The year 1963 was marked by devastation in the Caribbean due to a hurricane and a virus outbreak.

Sailing to Caribbean 1963.

I had signed on at M/s Trubadur in the port of Gothenburg in September 1963. This was my first time that I left home, at the age of 15. It was going to be a big change in my life, from farm working to become a sailor in the merchant navy.

Trubadur was a refrigerated vessel built in 1957 and with 3500 tdw, owned by the Shipping Company, Salén. The main shipping cargo was Bananas from West India. This was a fast running vessel with a cruise speed of 25 knots.

My first trip, Gothenburg-Jamaica-Gothenburg, was smoothly and fast. Our first port in Jamaica was Kingston Town and what a difference from the Swedish landscape! Wow! All this colorful painted wooden houses and palm tree gardens reaching all the way down to the quay. The Banana trees, tropical flowers and the white sand beaches were breathtaking sight for me at that time as a young lad.

The second run, begun in October and should have been the same route, but the weather had changed!  When we passed The Azores islands in the middle of the Atlantic, we were hit by a hurricane! Our M/s Trubadur was moving like a nutshell on top on the high waves, it was terrifying!    I had never experienced anything like this in my life, but my ship mates told me not to worry, as they were used to storms like this!

Our Capitan informed us that it was going to be worse! The hurricane was named Flora and was ahead of us on its way to the Caribbean islands with a wind speed around 230 km /hr. We had to slow down our speed, to not catch up with the with the category 4 hurricane Flora!

After crossing the last part of the Atlantic Ocean and entering the Caribbean Sea, the waves were growing into enormous rolling surfs. A heavy rain had started with winds falling to about 150 km/hr. Our ship was rolling and shaking in this very ruff sea.

Caribbean islands

Arriving at the port of Miragoane in the northern part of Haiti, we discovered the disaster that had occurred. Large building and houses were totally destroyed by the hurricane Flora. Palm trees and electric poles were lying on the ground blocking the roads with people trying to save the rest of their homes. But the worst sight was dead children, in the arms of their crying parents, a truly sad experience!

The Shipping agent from United Fruits came onboard, just to tell us that we had to leave as soon as we had bunkered fuel. There were no Bananas to load; all had been swept away by the storm! We were told to visit some ports on the southern part of Haiti/ Dominican Republic.

After entering 8 different ports, we only had a half shipload with Bananas. The ports of Jamaica were all closed, so we had to go to Colombia.

We were now heading to Santa Marta, situated on the north coast of Colombia. It was early morning when we sight the coast shore with deep green high mountains in the background and sandy white beaches in front. The port was formed like a Bay and was situated on the west side of the Town of Santa Marta, with a population of about 70.000, in 1963 (Year 2020 over 400.000!). The quay were we docked was very close to centre of the town, that luckily had been saved from the storm. The city was divided in two parts, one rich and one poor, it was easy to see the different. On the western part the streets were full of banks and shops, but at the east side a slum town full with wooden shacks and dirt roads.

I was strolling around in the” nice” part for a while, but did not find very much of interest for me. I asked a waiter in a coffee bar, where I could find the “real life” in town and was advised to a hillside on the eastern part. Walking up the hill, an old Black woman told me to be very careful to enter the top of this hill. I asked why? Then she shook her head and told me that all the bars and action up there was dangerous!

It was a devils place, she said and left me. This gave me the curiosity to continue…After a while I saw people sitting along the road, I thought they were beggars, but looking closer I saw that some of them had a half arm or leg and miss formed parts of the body. This was all very sick people hit by a disease, visions that I never had seen before in my life. It was similar to the Leprosy, but worse!! They called it “Chanquer”, but never found out what it really was. Later I was informed that it was a deadly virus that had killed over thousands of people….. I kept walking up the hill, but made sure to be in the middle of the road, to not make contact with anyone.

Up on top, I found some friends from the ship and I joined them for a while. Later I took a Taxi down to the quay, for the sake of safety!

Next day the cargo train entered the port, full loaded with Banana stocks. It was later hand loaded onboard to our ship and then down in the cold rooms under deck. It was all young local guys that formed a human chain to pass the banana stocks to each other. It was an impressing sight when they were singing and working with a Latin rhythmic style. Onboard I asked one of the workers, how much one of this banana stocks was worth, he told me “give me 1USD” and so I did. The Bananas had still a green color, so I saved it in my cabin, to moisture.

This last weeks had been a lifetime experience that I never will forget!

With now a full load of Bananas, we turned now to go back to the port of Gothenburg again for unloading and later to repeat the voyage back to the Caribbean islands. Finally this did not happened; our shipping agent informed us during the trip that an after storm had hit the islands again and made it impossible to get a full load. The shipping company now ordered the Capitan to change course to Halifax in Canada to load brand new Cars!

Arriving to Canada.

It was now in the end of December and in Canada it was winter! I was vey disappointed about this change, but also the chance to see another country. When we finally arrived to the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the night had fallen and we could only see the lights at shore. Next morning when I looked out from the porthole in my cabin, it was snowing! The quay were we had docked was far away from the city center and all buildings had a dull and dark color. What a different to the West Indian islands! It was now the 23rd of December; we had arrived to stay over Christmas in Halifax, Canada. I had to spend my first Christmas outside Sweden in another ice cold country; I was disappointed to not be in Jamaica or another warm place. Halifax to me was a boring town and hardly anything opened during our stay at port. We finally loaded the ship with Studebaker cars, made by Packard motors in Ontario; this shipload was to be delivered to Southampton, UK.

Later I came back to my favorite place The Caribbean Islands, with nice sunny weather and with sand beaches, where I got time to practice scuba diving. My first experience as a sailor had been with mixed emotions.

Thank you for reading, I will be back soon!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_hurricanes_on_Caribbean_history#:~:text=Most%20notably%20The%20Great%20Hurricane,peaks%20from%20August%20to%20October.

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