Times of the Islands Summer 2017

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astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum Clockwise from top left: The only known photo of the 65-foot, ex-Army T Boat Seven Dwarfs taken during one of its voyages from Florida to Provo. Note the Jeep riding jauntily on the rear deck and drums of fuel lining the side of the deckhouse. It is thought to have sunk somewhere in Chesapeake Bay many years later after a long and productive life. The first motor vehicle to “set tire” on Providenciales is carefully rolled off the Seven Dwarfs after a harrowing 600 mile voyage from Florida. The only known photo of the four-seat Cessna 180 N9174C, poised on Provo’s original airstrip. Note the “C.A.L.” letters under the wing: “Caicos Airways Ltd.” The First One A “Grandfather” of Provo remembers the island’s first vehicle. By Candianne Williams ~ Historical Photos Courtesy Bengt Soderqvist Today, there are approximately 25,000 vehicles zipping along the network of roads and highways on the island of Providenciales, including personal, rented, corporate and utility vehicles. This stands in stark contrast to November 22, 1966 when there was only one. That was fifty years ago and Bengt Soderqvist, Managing Director of Provident Ltd., remembers it as if it were only yesterday. 56 www.timespub.tc
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum In October 1966, three men set out from Delray Beach, Florida on an adventurous journey to begin the project that would totally change the landscape of Providenciales and set it on the path to becoming one of the most acclaimed tourist destinations in the world. Their task was to begin the development of 4,000 acres of Crown Land as per a lease agreement with the Turks & Caicos Government. Called Provident Ltd., the company had a lease with the option to buy the land upon completion of the terms of the agreement. The requirements were formidable. At the time, Provo had little contact with the outside world. There were no docks or marinas, no airstrip, no roads and not even a single telephone. Starting from scratch, the developers had to construct a 4,500-foot crushed-coral-surfaced airstrip, roads to link the three original settlements of Blue Hills, The Bight, and Five Cays, a hotel with at least ten rooms(!), a jetty at Five Cays, and a safe anchorage at Sellar’s Pond (now Turtle Cove Marina). Naturally, all this work created employment for many Islanders. With some changes and improvements to the original agreement, Provident delivered and was able to purchase the 4,000 acres of land in 1971. The rest, as they say, is history. To start the project Fritz Ludington, Tommy Coleman, and Bengt Soderqvist loaded a boat with every conceivable item of building materials and equipment that they would need, all too cognizant of the fact, according to Bengt, “that there was no Do It Center hardware store to go to.” Nor were there any vehicles—or even roads—on the island so they brought an old jeep to help them get around. The boat that made that inaugural journey was the Seven Dwarfs, the nickname by which the group of developers who owned Provident were known. The story of the origin of the name, as told by Bengt Soderqvist, is as follows, “One day early in the project during a meeting in Grand Turk between the group of developers and government officials, there was disagreement about something that required a brief recess by the government negotiators. In their absence Rogers Morton (one of the seven developers) asked ‘Who do these guys think they’re dealing with—The Seven Dwarfs?!’” After the laughter died down they decided they liked the sobriquet and it stuck with them even to this day. The boat Seven Dwarfs came to Providenciales after docking at South Caicos, because that is where the First in flight Another one of those hands-on pioneers during the early years of development on Providenciales is Mr. Embry Rucker, who signed on with Provident Ltd. in 1966. Fortunately for the history of the TCI, Embry did something almost no one else who participated in the development of Provo did: he wrote a memoir covering those amazing years, Coming In for a Landing. Embry was a pilot, but a pilot can’t do much without an airplane, and an airplane can’t do much without an airstrip, so that had to come first. Having made several of the trips from Florida to Provo on the Seven Dwarfs (during which he fell overboard twice!), Embry was itching to get into full-time flying. His opportunity came when the first short, rough airstrip was finished and Fritz Luddington’s wife’s 4-seat Cessna 180 became the first plane in the Caicos Airways “fleet.” Embry has been a supporter of the Museum since it opened its doors 25 years ago. The passing of his old shipmate Tommy Coleman in 2013 inspired Embry to commission a 1:22 scale model of the Seven Dwarfs in his memory to be included in the Museum’s future exhibit on how the phenomenally rapid growth of development on Provo began. He commissioned the model of Cessna N9174C in memory of his good friend, Finbar Dempsey. It was the plane Embry used to fly him around the Islands to hold court at the widely scattered settlements. The models are in storage in the US, awaiting the construction of the National Museum’s exhibit facility on Providenciales. a Candianne Williams This is the model of N9174C, the first “airline” in the Turks & Caicos Islands. DONALD KEITH Times of the Islands Summer 2017 57
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TIMES OF THE SAMPLING THE SOUL OF T
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Page 5 and 6: THE COOL SIDE OF CLASSIC The Palms
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Page 9 and 10: & Turks Caicos Resort Villages & Sp
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Page 13 and 14: getting to know Besides being among
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Page 37 and 38: feature Opposite page: TCI waterspo
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Page 45 and 46: feature Opposite page: Everyone is
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Page 74 and 75: ing those charged with compressed a
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