$ 3 99 M EAL D EALS MONDAY - SATURDAY 9pcs MIXED, 2 Sides & 5 BISCUITS NEW FAMILY SUNDAY cayman compass Your most trusted news source Established 1965 75 CENTS | Funding local journalism | Monday, 6 January 2020 Landfill EIA planned for early 2020 Page 2 Year in review: Cayman’s courts Page 4 EU consults public on crypto assets Page 6 Tales from beneath the waves Cayman’s seas are teeming with historically significant shipwrecks, such as the Cali in George Town Harbour (pictured). Issues: Pages 7-9 - Photo: Courtney Platt • Matinees Daily (matinee price before 6pm) • Seniors $8.00, Mon-Fri Before 6pm • Additional charges apply per 3D/VIP tickets Cayman Cinema@cbcinema6cbcinema6 SATURDAY NIGHT: For your viewing pleasure, minors under the age of 18 will not be admitted to any film starting after 6pm, unless accompanied by their parent. - MONDAY - 640-FILM (640-3456) CATS (PG) 3:35 | 9:10 FROZEN 2 1:00 | 6:30 THE GRUDGE (R) 2:00 | 4:30 | 7:15 | 9:40 | 10:05 VIP JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL (PG13) 12:45 VIP | 4:10 | 7:05 | 9:55 LITTLE WOMEN (PG) 12:45 | 4:00 | 9:30 SPIES IN DISGUISE (PG) 1:40 | 4:20 | 7:00 STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (PG13) 12:30 | 3:40 VIP | 6:50 VIP | 7:30 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY: Cayman Compass Ltd. Compass Centre, Shedden Road, George Town, Cayman Islands SEND US YOUR VIEWS OR NEWS: P.O. Box 1365 Grand Cayman, KY1-1108 Cayman Islands Telephone: (345) 815-0095 Email: newsdesk@compassmedia.ky ADVERTISE WITH US: T: (345) 949-5111 E: sales@compassmedia.ky W: caymancompass.com PUBLISHER KATHLEEN CAPETTA NEWS PRODUCER AND OPERATIONS MANAGER KEVIN MORALES A MEMBER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION “Give light and the people will find their own way” Partly cloudy skies with less than 20% chance of showers. weather Forecast today Cayman Islands 82°F 77°F HIGH LOW WINDS: Northeasterly 15 to 20 knots at daytime, becoming 10 to 15 knots by evening SEA STATE: Moderate to rough with wave heights of 4 to 6 feet with swells affecting the north and west coasts. ANDREL HARRIS aharris@compassmedia.ky An environmental impact assessment into the proposed facilities and programmes for the George Town landfill is expected to begin early this year. The EIA will be carried out by Decco Consortium, a Dart-owned entity, which was awarded the contract to design, build and maintain the new facility as part of the Cayman’s Integrated Solid Waste Management System. On Friday, Hannah Reid, a spokesperson for Dart, said the EIA’s scope will “consider the design and impact of the suggested facilities, which include a waste-to-energy facility, a materials recycling facility, green waste facility, a household waste recycling centre and a lined landfill for residual waste in Grand Cayman”. She said the terms of reference were submitted to the Environmental Assessment Board last year. Once published, the terms of reference will be subjected to a 21-day public consultation period. The comments regarding the EIA come on the heels of ongoing machinery failure at the George Town landfill. The Department of Environmental Health’s only compactor, purchased for $450,000 in 2015, was out of operation for a number of months during the latter half of 2019, as the DEH awaited parts to be shipped to Cayman. It returned to service this month and was used to compact a backlog of household refuse and bulk waste materials that came into the landfill during the holiday season. In October, Dart announced that the landfill’s main mound would be capped sometime early this year. Reid said the process of capping the landfill will be a partnership between the government and Dart, and funds have already been allocated to accomplish the task. “The Government has allocated funds in the 2020/21 budget for capping and covering the main mound at the George Town landfill and works are expected to begin early this year,” said Reid. Although the main mound will be capped, tipping operations, which include the dumping and compacting of garbage, will be moved to lower areas of the landfill. Landfill EIA planned for early 2020 KEVIN MORALES kmorales@compassmedia.ky Cayman Airways flight KX621 was grounded in Kingston, Jamaica, for about 12 hours Friday, according to a passenger on the ground and departure information on the Norman Manley International Airport website. The flight arrived in Kingston from Grand Cayman Friday morning and was scheduled to depart NMIA at 8:50am for Montego Bay en route to Grand Cayman. After passengers in Kingston boarded the flight, however, they were asked to deplane and told the aircraft would not take off due to “mechanical problems”, according to George Hudson, a Bodden Town resident who was travelling with his wife and two children. He says he was later told the flight would leave at 6:15pm but it did not depart until after 9pm. “I understand that it’s better to be safe than sorry, but there’s nobody here to just offer some other advice; ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do.’ Because they don’t know,” said Hudson. “No information, and that’s what has me so upset right now.” Multiple calls and an email sent from the Cayman Compass to a Cayman Airways spokesperson were not returned. The NMIA website listed the flight as ‘cancelled/closed’ at about 4:15pm. Hudson later told the Compass CAL officials did offer an update that they would depart at 6:15pm. The airport then changed the flight’s status to ‘delayed’. The flight did not leave for nearly three hours after that. CAL passengers stranded nearly 12 hours Firefighters fought a blaze in Lime Tree Bay on Saturday when a Caribbean Utilities Company electricity pole was engulfed in flames. It appears that a tree nearby caught fire, which then spread to the pole, which led a transformer to blow. Fire crews had the fire under control by 6:20pm, but traffic was diverted from the scene. Homes in the area were without power and the stretch of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway close by was without street lights while CUC workers carried out repairs. The smoke from the fire could be seen from several miles away. Pole fire erupts in Lime Tree Bay George Hudson and his son sit in the Norman Manley International Airport terminal Friday after their flight was delayed for nearly 12 hours. Flames engulf a CUC pole in Lime Tree Bay on Saturday. 2cayman compass 3 MONDAY, 6 JANUARY 2020FridAY'S SOLUTiONS 1234567 8 9 10 11 12131415 1617 1819 20212223 24 25 26 27 1234567 8 9 10 11 12131415 1617 1819 20212223 24 25 26 27 Puzzle 16265 ACROSS: 1 Bahrain, 5 Gloom, 8 Admirable, 9 Fox, 10 Dose, 12 Platinum, 14 Normal, 15 Infirm, 17 Suburban, 18 Keen, 21 Rue, 22 Apathetic, 24 Maybe, 25 Expunge. DOWN: 1 Brand, 2 Ham, 3 Airy, 4 Nibble, 5 Greeting, 6 Offensive, 7 Maximum, 11 Shrubbery, 13 Fair game, 14 Nostrum, 16 Karate, 19 Niche, 20 Chop, 23 Ton. ACrOSS 1 Distinctive emblem (5) 8 Most enjoyable feature (4,4) 9 Poisonous (5) 10 Extremely lazy (4,4) 11 Edge (5) 12 Slender stick (3) 16 Pessimistic (6) 17 Legendary female warrior (6) 18 A deciduous tree (3) 23 Standard of perfection (5) 24 Tongue (8) 25 Foolish (5) 26 US gold depository (4,4) 27 South African grassland (5) dOWN 2 More than anything else (5,3) 3 Happenings (6-2) 4 Long Japanese robe (6) 5 Gladden (5) 6 Garden tool (5) 7 Scatter (5) 12 Cereal plant (3) 13 Female parent of an animal (3) 14 Rigidly uncompromising (4-4) 15 Commonly known as (2-6) 19 Roman military unit (6) 20 Split (5) 21 Angry growl (5) 22 Arctic sled dog (5) The Compass Crossword Puzzle The Compass universal kakuro Puzzle 16267 The numbers in the black cells are clues. Numbers above the slash are across clues. Number below the slash are down clues. The goal is to enter digits 1 - 9 in the white cells to add up to the number clues. You cannot enter any digit more than once when adding up to clue. cartoon Not too long ago - By Caymanman ANDREL HARRIS aharris@compassmedia.ky A look back at Cayman’s courts reveals a year of several notable judgements and changes within the judiciary. William Ian Rivers was sentenced to 35 years for the murder of Mark Travis ‘Hubba’ Seymour. Seymour was gunned down outside the Super C restaurant on Watercourse Road in West Bay in January 2017. A jury convicted Rivers in September 2018 and he was sentenced in March last year. Waylon Rivers was jailed for three years for killing his father, Timothy Rivers, 66. In June 2018, Rivers stabbed his father at their North Side farm during a heated argument. The court heard that the younger Rivers had endured a lifetime of verbal and physical abuse from his father. Initially, he was charged with a single count of murder, which was later changed to manslaughter, to which he pleaded guilty. In June, the prosecution withdrew charges against William Isaac Ebanks Romero, who had been charged with the 2018 Christmas morning murder of Darrington Ebanks in West Bay. Wilfred