Lord High Admiral Vernon Watson, OBE, familiarly known to us as Captain Watson, has died.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley in a tribute tonight, said Watson, who died today, lived and breathed the Landship.
“His dedication to the ‘Ship was total and all-consuming. For close to 75 years it dominated his vision as he contemplated how he could secure the legacy of the organisation he led.
“My heart breaks at his passing, for in him I have always recognised a Bajan who for three quarters of a century had dedicated his life to the sustenance of an indigenous institution that started its mission of reflecting our culture many moons before he became a member – indeed in the Nineteenth Century,” she said.
Mottley said every Barbadian who is culturally aware and conscious of what it means to be Bajan, should pause and say thanks to Watson for breathing fresh life into the Barbados Landship.
“I have always maintained that the Barbados Landship is an indigenous service club, whose existence pre-dates all others existing locally. We owe it to Admiral Watson, however, to see that this unique slice of Barbadian life and culture does not disappear with his passing.
“We cannot be oblivious to the fact that in the 1930s the Barbados Landship, which boasted of almost 4 000 members and three “fleets”, comprised more than 60 “ships” based at docks across this country, including his own in landlocked Highland, St Thomas, today operates a single struggling ship, the Director,” she added. (PR/CM)
