Local history Thread

[d spike]

The mongoose was supposed to have been brought to our shores to be introduced into the sugar-cane estates to prey on the rats that nibbled on the cane stalks - but somebody failed to properly explain this concept to the mongooses.
Anyway, as homegrown chickens are a lot more palatable than rats - and easier to find and catch, as someone generously gathers them up and locks them up in pens - mongooses have a far more notorious and dark reputation than that of rat-killers.

Wild animals also prefer to come to our shores on their own.
The osprey was until recently a migrant visitor that enjoyed our isles so much it decided to stay.

The cattle egret, or buff-backed heron, was also a visitor. He settled in among the snowy egrets quite nicely, as his diet did not compete with the snowies - the snowy egret, as well as the much larger white egret, is a fisherman, while the cattle egret is more of a landlubber, snatching critters in pastures and freshly-ploughed fields, and off the backs of cattle which he rides from time to time, hence his name.

The snowy egret has an interesting and rather amusing way of fishing. He will stand in shallow water with his black feet and yellow toes, and every now and then he would shake the toes of one foot out in front of him under the water. Some say that he does this to fool nearby fish into thinking that his yellow toes are worms or some such tasty snack, encouraging them to approach. (I always thought that the little fellow was stirring up the river-bed to see what morsels might appear.) Another local egret (the blue, I think) also has a remarkable way of fishing. He spreads his wings over his head, rather like a large hood, shading the water around him. Fish prefer the safety of a rock or bank, and they are attracted to the shade made by the egret, thinking it is made by some object that would provide shelter.

[SMc]

Heron instead egret in some of the cases? Just asking

[Bezman]

^^ doh feel bad about the plug,

I still looking to read/buy a copy of 'Tales of the Paria main road'..published 3 years before we born, but have heard good things about it and cant find the thing anywhere.

remember '(a)round the savannah' ?

i sure I can get ya both

I trying to find a copy of Te Jean & Sons.. gotta get back all those old calssics

[Seeker]

Hmmm...so most of the fauna here are "immigrants" one way or the other.

[sMASH]

a lot of the flora too, i believe that mangoes and the chataigne *spell* are indian.

[MG Man]

^^ doh feel bad about the plug,

I still looking to read/buy a copy of 'Tales of the Paria main road'..published 3 years before we born, but have heard good things about it and cant find the thing anywhere.

remember '(a)round the savannah' ?

i sure I can get ya both

I trying to find a copy of Te Jean & Sons.. gotta get back all those old calssics

wonder how many ppl here know of Ti Jean and his brothers, Mi Jean and Gros Jean

but Bez, you just hadda ask pops

[SMc]

3 little pigs in a more local manner with Papa bois being there and baddies eating the failed brothers. Excuse the description but I think the last time I heard of this was before the coup over


never realised there was a book ....want this too

[Bezman]

I keep telling pops he has to reprint allot of the old books from the 80's

Folklore and legends and book of trinidad are both available on amazon and locally though

- Bez

[d spike]

Heron instead egret in some of the cases? Just asking

An egret is a member of the heron family, so any egret can be referred to as a heron. The cattle egret, for example, is also called the buff-backed heron, due to the light-brown (or "buff") colouring that appears on the back of the head and saddle of this bird during mating season (I always wondered about this habit of bird-watchers to refer to the back of a bird as the "saddle" - who rides birds? )

Hmmm...so most of the fauna here are "immigrants" one way or the other.

No, not really. My facetious remarks regarding visitors should only be taken seriously where insects and birds are concerned.
Migratory birds and insects have decided to settle here during our history. The Tropical mocking-bird is such an example. The White-tailed Page (a diurnal moth) used to be a rare sight here, until a storm passed over the area. Now it is quite common. It is most likely that a large migrating flock was blown here.

