Note on the SS Antilles:
On 8 January 1971, she struck a reef near the island of
Mustique in the Grenadines while attempting to navigate Lansecoy Bay, a shallow
and reef-filled bay on the northern side of Mustique. On hitting the rocks the impact ruptured a
fuel tank and she caught fire. All of her passengers and crew evacuated the
ship safely to the island of Mustique and they were rescued by the Cunard
Line′s Queen Elizabeth 2. The burnt-out
hulk could not be freed from the reef, so the ship lay there for several
months, eventually breaking in half. Many years later she would be partially
scrapped on the spot and moved just a few hundred yards to her final resting
place in the channel off Lansecoy Bay.
TITLE CREDITS:
CARIBBEAN CAROUSEL
Story told by: Kent Walton
Eastmancolor Cinematography by: Roy Pointer
Caribbean Research: Arthur Jones
Assistant Director: Bill Cartlidge Jnr.
Assistant Cameraman: Ken Macpherson
Sound Recordist: Cyril Brown
Produced by: Harold Baim
Directed by: Frank Gilpin
Copyright: Harold Baim Motion Picture Productions Limited
SCRIPT
In the early morning Caribbean sunlight a gleaming white
liner waits to enter the harbour of Curaçao, thirty-eight miles off the coast of
Venezuela and one of the group known as The Leeward Islands.
First occupied by the Spaniards in 1527, it was
one-hundred years later the island came into the possession of the Dutch and
remained so almost without change until the present day.
A first look at the islands of The West Indies particularly
from an ocean liner is a thill of a lifetime. So completely different is this
side of the world, where the sun seems to be more golden, the sky so much more
blue and the sea so deeply ultra marine in colour.
Our ship, Antilles, takes its berth in the harbour of the
capital of Curaçao with its typical Dutch name of Willemstad, a town with a
population of some 50,000 people.
Oil refining is Curaçao’s chief industry and each day somewhere
in the region of 350,000 barrels are loaded and shipped.
Willemstad has been described as a bit of Holland in the
Caribbean. Its gabled houses and quaint
streets making it an exciting brew of Dutch, English, Spanish and French
adventure, spiced with a dash of Pirates rum.
This is the flag of our next port of call, Venezuela.
Caracas, capital city of Venezuela. 6925 feet above sea level
from the summit of the El Avila Mountains, a cable car descends to Caracas which
nestles in a beautiful valley formed by
branches of the coastal mountain range
The city itself
stands 3000 feet above the sea and has a climate of perpetual spring.
Liberator of five
South American republics the memory of Simon Bolívar is perpetuated in the square named after him.
It is a pulsating modern metropolis where their heroes
are never forgotten: a statue to those who fell in the war of independence.
At the south-west corner of Bolívar Square is the Capitol
Building. A huge edifice built in
colonial style and in the richly decorated interior and under its golden dome meets
the legislative assembly of Venezuela.
Time has run out
once more and we take our last look at colourful Caracas where rose tinted spectacles are not needed.
Each ship seems to carry with it its own national
characteristics and the Antilles is no exception.
It is a little bit of France that has become detached to
take us to the paradise of sunshine and colour, which is the Caribbean.
Barbados. Another
name to conjure with. British Barbados
with its governors house and Nelson’s statue in Trafalgar Square.
Unique in its scenic variety and beauty, where in 1960 the late Princess Royal opened the largest building on the
island the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Barbados has a climate of 70 to 80 degrees all the year round;
romantic island of gracious leisurely
atmosphere; a lovely pace to live your
days by.
Plantation houses
stand in magnificent grounds surrounded by waving fields of sugar cane.
On her head she
carries fifty pounds of fruit and
vegetables looking like some extraordinary hat.
Aboard our ship they
compete for the prize given to the one with the most inventive turn of mind; the best
decorated hat made up from anything they can find
lying around on deck, in the restaurants, or in the cabins. Some of them are quite ingenious.
The winner always wins but if she hadn’t won she would
have eaten her hat, but the judge decided to and she took the cup.
On our way to Jamaica, jewel of the Caribbean, life aboard
proceeds.
It’s either plunging into the pool or sizzling in the sun
and the temperature in the pool or under the sun it’s just what any doctor
would order.
In surroundings like these even a drink can be an exotic
experience. A rehearsal for the Planters Punch served beside another swimming
pool, this time in Jamaica. It is
exactly as we had always imagined
it. Not a detail is different, with its
magnificent hotels surrounded by waving palm trees, brilliant flowers a sea
almost as blue as the sky and sunshine of pure gold. And they do the limbo the Jamaican way with a
zest and rhythm like nothing you have never seen or heard before.
