs and constant landslides.”
The road to Maracas, which began at Saddle Road, required the removal of 1,000,000 cubic yards (764,555 cubic metres) of rock and dirt from perilous mountainside heights using dynamite, excavators and bulldozers through virgin jungle.
It was described as “24 feet wide, paved with asphalt macadam for a width of 14 feet, and nowhere exceeded a 10 per cent grade, des­pite its climb from sea level at Port of Spain to a 1,335-foot elevation within a distance of two miles”.
The US Navy Construction Battalion bulldozed and blasted a road through the Northern Range to get to Maracas Bay during construction in 1940s.
Source: U.S. Navy Seabee Museum
There is no record of anyone dying on the project, which we got for free. And it took all of 11 months. 
Source:  [email protected] Daily Express, June 17, 2021

​Wrightson Road, in Port-of-Spain, is named after English engineer Walsh Wrightson, a racist who held that non-whites ought not to vote or govern the country.
Wrightson, Director of Public Works and member of the Legislative and Executive Councils from 1895 to 1907, was responsible for the construction of what became known as Wrightson Road, a 1.6 km roadway cut­ting along the shoreline on the western edge of downtown Port-of-Spain to the lighthouse.
In 1900, he built the road from the Charles Street junction to gain access to town’s sewerage pumping station sited at Mucurapo Point on the Maraval River. It followed a path along the seashore on the Woodbrook Estate.
The roadway, extended in the 1930s by India-born engineer Ranjit Kumar, was named for Wrightson.
Wrightson was also responsible for several landmark projects on the island.
He supervised the construction of a sewer system for Port-of-Spain in 1897. He designed Knolleys Tunnel which was built in 1898 to enable the railway line from Jernigham junction, Cunupia to Tabaquite to go through a hill in the central range. He built the Moruga Suspension Bridge in 1899. And he designed, through architect Daniel Hahn, the best building in the city at the time, Queen’s Royal College, which was built in 1904.
Wrightson, however, was a central figure in the Water Riot of 1903, having drafted a waterworks bill that sought to install water meters in homes and increase water rates.
The bill was hotly opposed, and it sparked off unrest. The episode had political implications because the agitation against the waterworks bill was said to arise from bitterness caused by the abolition, in 1899, of the borough council of Port-of-Spain.
The eruption, precipitated by a volatile combination of disenfranchised masses and an oppressive colonial government, led to the Red House being set on fire by angry burgesses. More than a dozen people were killed by police.
Over the years, there have been calls for the renaming of Wrightson Road to Ranjit Kumar Highway.
Dr. Brinsley Samaroo, professor emeritus of history at the St. Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI), supported the call. In an article published in the Daily Express on 12 June 2020, Samaroo described Wrightson as “one of the worst imperialists. Absolutely racist”.
Samaroo said, “He (Wrightson) sparked the Water Riots in 1903 since he took the decision to meter water, and he imposed water rates on poor people.
“He was adamant non-white people didn’t have the right to govern themselves. He strongly believed Crown Colony government must be perpetuated. It’s in the Hansard. If you are not white, you don­’t have the gift to govern yourself.
“He was totally against the movement for the franchise (right to vote). Wrightson Road should be renamed after the director of works, engineer Ranjit Kumar. Kumar designed it and built it in the 1930s.” Source: Dominic Kalipersad, June 12, 2021

TRIBUTE TO PROMINENT LABOUR LEADER
ALBERT MARIA GOMES
In Trinidad and Tobago many people tend to associate Labour Day Celebrations with one man “ TUBAL URIAH BUTLER” , but he was only one of the Labour Leaders in our country. Today the ABVMOTT recognizes the contribution of Albert Maria Gomes for his contribution towards the trade union movement.
Gomes played a significant part in the establishment of the development of Unionism in T& T . It's a sad day when we only pay tribute to a few of our labour leaders forgetting that there were other individuals also made significant contributions to our country's development.
Who was ALBERT MARIA GOMES (1911-1978) and what were his contributions towards the labour movement in T & T?