Myles Jr. was sentenced to six years after pleading guilty to causing the death by dangerous driving of Ignacio Kirzner in George Town in April. Myles had been driving more than 40 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone and was two-and-a-half times over the legal blood/alcohol limit. In February, Paul Mannix Scott, 38, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving after nurse Sharon Gayle-Clarke was killed in February 2018 in Cayman Brac. Scott was said to have been travelling at between 50 and 80 miles per hour at the time of the accident. He is expected to be sentenced next month. Taxi driver Roy Clivey Tamasa was sentenced to 240 hours of community service after he struck and killed Dr. Vary Jones- Leslie outside the Owen Roberts International Airport in July 2017. Tamasa was travelling at 30 miles per hour in the 15-mile zone, on his way to pick up a passenger. John Michael Soriano, 32, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of the September 2018 rape of a friend of his ex-girlfriend, on Cayman Brac. Judith Douglas, 53, was convicted by a Grand Court jury for conning a dive instructor out of nearly $2 million over a five-year period. She had told him the money would help him secure Cayman Islands status. Cayman’s largest ever corruption trial wrapped up in October with nine out of 12 defendants being convicted for fraud and YEAR IN REVIEW: corruption charges. The men and women were on trial for helping to provide people with fraudulent passing grades to an Immigration Department English-language test. A $6.4 million money- laundering trial began in the Grand Court in December. The defendants are Daniel Alberto Aguilar Ferriozi, Francisco Antonio Di Ventura Herrera, Pedro Jose Benavides Natera, Juan Carlos Gonzales Infante and Kody Zander. The case involves two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to conceal criminal property. In a landmark case, in March, same-sex couple Chantelle Day and Vickie Bodden Bush petitioned the Grand Court to change Cayman’s marriage laws on the grounds that it was discriminatory to same-sex couples. Chief Justice Anthony Smellie ruled in favour of the couple and changed the law. However, in November, Court of Appeal judges set aside the ruling, but ordered the government to introduce a legal equivalent to same-sex marriage. The Court of Appeal also urged the UK government to step in if the government does not act “expeditiously” to address the issue. The Court of Appeal also upheld lengthy prison sentences of four convicted murders and a rapist. Before 2014, a sentence of life imprisonment meant serving a sentence behind bars until one’s death. However, the Conditional Release Law outlawed the practice, and forced the courts to impose defined terms of imprisonment for each prisoner. Larry Ricketts, Brian Borden, Raziel Jeffers and Leonard Ebanks, all convicted of murder, and Jeffrey Barnes, convicted of rape, appealed the tariffs, claiming that the length of their sentences were excessive. They were all unsuccessful in their appeals. Iain Nigel MacKellar, a permanent resident of Cayman, continues his fight against extradition to his native US, where he is wanted on charges of fraud charges related to counterfeit flea and tick powder. MacKellar denies any wrongdoing. In 2018, a Summary Court magistrate ordered that MacKellar be extradited to the US. MacKellar appealed the decision and the matter is now before the Grand Court. A decision is expected early this year. Apart from cases, the judiciary as a whole saw several changes. Grand Court Justice Ingrid Mangatal left the bench in October. The following month, the courts reported that former Chief Magistrate Margaret Ramsay-Hale was returning to Cayman’s court as a Grand Court judge. Ramsay-Hale had left Cayman in 2014 to take up the position as chief justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Grand Court Judge Charles Quin died in June at the age of 68. He had played various roles in Cayman’s law community over a 30-year period. The court also expressed its sadness at the passing of Cayman Compass court report Carol Winker. Winker worked for more than 34 years with the Compass, with many of those years spent providing daily news reports from the courts. Cayman’s courts Cayman's courts have had a busy year. 4Daily Horoscope THE LOCKHORNS By Bunny Hoest & John Reiner ARIES (MARCH 21 TO APRIL 19) This is a wishy-washy day, which means you should avoid