Most of our fauna are true Trinis. Yes, some visitors do come ashore in the south, travelling on water-plant rafts that were swept out to sea from the nearby South American rivers, but these have never colonized here - thanks especially to trigger-happy Trinis.

a lot of the flora too, i believe that mangoes and the chataigne *spell* are indian.

You are partly right. A lot of the flora grown here as a source of food is of foreign origin. Many of those plants we fondly think of as West Indian... aren't. Amerindians weren't ducking behind coconut trees as Columbus and his men came ashore, as coconuts were not introduced into the New World as yet.
(The Portuguese were sending a shipload of coconuts to Brazil - there was a good bit of secrecy involved in this - but the poor vessel foundered off our East coast in a storm. The ship sank, the coconuts didn't. They washed ashore and created the beginning of the coconut plantations that exist on that coastline.)
Quite a few crops came here from India: mango, cucumber and squash, and many legumes, to name a few. Some were brought by the British, some by the labourers themselves. (Hey, not everybody likes eating foreign food...Who knows what muck they serve in Trinidad? Best to walk with a few seeds...)

A mistake many over-eager folks make is to link foods/plants to the wrong source.
Dasheen is so named because it was found in China (from the French "from China") but it was brought there from the South Seas.
The South Seas provided us with breadfruit and chataigne (derived from the French for "chestnut) or "bread-nut" a la Captain Bligh. (His second trip, that is )
A common mistake is the plants that many fondly think of as "African". Many of them were brought to the coastal areas of Africa by the Portuguese to feed the slaves that were being stored there in preparation for transportation. Ochro is such an example. Many of these plants actually come from India.

Governor plum is supposedly from Madagascar. (King Julian XIII?)
Pommerac originated in Malaya, but was probably brought here with the indentured labourers from India.
If you want to have fun, try and find out exactly where sugar-cane originated and how it reached here!

But we have many, many of our own fruits and trees that we can be proud of - mammy sepote, caimate, boui (or is it "bouille"?), seerete, dongs, stinkin' toe...
Immortelle (well not really, as the most favourite of the three trees that go by this name was brought here), Poui (ummm, not Pink poui, that is another South American transplant)...

The problem is that many of the fruits that people have grown to love are not indigenous, so our true sweet stuff is quickly becoming unknown. What apple could compare with a sweet sapodilla?
When a stiff breeze hit the estate at night, we would be scrambling under the balata trees the next morning, dog and child fighting over fallen fruits like we were starving. Grapes? Pah.

[cinco]

write a book please i would pay for it

[Yodins]

any more historical info on the animals in Trinidad/Tobago?

Apart from squeamish females and metrosexuals, the only people who have a major problem with crapauds are bee-keepers.

Speaking of the corbeau, this gentleman who, like the crapaud, seems to be an integral part of our local scenery, apparently shares the crapaud's history of having a foreign origin. It is said that the Spanish brought the corbeaux to our shores, as these birds help clean up the offal of society... Tobago doesn't have this grand creature.
The turkey vulture, or "Red-headed corbeau" or "King Corbeau", is a local boy, however.

LMAO

nice info on the corbeau there, i thought all cobo was local lol. any info on reptiles?

[wagonrunner]

write a book please i would pay for it

show him a 2k and a contract. he might start.
but for real spike, when you go, where would this info be?
put it in a form that may outlast all of us.

[cinco]

if i was in a position to spend 2k on it i honestly would

[wagonrunner]

A project the author is working on. Gives the subject's view of that incident.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/richard- ... note_reply

[rollingstock]

^ Wow, really hard pill to swallow as a child.

[d spike]

any info on reptiles?

Not much to tell.
Each one of them is bona fide local.
The most common variety of lizards is the skink. Yet Trini only has one type of skink.

[sMASH]

there is a black one which looks more like a snake with stubby legs which seem useless, but the lil flecka does move swift... busy, busy,

[kappamax]

Dread, I seriously just start reading this thread a few days ago, I stumble upon it for some research I'm doing on my own history project. Seems allyuh fellas and ladies waaaaaaay ahead of me. Good job on some excellent research, and stories. Yeah, we need to archive these things somewhere.