Albert Maria Gomes of Portuguese descent was born in Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Ever since 1930s he was an active trade union leader. In fact he wore many hats .He was a unionist, politician, and was the first Chief Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He was the founder of the Political Progress Groups and later led the Party of Political Progress Groups. He was active in the formation of the Democratic Labour Party(DLP) in Trinidad and Tobago
In the 1930s, Gomes demanded workers’ rights, more pay, and criticised the colonial power structure with revolutionary arguments. During the 1940s, Gomes was elected the President of the Federated Workers Trade Union (FWTU) working together with Quintin O'Connor as the Secretary he and his team were successful in building up the FWTU a movement which played a critical role in the establishment of unionism in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 1938 Albert Gomes was elected into the Port-of-Spain City Council in 1938, in which he served for nine years. In 1945, he was furrher elected as a member of the Legislative Council, and made a member of the Executive Council in 1946.
From 1950 to 1956, Gomes was re-elected to the Legislative Council and served as the pre-Independence Minister of Labour, Industry and Commerce. He was leader of the conservative Party of Political Progress Groups (POPPG). From 1958, he served as a member of the West Indies Federal House of Representatives, which dissolved with the break-down of the Federation in 1962. When the POPPG was defeated by the only nine-month old People’s National Movement (PNM) in the 1956 election by winning 13 out of the 24 seats (that is, 1,458 votes more than the POPPG), Gomes took the defeat very hard and left Trinidad to live in England.
WE SALUTE YOU ALBERT MARIA GOMES, PATRIOT AND SON OF THE SOIL FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIONISM IN T & T.
Credit to sources “THE PORTUGUESE OF TRINIDAD & TOBAGO and WHO, WHAT, WHY , Trinidad 1950 and the Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago.

 From the late Author/Historian Angelo Bissessarsingh.
Although they brought the habit of ganja-use from their homeland, the Indian Indentured Labourers who began arriving in Trinidad in 1845 were introduced to rum in the colony. As early as 1860 it was recorded that drunkenness was a problem since many Indians were jailed for abandoning work due to inebriation. When the Canadian Mission to the Indians was founded by Presbyterian minister, Rev. John Morton in 1868, he noted :
“I have never been in a place where rum stares one so constantly in the face as Trinidad. Two large distilleries are above smuggling but there is not a village of any size in this island, except the Mission (Princes Town) which has not got a distillery where smuggling is more or less carried on. San Fernando has 42 licensed places, Iere Village 4, the Mission 10 etc. ”
The smuggling that Morton talked of was the manufacture of illegal spirits, called Babash. The drinking among the Indians inadvertently contributed to the high rate of wife-murders which occurred throughout the 19th and well into the mid 20th centuries. With a drink of rum selling for as little as six cents, a labourer could be drunk all day for a couple dollars which could very well represent his week’s earnings. Drinking was seen as a means of dulling the harsh realities of labour on the sugar estates of Trinidad. In 1887, J.H Collens noted:
“In Trinidad, as in India, many of these people become renegades to their creed, solely for the sake of being able to drink and sell rum, and it must be borne in mind that, with the Coolie, who will not partake of proper nourishing food when he has to pay for it himself, to drink rum is to become a drunken, besotted beast…………I have stated that by the Koran the Mussulman is prohibited from indulging in strong drink. It is unlikely that many in Trinidad forsake the religion of their forefathers from no better motive than to gratify their craving for alcohol. Years ago, when a youngster, I remember seeing a pictorial sketch in Punch entitled ' Accommodating.' An officer is seated in his bungalow, enjoying the dolce far niente of military life in India. Addressing his native bodyservant who stands near :—' What caste are you, Bamsammee V Native : ' Same church like Sahib ; me eat beef and drink brandy, sar !' To him Christianity and grog-drinking were unfortunately synonymous terms. After all, coolies are much like other people : treat them properly
and they -will serve you well—always, however, with an eye to the main chance ; but is not human nature the same all the world over”
In the 1890s the dangerous precedent of rum for wages began. At Forres Park, the lifestyle of the labourer was typical…Squalid barracks, zero sanitation, no school for children , scanty rations, and heavy tasks. One great evil which was introduced by Mr. Farmer, the manager in the 1890s was the offering of white rum, firewater, as a supplement to wages and even as wages themselves. This of course enslaved the Indians since they became rapidly dependent on the alcohol and thus were always in debt to the estate since the cost of rations was also deducted from the pittance they received for their task work. Almost until the demise of the sugar industry in 2007, employees of Caroni 1975 Ltd. could acquire rum on credit from the distillery and have the cost deducted from their wage packets. In the 1950s, researcher Morton Klass recorded the lifeways of Indo Trinis in Felicity. In a typical sorrowfully poor shopping list for the fortnight, the average family stinted the basics,…one tin of sardines for five persons , a few pounds of flour and a bottle of oil; but never missed the half-bottle of puncheon rum. One of the banes of Indo Trinidadians, most people are angry when this is mentioned, but it is a sad reality with historic origins.