impor- tant decisions. Restrict your spending to food, gas and enter- tainment. Volunteer for nothing. TAURUS (APRIL 20 TO MAY 20) Today the Moon is in your sign for most of the day; however, it is a loosey-goosey Moon, which means you’re indecisive and not sure what to do. This is a poor day to shop. GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) Although you might be consid- ering how to divide shared prop- erty or deal with an inheritance, this is a poor day to make impor- tant decisions. Don’t give away the farm! CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22) This is an excellent day to let your hair down with a close friend or partner. People feel tender- hearted and sympathetic toward each other. However, agree to nothing important. LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) You are high-viz today; never- theless, don’t volunteer for any- thing and don’t agree to anything important. Restrict your spending to food, gas and entertainment. VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) Your creative vibes are hot today! Write down your creative ideas; however, wait until tomorrow or later to act upon them. Today is a poor day to shop. LIBRA (SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22) Family conversations will be mutu- ally sympathetic today. Someone might support you in some way, or vice versa. SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21) Your imagination is in overdrive today, which is why you’re full of creative ideas as well as day- dreams. This is also why this is a poor day to make important deci- sions. SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) Even though your focus is on money and finances today, this is a poor day to spend money on anything other than food, gas or entertainment. Ditto for impor- tant financial decisions. CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) Today the Sun is in your sign dancing with dreamy Neptune, which makes you feel sympa- thetic to the needs of others. This is a good thing. Nevertheless, don’t shop, and postpone impor- tant decisions until tomorrow. AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) Today you might be tempted to buy expensive, elegant, luxurious items. Ironically, this is a poor day to buy anything! Therefore, restrict your spending to food, gas and entertainment. PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MARCH 20) You will be sympathetic and caring in a discussion with a close friend today. Likewise, this person will have your back. BY FRANCES DRAKE MONday, JaNuaRy 6, 2020 CuRTIS By Ray Billingsley BLONdIE By Y. Marshall PEaNuTS By Charles M. Shulz HägaR THE HORRIBLE By Chris Browne THE aMaZINg SPIdERMaN By Stan Lee and Alex Saviuk cayman compass 5 MONDAY, 6 JANUARY 2020MICHAEL KLEIN mklein@compassmedia.ky The European Union has launched a public consultation on an EU framework for crypto asset markets. The EU Commission is working on a strategy to promote digital finance in Europe. This looks at the deepening of the single market for digital financial services, a more data-driven financial sector and an innovation-friendly regulatory framework. The public consultation, and a separate parallel consultation on digital operational resilience, are first steps for the commission to prepare potential initiatives. The commission in the past has confirmed a policy interest in developing and promoting blockchain technology across the EU. The consultation defines crypto assets as digital assets that may depend on cryptography and exist on a distributed ledger. In its 2018 FinTech Action Plan, the commission mandated the European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority to assess the applicability and suitability of the existing financial services regulatory framework to crypto assets. While some crypto assets fall within the scope of EU legislation, effectively applying it to these assets is not always straightforward, the consultation document said. “Moreover, there are provisions in existing EU legislation that may inhibit the use of certain technologies, including [distributed ledger technology]. At the same time, EBA and ESMA have pointed out that most crypto assets are outside the scope of EU legislation and hence are not subject to provisions on consumer and investor protection and market integrity, among others.” With regard to stablecoins, which attempt to tie the value of a digital asset to a fiat currency or a commodity, the