by Donia Scott
Part 4 – The Finger of Blame
The local weekly newspaper in Belize, The Clarion, devoted almost the entire issue of Thursday, the 12th of April, to news of the disaster, and it quickly sold out. The editor, Mr. P. Stanley Woods, lambasted the owner of the E.M.L., its Captain, the Colonial Secretary, the Colonial Postmaster, and the Government of the Colony in no uncertain terms:
Who is to blame? We unhesitatingly point the finger of guilt to the boat’s owner and Captain and to the Government of the Colony.
We charge Mr Carbajal, the owner, and Mr Emmanuel Trapp, the Captain of the vessel, with inviting human beings, with a reckless disregard for the safety of human life, to travel on a vessel that they knew, or ought to have known, was unseaworthy. Not only were no steps taken to make the boat comparatively safe for the journey, but with full knowledge of the worn condition of her hull she was deliberately overloaded, to satisfy that cursed desire of gain, with cargo and passengers. It is a well known fact that this vessel had sprung a leak on many occasions owing to the advanced age of her timbers, and that on the day she left here on her fatal trip she was leaking.
Quite recently, Colonel the Honourable Max Smith, Colonial Secretary, and the Honourable Gerald Smith, then Colonial Postmaster, inspected the E.M.L. We have not seen the report made by these two gentlemen but we understand that they formed the opinion that she was unfit and unsafe for passenger traffic. Why then was she permitted to carry passengers?
She is registered as a vessel of 31.42 tons net, and according to a statement made by the owner she can carry from 20 to 25 tons of cargo and on this trip she was loaded to her full capacity. The number of tons of cargo she was carrying is not disclosed. On the evidence of those who saw her immediately before she left, she was loaded beyond the limit of safety, and in addition to this, 70 persons were permitted to embark on a boat that is only capable of carrying 40 all told, at the most with any comfort and safety. This is borne out by the fact that only 36 life preservers were provided. If Section 10 of Ordinance No. 14 of 1921 had any force in law, would the Harbour Master have allowed the E.M.L. to put to sea in the obviously unsafe condition? He would have been mad to do so.
If the facts stated above are accurate, and we have no reason to doubt them, Mr Carbajal and the Captain were criminally negligent in their respective duties when they permitted that vessel to put to sea in that condition, and we strongly urge that the criminal law be put into motion and those responsible be put on trial for the unjustifiable endangering and taking of human life.
We charge the Government of the Colony as the chief culprit in this cruel tragedy with callous indifference to the safety of the lives of those compelled to travel along our coasts. The Government was aware of the danger long ago and made a half-hearted attempt to guard against such a calamity. Why was not this attempt carried to completion?
Fingers of blame were also directed at the men on board. The accounts of the survivors, many by their own admission, point to selfish acts of self-preservation by the entire crew of nine, and all but two of the 17 adult male passengers making no effort to save the helpless women and children. The Captain did nothing while the crew and other men purloined the life jackets from the Ladies’ Cabin and the cabins of the Bishop and the nuns. In some cases, life jackets were taken away from women. Particular opprobrium was heaped on one such case.
It is also reported that one of the Sisters heard Mr. Willie Parham crying out for his wife and children and she courageously gave him the life belt that she was wearing, which he accepted and thus saved his own life. The Sister was drowned. We could not believe this when first told of it, but we understand Mr. Parham admits having accepted a life belt from the helpless woman, a stranger to the Colony. We have not heard of a more selfish and unmanly act for many a long day.
Several survivors reported hearing Mr. Parham reasoning with the Sister that “God will save you”.
The situation surrounding the only lifeboat was no less shocking. George Burns, the 2nd Purser on board, reported that when it became evident that the ship was sinking, the Captain ordered the four-person lifeboat to be lowered and prepared for the Bishop and the three nuns. The Bishop refused the offer, saying “Take the women and children first”, but one of the Sisters pleaded to be let on, taking the place of the wife of Serapio Lopez, a theatrical agent from San Salvador, who was the first to have ensconced himself on the lifeboat followed by three members of the crew. As they were pulling away, Burns threw to Lopez a baby whose mother, Mrs. Marchand, had asked him to pass to the care of the nuns.
Cowards all, with the exception of three passengers who were singled out for their brave and unselfish acts: the Bishop, Mrs. Alice Marchand and a Mr. Ernesto Peyrefite:
Pandemonium reigned supreme; no orders whatever were given by the Captain. The only person who seems to have made any suggestion at all was the most aged passenger on the boat, His Lordship Bishop Hopkins, who is reported to have exclaimed that an endeavor should be made to save the women and children.
All praise is due to Mrs. Marchand, who had five of her children and heroically kept three above water. One was drowned and the other was miraculously rescued by the dingy. It was only by great presence of mind and tenacity of purpose that by attending to each alternatively her loss was not heavier. We have also heard that Mr Peyrefite bravely rendered all the assistance that could be expected of any man to the male and female passengers in distress.
