Blue Glass Beads
Introduction
This was a sailing trip in the Leeward Islands from St Martin to Dominica on Karmaladen, a 62' custom aluminum ketch. The story is only about a small part of the trip, but just goes to show the unexpected discoveries you make on a sailing adventure.
The Karmaladen crew from left to right is Fantom, Rixzene, Seth, and Greg. Fantom is a carpenter from Dominica. Rixzene is an ex doctor from Ohio and the owner. Seth just graduated from college. Greg is a retired executive. Rixzene is currently sailing in the Pacific (South/Mid Pacific Trip). I sailed with Seth a few years later on his catamaran Karuna (St Thomas, VI to Ft Lauderdale, FL).
St. Eustatius
St Eustatius or Statia as it is more commonly called, is a small island just north of St Kitts. No one on board knew much about he island or had been there before, so we decided to stop and check it out. We anchored off the main town of Oranestad in the early afternoon. It was pretty hot, so Rixzene and I decided to go snorkeling at a dive site called '12 Cannons'. The rest of the crew decided to be lazy and stayed on board. We left the dinghy at the town dock and started walking along the shore to the dive site. Along the way, there was a large beach with 20-30 people digging in the sand all over the beach. We figured someone lost a contact lens, got everyone on the beach involved, and didn't have a chance of finding it. It was a little strange that EVERYONE was digging and there were holes all over the beach.
The '12 Cannons' dive site was a bunch of cannons placed on the bottom near a reef from an old ship that was wrecked someplace else. The main attraction was snorkeling around looking for all 12. As I remember it we only found 11, but was a cool way to spent the hot afternoon.
On the walk back everyone was still digging in the sand, so I just had to stop and ask about the lost contact lens. As it turned out everyone was looking for Blue Glass Beads. A nice medical student digging in the sand explained one version of the story:
About 400 years ago, the Dutch West India Co. started making glass beads for use as currency. The beads were considered almost worthless, but were given to the slaves as wages. The slaves wore them in large necklaces and because the beads had little value, each slave had lots and lots of beads. Statia, at that time, was a major slave trading port in the Caribbean . The story goes that the slave ships anchored outside the reef and just off the beach where everyone was digging. A major storm struck the coast and the ships were wrecked on the reef with the slaves still chaining down below. It is believed that Blue Glass Beads from the wrecked slave ships still wash up on the beach today.
True or not I was hooked and started digging! Rixzene joined in the fun, but probably was thinking maybe she would find a lost contact lens. Talking with several of the other people digging, many came to Statia on a vacation to look for the beads. There were lots of stories about finding them, but no one that day had one to show.
After about 1.5 hours, I did find a possible Blue Glass Bead chip. Several people on the beach, including the medical student thought that it might be the real thing. A local dive shop had one for sale for $300, but the shop was closed by the time we finished digging. Many people around the island wear one Blue Glass Bead around their neck out of respect for the slaves that died.
Another version of the Blue Glass Bead story is that when the slaves were freed they went to the cliffs, above the beach, and threw them in the ocean as a symbol that they could now work for real money.
Wrecked slave ships, freed slaves, real Blue Glass Bead chip or not, it sure was fun listening to the stories and digging on the beach that day!