Times of the Islands Summer 2017

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