EU document quoted a G-7 report that found that if these types of coins became more accepted and reached a global scale, “they would raise additional challenges in terms of financial stability, monetary policy transmission and monetary sovereignty”. The EU Commission said it is considering a proportionate common regulatory approach for crypto assets that are not covered by EU legislation to address consumer and investor protection, and market integrity concerns. EU consults public on crypto assets The consultation defines crypto assets as digital assets that may depend on cryptography and exist on a distributed ledger . MICHAEL KLEIN mklein@compassmedia.ky A Chinese boardroom drama is set to continue in the Cayman Islands as Bitmain's ousted co- founder Micree Zhan is taking his power struggle with co-founder Jihan Wu to the Grand Court. Zhan, who was ousted from the Beijing-based bitcoin mining giant in a surprise move in October, is petitioning the Cayman court to annul a special resolution passed at an extraordinary general meeting on 13 Nov. 2019. The special resolution decreased the voting rights of the company’s Class B shares from 10 votes to one vote per share. Zhan is believed to be Bitmain’s largest shareholder. The petition filed by BVI-based Great Simplicity Investment Corporation on 13 Dec. 2019 seeks a declaration by the court that both the extraordinary general meeting and the special resolution passed to change shareholder voting rights were invalid from the outset and unenforceable. The battle for control of the world’s largest crypto miner escalated in October when the company’s CEO Wu informed Bitmain staff in email that Zhan had been dismissed from his roles at the company. The email warned staff to no longer take any directions from Zhan nor to participate in meetings organised by him. In a regulatory filing, Wu assumed the roles of executive director and legal representative of Bitmain from Zhan. In November 2019, Zhan announced he was forced out against his will and would fight for his return to Bitmain through legal means. Wu and Zhan had served as co-CEOs until March 2019 when they stepped down after Bitmain’s proposed initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange failed amid a prolonged market decline in crypto currencies. At the time, Bitmain said both would continue to guide the company’s strategic development. At its peak in 2017, Bitmain controlled about three-quarters of the market for crypto mining rigs – the computer systems used to validate crypto transactions and earn new coins. The company specialises in selling ASIC chips, first developed by Zhan, which power Bitmain’s hardware. According to the September 2018 IPO filing, Zhan had a 37% stake in Bitmain and Wu held 21% of the company’s shares. Both Zhan and Wu are billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. In October 2019, Bitmain reportedly filed for a US IPO through which the company aims to raise between $300 million and $500 million in the second half of 2020. Earlier last year, Bitmain announced its intention to enter the market of artificial intelligence as a complementary business area to crypto mining. Bitmain boardroom battle continues in Cayman court MICHAEL KLEIN mklein@compassmedia.ky French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has attempted to reassure French banks that they would not face immediate penalties for failing to report clients who are US taxpayers by the 31 Dec. 2019 deadline mandated under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The matter has attracted particular attention in France, where politicians, industry officials and civic groups expressed widespread concern that up to 40,000 bank accounts of French citizens would have to be closed if the banks did not obtain the tax identification numbers from clients with a US connection. In a letter to the president of the European Banking Federation, Frédéric Oudéa, Le Maire expressed sympathy for the cases of so-called “accidental Americans”, typically French citizens who were born in the US to French parents and have long since returned to live in France. Anyone born in the US remains a French gov't assuages banks' concerns over FATCA Banks face significant penalties in their transactions involving the US or the US dollar for violations under this act . French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire The special resolution decreased the voting rights of the company’s