Allyuh make mih spend real money on Amazon between yesterday and today. I'm very happy to see that there are good books out there. I've got a few not already on the list.

Here's some notables from my historical library (I can't remember them all, since I'm not at home right now).

From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969, Eric Williams. In it I find he perpetuates many of the myths about the first people's but, given it's time I still think it's a decent read.

Amerindian Images and the Legacy of Columbus, Rene Jara.

1492-1992: Re/Discovering Colonial Writing (Hispanic Issues, Vol 4), Rene Jara

The Indigenous People of the Caribbean, Sam Wilson

Ruins of Absence, Presence of Caribs: (Post)Colonial Representations of Aboriginality in Trinidad and Tobago, Maximillian C. Forte.

Sketches of Amerindian tribes 1841-1843, Edward A Goodall.

Some free Kindle books, with some background info to glean, not specifically Trinidad, but for context.
The Life of Columbus From His Own Letters and Journals and Other Documents of His Time, Hale. This one's free on the kindle from Amazon.

The Travels of Marco Polo - Volume 1 Not much relevant, but a few pages here and there.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Again, a few pages to keep Columbus honest.

The History of Mary Prince A West Indian Slave

A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies Or, a faithful NARRATIVE OF THE Horrid and Unexampled Massacres, Butcheries, and all manner of Cruelties, ... the time of its first Discovery by them., las Casas. Not light reading, and would probably get you vex.

[kappamax]

Anybody have a copy of Pat Castagne's, ""Hyarima: A Caribbean Rhapsody"?

I realize the man who write the anthem also wrote some other songs. I'm trying to track them down. Any leads?

[equipped2ripp]

Maracas 1965, don't know if it has been posted yet...

[d spike]

Anybody have a copy of Pat Castagne's, ""Hyarima: A Caribbean Rhapsody"?

I realize the man who write the anthem also wrote some other songs.

"some"????? The guy was quite a prolific song-writer. Due to the death of good taste in music, most of this generation would never hear of Castagne's music - apart from the National Anthem, of course - far less any of the music written by his peers, many of whom were quite talented as well.

[carmelo]

the tracking station in macaripe... most person may not know what it was used for.... well it was used to track satellites launched in space and the first voice transmission via satellite was made from there to ny by RCA. during the cold war it was used to as a BEWMS early warning system for missile testing until it was decommisioned at the end of the cold war and due to the govt of trinidad inquiry of what activites was taking place there during that time. the satellite dish along with the antenna which no longer there is the only one of the few still around today this gave way to what we now know as modern day celluar radio technology. there was also the FN1 antenna located near camp omega in chagauramas which was used for long range positioning by the USN this technology is what the current day GPS technology was based on. and it was all started here in trinidad.

[carmelo]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanywaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy

another interesting spot in south is the old railway tunnel in Tabaquite.....don't know much about its history, but it's pretty cool

There's a WW2 bunker peeping out the side of a hill in Claxton Bay....looks like a munitions bunker somebody exposed by accident while doing an excavation.....not sure if it was ever opened....anybody know more about this?

...........I know a giy who uncovered some old cannons in Rio Claro, of all places.....the kind you would notmally find defending acoastal garrison.......not sure if they ever removed them tho.........

over the years the physical geography of trinidad has changed there are alot of place eg. rio claro that was actually a town off the otoire mayaro river which in the 16th and 17th century steamers and river boats actually sailed up the river. the caroni river was alot bigger that what it is today i saw in the museum where boats actually sailed up the caroni river to where the st joseph bridge is . st joseph being the first capital of trinidad during spanish rule, means that it must have some trading route established for the city to do business

[carmelo]

i found this from some old pics i have of the navy tracking station in macaripe from a retired naval officer stationed there during the time .