Disclaimer : Views expressed are that of the author . Not intended to offend anyone sector of population.

​A little story of family life in the 1930’s, written by my father in 1988 - part of many memories he wrote about. He recalls the days when he and his brothers were the bread delivery boys, using their big brothers’ bikes. My dad Andrew was the tenth child in a family of 12, living in Richmond Street, Port of Spain. Their father died young, (my dad was not quite 9 years old), leaving their mother to raise them all. They lived in a large house, so she took in boarders to help out financially and the children also had to help out.
“Ten boarders, 6 cousins, 12 of us, Mama and “poor” little friends (usually 2), say 28-30 people to be fed each and every day, breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. We all ate a lot of bread, so Ma employed Harris, Barbadian baker who had a problem with testicular hernia always getting in his way. Harris would arrive home and start baking between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m. He supplied us with 100 hops loaves, and 6 pan loaves, plus other sweet breads for tea. He also baked some 30 other pan loaves which had to be delivered to the customers before 7:00 a.m. These were friends of the family who lived the general neighbourhood. Ma had several bread bags made, some to hold one or two or more pan loaves. Each customer had a nail on the back or front porch to hold the stringed bread bag. The empty bag would be replaced by the full one. Each bag had the customer’s name. Problem – transportation. Andrew, Robert, George borrow Boysie’s, Bertie’s and John’s bicycles, surround the bicycles with bags of bread and make sure you return for the owners to get their bicycles to get to work. We “students” had to eat breakfast quickly and walk to school – and get there in time. Many times we failed as evidenced by the black and blues on our hands or backsides as administered by our school masters. But this was all part of life. We loved Mama and understood the situation.”
Source: Valerie van der Meulen-Sheppard from the Virtual Museum of TT, March 2021

Trinidad’s oldest secondary school, St Joseph’s Convent, PoS, celebrates 185 years on April 5.
This is an edited version of a commemoration of its anniversary submitted by the school.
On January 29, 1836, six sisters from the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny arrived at the wharf in Port of Spain, having travelled by boat from Martinique.
They had been invited to come to Trinidad by Bishop McDonnell, prelate of the Catholic Church in Trinidad, for the purpose of “founding a house of education in which all classes and religions can receive a solid and adequate grounding.”
This small group of nuns was sent by Mère Marie-Therese, then superior of the community in Martinique and sister of Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey, the foundress of the Congregation. (Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey never actually came to Trinidad because she was actively working in French Guiana at the time.)
Three months after their arrival, the six sisters opened a boarding school for girls on April 5, 1836, on the upper part of St James Street (now Frederick Street). Before long they moved to rented premises on Kent Street (now Pembroke Street).
In those early years, students were examined orally by outside examiners in the presence of the nuns and visitors. These exams were called concours and were an exhibition of the literary, artistic and musical accomplishments of the students.
By 1838, the school had 50 boarders and was outgrowing the Kent Street location. In 1840, the Sisters bought a property not far from where they were renting. It was next door to the residence of the bishop and remains the site of the present school on Pembroke Street.


Of course, there have been many changes since then. Over the past 40 years, while the physical structure has remained more or less the same, the school has continued to be transformed and updated to suit the changing needs of its community and better equip students to meet the challenges of an ever-changing, digitised world. The introduction of the AV room and language labs in the 70s gave way in the new millennium to upgraded laboratories, the multimedia wing, multimedia classrooms, refurbished theatre and home economics room and gym and air-conditioning of every classroom.
Academically, the school has excelled over the years. SJC PoS won the President’s Medal in 2003, 2008, 2009 and 2016. It has gained open and additional scholarships in all disciplines: maths, science, art, business, environmental science, modern languages, modern studies and information technology. The ever-expanding curriculum has seen the introduction of environmental studies, entrepreneurship and more recently, music, at the CAPE level.
The school boasts 43 clubs and organisations. In music, the school choir, besides its participation and many successes over the years in local festivals such as the biannual Music Festival, has competed in many international choir competitions, in places that include Austria, Italy and Latvia.
In sport, it was the first TT school to represent Cheer Clubs at meets in Orlando. The dragon boat team competed in Toronto, Canada and it has sent teams to the popular Penn Relays in the US. In fact, many Convent students have been and continue to be on many national teams, many holding leadership positions, such as captains.