Class B shares from 10 votes to one vote per share . citizen with US tax obligations unless that citizenship is formally renounced. Many accidental Americans, however, do not have either a US tax identification or social security number. Le Maire said banks and their clients affected by the tax identification number requirement were legitimately concerned. However, even after the deadline had passed, the non- transmission of the TIN by the banks would not automatically constitute a breach of their obligations under FATCA. Banks face significant penalties in their transactions involving the US or the US dollar for violations under this act. The US Internal Revenue Service responded to the concerns in October 2019 by issuing a clarification stating that banks would not face immediate financial sanctions for the failure to report the tax identification numbers of their US clients. The updated IRS FATCA FAQs webpage notes that banks would have at least 18 months to correct any errors with regard to TINs before further action is taken. The EU Commission is working on a strategy to promote digital finance in Europe. cayman compass 6 B business MONDAY, 6 JANUARY 2020The story of the Cayman Islands is one born of the sea. It is a tale of shipwrecks and siren songs, tragedy and triumph. It is the hardscrabble history of castaways and seamen, the stomping ground of empires, the promise of paradise in the New World. Across our 102-square-mile territory, the storied history of the islands can be found obscured just beyond plain sight. It is written in our seabed, in the jagged edges of our ironshore, and in the pages of our archives. As we look ahead to a new year and a new decade, we encourage Cayman Islanders to pause and take a look back. We hope that by remembering where we came from, we can illuminate our path forward. This month, we will dive into Cayman Islands history as told by our relationship with the sea. Enshrined in our Coat of Arms, the line from Psalm 24:2 “He hath founded it upon the seas” reminds us of our heritage and our identity. While our relationship with the Caribbean Sea may evolve, it is a constant protagonist in our story as islanders. To begin this series, we take you below the surface to explore the islands’ shipwrecks, turning to archaeologists, historians and divers to reveal the ocean’s hidden secrets. We then follow the Caymanian turtling tradition, from the death-defying tales of sailing the Miskito Cays to the work of modern conservationists to restore threatened marine populations. In recalling our maritime history, the most vital asset, of course, is our people. With many of the men and women of the Southwell Years – those golden decades that saw our young men join National Bulk Carriers and sail the world – already departed, we cannot let the sun set on our living history. We have invited the islands’ seafarers to sit down with us and share their stories. We have heard tales of bravery, of love, and of more than one galley fire. We hope you’ll join us in this celebration of Cayman and Caymanian history. And if you are one of the lucky individuals whose grandparents or great-grandparents are still alive, we encourage you to sit down with them and just listen. You may be surprised by what you learn about your own life story. This series is also an invitation to the community to participate and tell their own stories. If you have a seafaring story you would like to share with the Cayman Compass, contact us at kyoung@compassmedia.ky. The story of the Cayman Islands Founded upon the seas The Cali is one of the many shipwrecks that lie beneath the waves in the Cayman Islands. In recalling our maritime history, the most vital asset, of course, is our people. cayman compass 7 I issues MONDAY, 6 JANUARY 2020JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@compassmedia.ky The sea gives up its secrets slowly. A half-remembered tale is passed down through generations. A storm churns up the seabed, revealing the metallic glint of a long-buried cannon. A dedicated researcher uncovers a dusty old document in a forgotten corner of the archives. The fragments are pieced together and a story begins to emerge. From the rusted cannons of HMS Convert to the gleaming flanks of the USS Kittiwake, Cayman’s seas are teeming with historically significant shipwrecks. If we were to pull an imaginary plug and drain the water around this undersea mountain peak, we would be able to look out across a