[zoom rader]

Trinidad and Tobago banknotes

A brief monetary history:
British currency, till 1905
Trinidad and Tobago Dollar = 100 Cents, 1905-1951
British East Caribbean Territories currency, 1951-1964
Trinidad and Tobago Dollar = (British Caribbean Dollar) = 100 Cents, from 1964


1905 TT dollar


1939-1943


1964

1977

All of these are my Notes and are for Sale. I have ton of Trinidad notes for sale. PM me for details.

[xtech]

i found this from some old pics i have of the navy tracking station in macaripe from a retired naval officer stationed there during the time .

the fence type prototype radar antenna was a ICBM detector scanning over the Atlantic for SOVIET missles but was considered flawed cause it used to set off a fake incoming missile alarm in NORAD once or twice a month until they realized it was receiving a reflected radar signal of the rising full moon an re-programmed the computer to ignore that signal and to keep scanning.

The huge dish was built later to track the NASA Gemini space program manned rocket launches all the way to the Moon missions.



see page 4 viewtopic.php?f=4&t=73652&start=90
for more pics from chaguramas an other bases

[xtech]

The Knollys's Tunnel in Trinidad. Built in 1892 it is the oldest and longest bore rail tunnel in the Caribbean. Bored through the hill side, it represents a marvelous piece of engineering for that era. An amazing historical landmark in Trinidad.

It was called the “Manicou Train”. The Trinidad Government Railways train that knitted urban communities like Port-of-Spain, San Fernando and Chaguanas to rural and agricultural communities like Tabaquite, Caparo, Brasso, Mamoral, Todds Road and Rio Claro. But, one of the most interesting features of the Jerningham Junction/Rio Claro line was the Knolly’s Tunnel at Tabaquite.
The tunnel was named after the then acting Colonial Governor of Trinidad and Tobago, Courtney Knolly, who officially opened the new system on August 20, 1898. It was an historic moment not only for the agricultural communities in the Tabaquite area, but for the people of the country as Trinidad and Tobago had become the home to the Caribbean’s longest tunnel.
The achives report that there was a great deal of pomp and ceremony and several dignitaries from Port-of-Spain were among the 220 people who witnessed the ceremonial opening which was conducted by Governor Kolly. The Tabaquite Railway Station was built just about quarter mile away. This line was closed down by this country’s first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams on August 30, 1965, some 67 years after its official opening because it was not profitable.

[d spike]

any more historical info on the animals in Trinidad/Tobago?

Apart from squeamish females and metrosexuals, the only people who have a major problem with crapauds are bee-keepers.

Speaking of the corbeau, this gentleman who, like the crapaud, seems to be an integral part of our local scenery, apparently shares the crapaud's history of having a foreign origin. It is said that the Spanish brought the corbeaux to our shores, as these birds help clean up the offal of society... Tobago doesn't have this grand creature.
The turkey vulture, or "Red-headed corbeau" or "King Corbeau", is a local boy, however.

LMAO

nice info on the corbeau there, i thought all cobo was local lol. any info on reptiles?

Yes, you're right. The corbeaux is a local bird... found in many parts of the New World.

[maj. tom]

Corbeaux is french for crow, the common black raven. I have no idea of its trini-etymology for turkey vulture. Crapaud is french for toad.

Anyway, I found a little clip of Sir David Attenborough and the turkey vulture or "cobo" while he was in Trinidad at some point making the BBC show "Life of Birds: Meat Eaters"
If you don't know who Sir David Attenborough is then you should just skip this post and return to your cereal bowl.

Cannot seem to embed a youtube link at a certain time in the video itself, so here's the link at the 15:45 mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ShPhYUQmRN8#t=945s

[sMASH]

damn, i now finish eating the cereal.... 0.0

it was just yesterday i went to see knolly's tunnel, but i did not go through as i did not want to chance slashing my tyres on the boulders leading up to it.