Up a palm tree goes the boy and you haven’t eaten coconut
until you’re had it direct from the manufacturer.
In Trinidad they sell them in the streets and drink your
health in coconut milk.
Port of Spain is the capital of Trinidad, this is the
office of the Prime Minister.
The Queen’s Royal College.
Terrific Trinidad has a Legislative Council Building.
Independence Square.
A little bit of India fell out the sky one day and landed
right the other side of the world, down Trinidad way. That is how the natives
came to know about Chapati; pancakes with curried lamb.
Aboard our ship again, nothing had to fall from anywhere
to delight the appetites of the passengers.
French culinary art at its best by chefs who know every trick of the
trade.
Shaped like a giant butterfly floating on the blue
Caribbean water, Guadeloupe is so prolific that everything grows in
abundance. Torrential tropical rains punctuated
by bright sun from July to November causes the luxurious vegetation to flourish
in this truly tropical island.
Guadeloupe has changed very little since Columbus gave it
its name in 1493.
A statue to the Empresses Josephine stands on the island of
Martinique, which was her birthplace.
The wife of Napoleon Bonaparte was born in this enchanting
French creole island. It is an historians
treasure house full of mementos of this famous Empress of France.
In the middle of jungle country at a place called Rivière
Salle is a church set in one of the strangest locations in the world.
Though not the most captivating of the islands, here,
summer is eternal.
The home of the tantalising rhythm of the Beguine,
Martinique was dropped like a star into the heart of the Caribbean.
A life on the ocean wave is for sailors of all kinds, and
under the caressing warmth of a West Indies sun, the passengers indulge
themselves energetically.
The clay pigeon shoot needs an eagle eye as the targets
spin through the air with the greatest of ease. Simple to put them up, but not
so simple to bring them down and as the shuttle board brigade go into action, our
magnificent ship nears Puerto Rico.
The flag of the USA flies at the masthead
Discovered ( by Christopher Columbus ) with a democratic
government voluntarily associated with the the United States of America, the
history of the island is rooted in Spanish tradition.
Built of solid Italian marble, the Capitol building in
the city of San Juan.
San Juan, Puerto Rico, is within the tropics. Spanish influence is everywhere with a
perfect mixing with an American way of life.
Sugar, rum, tobacco and coffee are just some of the exotic products of
this easy going paradise isle, where friendliness and a ready smile are all
around you.
The natives speak Spanish, learn English, and are
American citizens. They worship as
people do everywhere.
Construction of the El Morro Fortress began in 1539 and
once housed no less than 400 guns. So
much importance was attached to this island by the Spaniards so very long
ago. It’s an impressive place and if stones
could speak they would tell of all the coloured, chequered history of Puerto
Rico one thousand miles south-east of Florida.
We have reached Haiti and you can’t beat a band when it’s
West Indian.
Three coins in the Caribbean and the divers display their
worth when they look for your money on the seabed.
The water is crystal clear and they are well versed at charming
the dollars, cents and centimes out of your pocket.
All-a-shore-thats-going-ashore and in we go to have a
closer look at another pearl in our Caribbean Carousel.
The revolutionary regular rhythms, the vibrating
virtuosity of the instrumentalists weave a spell which is hard to dispel.
They call Haiti the heart of the Caribbean. Port-au-Prince is its main city. At the cathedral
of Notre Dame the people pray both inside and out. Most embrace the Roman
catholic religion.
A statue of Christopher Columbus without whose help this
motion picture could never have been made.
200 years ago a man called Louis Barbancourt left the
town of Bordeaux in France and came to Haiti.
From the sugar on his plantation he distilled fine liquors. Today the same family continue the tradition
with flavours which range from Orange to Coffee, Mint to Apricot and Pineapple to
Banana.
Haitian folklore gives the craftsmen in mahogany and straw
ideas for the decorative figures they create.
The air is fragrant with the scent of Jasmine and Mimosa: vibrant with
the pulsating beat of African rhythms.
The call of the West Indies is strong; islands which meets every mood match every dream. One
dreams of them long after they have been left behind.
And we are once
again on our ship bound for home.
[End Credit]
All
music should be cleared with
https://www.dewolfemusic.com/page/contact#uk
De
Wolfe Music
Queen’s
House
180-182
Tottenham Court Road
London
W1T 7PD