155 I learn of flamingos and hurricanes 



American Civil War, when blockade running was a risky but 

 profitable business. Green Turtle Cay had been a major head- 

 quarters for these operations, and the first mention that I had been 

 able to find in ornithological literature of a flamingo colony at 

 Abaco (though not the first report, which had been Governor 

 Blake's) was the account of a ship captain from Florida who said 

 that while blockade running out of Green Turtle Cay, around 

 1863, the local people brought in flamingos from a colony some 

 ten miles to the west, and sold them for food. Today many of the 

 younger people have migrated to America or to Nassau, where 

 they can find employment. Except for two or three yards, boat- 

 building has dropped off and is rapidly becoming a lost art. 



One evening I heard Forsyth, who is well known there on ac- 

 count of his work with the sponge fisheries, lecture a group of 

 older residents on the subject of shipbuilding, but I suspect it 

 was in vain. He remarked that in these days every other house- 

 holder had set up a little shop, sometimes with nothing more than 

 a few cans of pork and beans, and soda pop on the shelves. He 

 asked for the names of those who were running this shop and that 

 one, and then inquired if the father (or perhaps the grandfather) 

 had not been So-and-so, the boatbuilder. Yes, that was so. But 

 they have given up the trade? Yes, that was so. Ha! says F., you 

 have the mistaken idea that to be a merchant is to move up in 

 the world. You foolishly believe that a storekeeper is better than 

 a builder of boats, but in this you are greatly mistaken. It is just 

 the other way around. No one agreed or disagreed. Nearly all 

 present were small shopkeepers, and nearly all were descended 

 from some of the most skilled builders of sailing sloops and 

 schooners in the islands. Of course, it could be that in this mecha- 

 nized age there is little demand for the products of that once 

 flourishing trade. All of which seems something of a pity. 



There was one gentleman who was not only busily engaged in 

 his boatyard, putting the finishing touches on a large and sturdy 

 sloop, but who was also a man of many parts, as we learned later, 

 and a leader in the community. When I spoke of how much I had 

 been impressed by him, a resident said to me, "It's only to be ex- 

 pected. After all, 'is people wuz officers." I puzzled over this and 