Ten days after the tragedy, on April 18, the Coroner of the Corozal District, Donald Quentin Blackely, convened a formal Inquest, taking depositions from 27 persons. Among them were passengers and crew who were on board, fishermen from Consejo who recovered the bodies, the owner of the ship, the shipwright who had ‘mended’ it, the Police Constables who received the first alert and to whom the recovered bodies were delivered, the Medical Officers who were present at the identification of the bodies and issued death certificates, and Government officials who had examined the wreck. The depositions were given in English, Spanish and German, the latter two through the use of sworn interpreters.
On April 24, with 12 depositions left to be heard, the Superintendent of Police informed the Coroner that he had obtained a warrant for the arrest of the ship’s Captain, Alpheus Emmanuel Trapp, “on a charge of having caused the death of Bishop Hopkins and fifteen others by negligence within the meaning of Section 113 of Chapter 28 of the Consolidated Laws (R.E.)”. The Captain was brought before the Coroner, the charge was read to him, and he was committed for trial at the next Quarterly Session of the Supreme Court to be held in Corozal on June 12. Emmanuel Trapp declined to give a deposition at the Inquest, stating “I will wait to say what I have to say at my trial. I will call the chief engineer and the mate of the E.M.L. at my trial as witnesses.”, but he was permitted to attend the remaining days of the Enquiry and examine any witness called to give evidence.
The Coroner’s Inquest continued over ten consecutive days. The ship’s owner, Manuel Carbajal, and his shipwright, James Quallo, gave their account of the state of the ship when it set out from Belize. Passengers and crew described their experience leading up to and during the critical 10 to 15 minutes when the ship sank. Others reported on the search for bodies, their recovery and identification, and on the location and state of the wreck. Extracts from some of the depositions were published in the Clarion.
On April 28, the Inquest ended with the formal certification of “death by drowning caused by the sinking of the motor boat E.M.L. on the 10th of April, 1923 near Consejo on which motor boat the deceased was a passenger” for sixteen people:
o Fredrick Charles Hopkins, Bishop Athribis and Vicar Apostolic of British Honduras, age 79
o Maria Zabel, alias Sister Mary Francesca, age about 48 years
o Ana Handly, alias Sister Mary Veronica, age about 38 years
o Daisy Woods, age 30 years
o Rosalind Adela Lawrence, age about 28 years
o Karl Woods, age about 10 years
o Gladys Leonie Fuller, age 9 years
o Lloyd Osborne Lawrence, age about 8 years
o Lloyd Reginald Williamson, alias James Williamson, age 7 years
o Gladys Minerva Lawrence, age about 6 years
o Myrtle Louise Lawrence, age 5 years
o Louis Alphonso Chanona, age 4 years
o Elease Woods, alias Vera Elease Nelson, age about 4 years
o Iris Lawrence, age 3 years
o Roy Ancel Lawrence, age 6 months
o Henry Llewelyn Lawrence, age 6 months
Two bodies were never recovered. Alva Marchand (aged 9 month) and an unnamed Fuller girl were therefore issued no death certificate.
For each registered death, the accused was named as the Captain, Emmanuel Trapp, and under the heading “Suspicious Circumstances” their cause of death was recorded as:
Various witnesses deposed that said motor boat
- was overladen with passengers and cargo and
- was known by the accused and some of his crew to have been leaking on the 9th of April 1923 when she left Belize; and
The accused did not put the said motor boat ashore on the coast lying between Rocky Point and Lowry’s Bight when he was aware that she was leaking dangerously.
On May 7, the Governor of the Colony, Sir Eyre Hutson, filed an official dispatch to England to his superior, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire:
I regret to say that the catastrophe was not due to unusual weather conditions, but as far as I am informed, to negligible disregard on the part of the owner of the vessel in overloading the boat with cargo and passengers.
He confessed that his efforts to bring into force the Ordinance and Regulations legislating river vessels were inadvertently delayed when he went on leave of absence without instructing the Colonial Secretary, Maximilian Smith, that the Proclamation was to be issued. As a result of this oversight, he explained, the necessary regulations were not in force when the E.M.L. set out on its fateful journey. He acknowledged his responsibility as Governor for that sad state of affairs and his deep regret for the loss of lives and for the failure of the Government to give effect to the legislation.
The Governor ended his report by suggesting to the Secretary of State that “an announcement of his regret and sympathy with the Roman Catholic Church in the Colony on the Death of Bishop Hopkins would be highly appreciated.”
Within a fortnight of the sinking, the second of the “Two Smiths”, Gerald, who then was the Colonial Treasurer, wrote to the Governor with an unusual request: that Mrs. Marchand be formally recognised for her bravery. This was duly followed up by the Governor, who on June 13 sent a dispatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, urging him to recommend Mrs. Marchand to the Royal Humane Society for a Medal of Honour for bravery.
To be continued next Friday.