VOODOO BEAT

VOODOO BEAT ?

Last night I dreamed that I was back in Port-au-Prince once again, but
this time Papa Doc Francois Duvalier's Tonton Macoute captured my boat,
the crew and me. As the armed killers scrambled aboard I woke up in a
cold sweat. The dream was so vivid and frightening that I forced myself
to stay awake in case I drifted back over to sleep again. Thus having
to face those fierce Haitian secret militia brutes. The thugs that I'd
in reality had a run in with on that hot and humid tropical day in
February 1959.
Before our arrival at Port-au-Prince the capital city of Haiti we had
steamed slowly around the southern coast of the island of Hispaniola
from the Dominican side. Coming on to the boat deck, after my watch at
four hundred hours I rested my arms on the starboard rail of the large
cruise liner 'RMS Empress of England' to watch the dancing lights. The
night was sultry and as dark and velvety as the famous Liffey water.
Phosphorescent which streaked from the plankton that was excited by the
intrusion of the large ship's bow, gave the appearance of fairy
lightening rippling and dancing through the bow wave.
Other pinpricks of lights from fires on shore were flickering through
the thick equatorial jungle to the attendant beat of the voodoo drums.
One could taste the supernatural trembling fear that the drums
proclaimed with their savage pulsating rhythm. Many writers mistakenly
write about the island of Haiti thus making it obvious that they've not
been there nor done their research. Haiti shares the island of
Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic that occupies the Eastern two
thirds of the mountainous island.
Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier a political leader and former physician,
was elected as president of Haiti in 1957. With the aid of the Tonton
Macoute, his notorious private unpaid militia, he instituted one of the
world's most repressive regimes. Some years after being elected
Duvalier had himself invested as "president-for-life." Due to his abuse
of power Papa Doc changed his tropical heaven into the worlds most
oppressed hellhole. Voodoo was accepted and proclaimed by this despot
as an official if not the principal religion of Haiti.
The so-called democratic republic of Haiti was a popular venue on most
Caribbean Cruises. This notoriety was certainly not for its political
reputation, but rather for its abundance of cheap souvenirs. Since we
sailed from New York on our cruises, most of the twelve hundred
passengers were of course US nationals. Therefore our tourists were in
the main fervent memento shoppers and as a result when they hit the
beach the going price for everything went sky high.
With that in mind I volunteered to take charge of the first liberty
boat ashore because I wanted to buy a pair of flip-flop sandals at a
reasonable price. That first boat carried no passengers but a group of
cruise organisers to set up a booth for the arrival of their charges,
the tourists.
Canadian Pacific's 'Empress of England' was approximately three times
too large for tying up alongside in Port-au-Prince, as the largest
vessel they could accommodate was in the region of only ten thousand
tons. Anchorage for the 'Empress' was about three miles from the
harbour because of her draught. The 'Floating City' carried three large
motor launches and twelve lifeboats, two of which were motorised. Each
one of the twelve lifeboats, being larger than most tugs was capable of
safely carrying upwards of four hundred survivors in an
emergency.
When the ship went cruising the three launches and both powered
lifeboats were used for ferrying passengers and crew ashore. This was
necessary since very few of the islands had the capacity for dealing
with large capital ships.
After getting the aluminium liberty boat alongside in Port-au-Prince
the cadet and myself headed for the leather market. We left the cruise
directors to set up their stall and instructed the two Able Seamen to
watch out for thieves, and I left the engine ticking over. Arriving at
the market place we were surrounded by the usual beggars and
opportunist thieves, and others trying to sell us a variety of
paraphernalia. Such articles as decorated conch and coconut shells,
maracas, and even their` sisters were all up for grabs. No doubt the
guy offering us something new in the sex line was a leprosy
salesman.
Suddenly the crowd melted and disappeared like summer hailstones, the
reason for their departure soon became apparent. Facing us was a group
of eight Tontons carrying a variety of automatic and semi-automatic
weapons interspersed with such accoutrements as bayonets, machetes,
hand grenades and even garrotting chains.
These beyond the law killers were a motley crew. Had it not been for
their modern weaponry they were for all the world like a crew of
eighteenth century mulatto buccaneers. A guy wearing a battered top hat
and the largest of the gang spat out what appeared to be chewing
tobacco, then faced up to me holding out his hand. He spoke in an
unintelligible patois that included protection and dollar. Those words
I could understand. Taking out a packet of Camel I proceeded to hand
them all one and gave top hat the remainder of the packet.
My colleague the cadet who was the colour of a boiled anaemic turd
asked me what the problem was I told him they were asking for dollars.
Before I could stop him he had whipped out his wallet packed with
almost every denomination of American dollar bill, saying, "here I'll
give them one." "Put it away you daft bastard" I hissed "put it away."
Pulling out a handful of loose change, of a variety of different
countries' coinage from my pocket, I threw them towards top hat. Most
if not all of the coins clattered on the cobbles. Immediately the cash
strapped brigands scrambled for the nearly worthless change.
We took advantage of the furore caused by the miscreants scrambling for
the coins and ran back to the boat. Nearing the craft I yelled to the
ratings to cast off, the cadet and myself jumped into the vessel. I at
once engaged the clutch and ran the two hundred horsepower engine to
full power. The stern rope that had been loosened from tying up the
launch was trailing along the quay as we took off. One of the by now
fuming militiamen grabbed it. Soon all eight were heaving on the line,
but the screw progressively bit into the water. As it did so the thugs
were pulled towards the dockside and then one after the other plopped
unceremoniously into the Caribbean, with their various pieces of
artillery, other military hardware and all.
Later on that day I had to return to Port-au-Prince but I made sure I
was unrecognisable. Instead of my khaki shorts and shirt I wore white
number tens and even an old set of epaulets reducing my rank to one
gold ring. To compliment the ensemble I wore a pair of very dark
sunglasses, and hoped like hell that we all looked the same to
them.

by Don Passmore ?