HE MADE A PROMISE to a friend 20 years ago that he would not let the Barbados Landship disappear from the local landscape.
Today, some 45 years after he joined the Landship, Lord High Admiral Vernon Watson says he is determined to do whatever he can as long as there is breath in his body to ensure that the indigenous cultural expression continues.
Watson, who is in charge of the Barbados Landship, said that he recalls former Commander Leon Marshall, who joined the Landship when he was 12 years old and died at 66 – he was the one who passed the baton on to Watson and asked him to ensure the Landship continued.
“When I came on board, he said praise the Lord, my prayer has been heard. He was praying that someone would come along, just like me now, I am praying that someone would come along and keep the Landship afloat.
“When he was on his deathbed, he called for me. I went to him and promised him then that I will. I have to do everything in my power not to let it die and that is exactly what I am doing now.
“I go all out. It is the only hobby I have; it is a part of my blood as long as God gives me health and strength, that is where all of my stamina will be devoted – to the Landship,” Watson said.
In 1971 Watson was prompted to join the performance organization because during the late 1960s early 1970s in the district where he lived at Highland, St Thomas, there were some children with unseemly behaviour.
“When I consider it, young children ain’t now start being bad – all in 1971 I had a group of children started doing lawlessness, pelting at cars, houses, putting bottles in the road and breaking them up.
Checking bad behaviour
“Me as a tenant boy born on a plantation, despite my upbringing, never did anything like that, so I thought it would be good to do something to curb it before it caught too much root,” he said.
Watson went to his father, who was a member of the Landship movement and spoke to him about floating a Landship in the village to provide an alternative for the youngsters. As someone who did not know anything about the movement, he had to rely on the older folk to show him the ropes, because all of the old members between 60 and 80 knew the ropes and were willing to teach.
“The Landship removed that sort of activity because they had no time for it, they went to school in the day and on evenings they played drums and learnt [about] the Landship movement . . . so everybody was looking forward to it every night,” Watson explained.
He said the Landship is a movement that brings the community together and every parish had several ships afloat, at one time more than 60, but only one ship remains today.
The organization is celebrating 150 years and Watson recalled that it got its start from a man called Moses Wood, a seaman in the British Navy who missed life at sea after he retired and put the Landship together.
Watson explained that it is an interpretation of a seagoing vessel and uses seafaring jargon, the Landship headquarters called the dock, defunct groups said to have sunk, and those that are revitalized are refloated. It mimics all of the movements of a ship at sea and “we interpreted it on land in an artistic choreography, and the Tuk band is called the engine”.
Watson said that thankfully, the Landship has never stopped during those years; the numbers may have gone down to one or two ships and in some parishes it died out but it has always carried on.
When it was on the verge of disappearing, Watson went to the various districts across the island and found the one or two survivors of sunken ships who were still interested and brought them together to form the lone unit in the island.
Recruiting members is a major challenge for the movement and Watson said that all of the people who are coming are schoolchildren. Of the 20 active members in the group, only three are adults. It survived only due to lowering the entry age.
“In the ’90s we realized the numbers were diminishing at a much faster rate than we were recruiting and no one over 21 was joining, so we reduced it to 18 years, then to 12. That paid off but it was a bit slow, so then [it went down] to eight, where it now stands,” Watson said.
“That is how we have been able to survive. We would not be here if I did not do that because up till now we cannot recruit anyone who is over 21 – all new recruits are under that age.”
He said that since they do not have members in a position to pay dues, they depend on the state.
“Had it not been for the yearly subventions that come from Government,” Watson said, “without a doubt the Landship would have disappeared a long time ago.”
As anniversary celebrations continue, Watson said they intend to complete 150 activities before October.