The Unesco Club has attended two international Unesco conferences in Costa Rica and Argentina. As part of its social outreach programmes, the school participates annually in the RBC Young Leaders competition and many charity projects, assisting neighbours like the Living Water Community and the Bethlehem RC Primary School. Students continue to take part in the Amcham Youth Forum and the Maths Olympiad. It also has a Legion of Mary group, a St Vincent de Paul Society Club and a prayer group to continue to nurture the spiritual growth of its young people.
Looking forward
The 185th anniversary of St Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain, coincides with 2021 being dedicated the “Year of St Joseph,” its patron saint, by Pope Francis. This dedication was given on the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.
At 185, SJC PoS is the oldest secondary school in TT and “remains esteemed for a curriculum that is dedicated to helping young women, and more recently young men, from across TT realise their full potential; one that inspires and has produced “brilliant alumnae of integrity and character.” With each year that a new class enters SJC PoS’s gates, the school says, it builds on the legacy of excellence and nurture unrealised talents and aspirations for a bright future.
“With a long and illustrious history, a promising future, St Joseph’s Convent, PoS, continues to shape, influence and advance the nation in every sphere.
“Each new student walks in the footsteps of past and sets a path for future generations of young people, laughing through the corridors, becoming part of a sisterhood and a community of cherished memories, and playing a role in building something that is bigger than itself.”
As it celebrates this year the school is reminded of its motto, “Sapientia et Scientia: Wisdom and Knowledge.” These values, guarded by its predecessors, it says, continue to guide it today as it prepares future generations of SJC PoS students.
During this year’s celebration the school is thanking all who have given so generously of their time, efforts and donations through the years. It recognises the enduring support of the Cluny Board of Management and all the board members past and present who serve to ensure the growth and development of the school, and thanks the current Provincial Superior, Sr Maureen Alexander, for her guidance.
The school regards this anniversary as “a fantastic opportunity not only to take stock of what it has achieved, but also to look ahead.” It urges readers to join it on “this remarkable journey as we continue to strive for excellence in both performance and service.” With its “185 for 185” campaign to celebrate this year’s anniversary, the Past Pupils Association is embarking on further plans for several critical works at the school.
“We move forward in faith, hope and love and ask that you join us in our commitment to securing the best possible learning environment for future generations. With your continued support, our legacy endures, grows, and thrives for another 185 years – as it has done since its early beginnings.”
Milestones in SJC PoS history:
1845 – The foundation stone for the first chapel was laid.
1853 – A day school was introduced from 7.30 am-5.15 pm for girls under ten.
1859 – Sr Mary Louise Wright was appointed Mother Superior (head of the nuns and of the school). At that time most of the nuns were French. She was the first Trinidadian to hold this position.
1860 – Providence, or “Little Convent,” was established in the downstairs part of the bishop’s residence as a free school.
1869 – There were four years or courses (equivalent of today’s “forms”): preparatory, elementary, secondary and superior.
1894 – For the first time an Irish Cluny Sister was head of the Convent. Before that, all the Reverend Mothers had been French (with the notable exception of Trinidad-born Mother Mary Louise Wright, mentioned earlier).
1911 – SJC was affiliated with QRC for external Cambridge exams and qualified for a government subsidy.
1932 – Three students sat the Cambridge Higher Certificate exams (equivalent of today’s A levels) to compete with boys from St Mary’s College and QRC for the Colonial Scholarship. One was Jocelyn Urich, who joined the Cluny sisters and took the name Sr Frances Xavier. She would go on to become principal of SJC and then Provincial Superior of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny.
1944 – In the middle of the night on May 23, a fire broke out which destroyed the greater part of the school and the chapel and resulted in the tragic death of four sisters.
1946 – The new school buildings, the ones which exist today, were reopened in January.
1948 – The first Girls Scholarship offered by the Government was won by Corinna Achong of SJC.
1961 – The first Common Entrance Examinations were held in January 1962, when free secondary education was introduced in TT. Up until that time SJC was a fee-paying school which also offered a limited number of “exhibitions,” the equivalent of scholarships.
1990 – The retirement of Sr Paul D’Ornellas as principal marked the last time a Sister of St Joseph of Cluny held that post. Sr Paul was succeeded in 1991 by Melba Pounder, the first lay principal, herself a past student. She was followed by Elizabeth Crouch, another alumna; Jennifer Annandsingh; and another SJC alumna, Anna Pounder. 
Source: Newsday, April 5, 2021