desolate hillside littered with the vestiges of hundreds of doomed ships. The lure of those wrecks has attracted archaeologists, historians, scuba divers and even treasure hunters to the Cayman Islands. And while the idea of lost Spanish gold at the bottom of the ocean holds a certain allure, it is the individual stories that have enduring appeal. “The real treasure is the story,” said Cayman Islands National Museum Director Peggy Leshikar- Denton. The first surveys Leshikar-Denton, a marine archaeologist who recently published the definitive history of the 1794 Wreck of the Ten Sail, is one of a number of people working to uncover and illuminate those stories. She first came to the Cayman Islands as part of a research team from Texas A&M University, who began their work in 1979 at the request of the Cayman Islands government. The group spent consecutive summers on Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands working on the first official survey of Cayman’s wrecks. They collected oral histories from people on all three islands as part of the research. “We found so many interesting pieces of information just by riding a bicycle around the Brac with a tape recorder,” she said. Armed with the cumulative knowledge of generations of Caymanians, the group went out and searched for physical evidence. Leshikar-Denton remembers being pulled behind a boat on a tow- board, mask in the water, scanning the reef for wreckage. The layman’s idea of a fully intact ship, lying serenely in place on the seabed is, with the exception of artificially sunk wrecks and a handful of anomalous cases, a fantasy. Wreck hunting is more akin to an archaeological survey. “A shipwreck can be an anchor, it can be ballast rock from early sailing ships, it can be bits of ceramics,” Leshikar-Denton said. Why so many wrecks? In her book on the Wreck of the Ten Sail, she describes the Cayman Islands of centuries past as a hazard, a landmark and a source of food. It was used as a navigational point and provisioning grounds by many European seafarers, who plundered its ample turtle population as a source of sustenance. But it was also a dangerous place for mariners. Encircled by treacherous reefs and pummelled by violent summer storms, it became a graveyard for many ships. There is some evidence that deliberate wrecking of ships was practised in 19th century Cayman. Reverend Hope Masterston Waddell made a report to the governor in 1845 highlighting Tales from beneath the waves A stone monument in East End marks the spot close to where the HMS Convert and nine other ships foundered on the reef in 1794. The USS Kittiwake, deliberately sunk for the dive industry in 2011, is the island’s newest shipwreck. cayman compass 8 I issues MONDAY, 6 JANUARY 2020suspicions that ships were being deliberately lured to a premature end. “The Grand Cayman is a trap for ships and catches more perhaps than any other spot of equal extent in the world,” he wrote in a passage highlighted in Lawson Wood’s diving guide, ‘Shipwrecks of the Cayman Islands’. Whether by mischief or by accident, there is no doubt that scores, possibly hundreds, of ships were wrecked on Cayman’s reefs, and salvaging them was an important bulwark to the early economy of these islands. Timber beams and other relics of wrecks are still found in some older Caymanian homes today. In parts of the islands, cannons are used as pinch points between roads. Salvage persisted as a legitimate enterprise through the Second World War and beyond. When the Cali ran aground in George Town Harbour in 1944, carrying 30,000 bags of rice, the cargo was recovered and exported for sale. Sunken treasure On a handful of occasions, wreck hunters have claimed to have found more than just food or furniture. In his book, Wood recounts the story of a Georgia couple who said they had discovered an emerald-studded cross, a gold chain and a platinum bar dated 1521, while snorkelling off Seven Mile Beach in the 1970s. The artifacts were said to have been traced back to the Spanish ship Santiago and, if true, were, according to Wood, the first evidence of that ship being lost off the coast of Grand Cayman. The book also cites an interview with Captain Theo Bodden, transcribed in the Cayman Islands National Archive, relating to a huge amount of gold and silver said to have been removed from a Spanish pirate ship supposedly wrecked off Little Cayman following a bank heist in Colombia. In another tale from the archives, Wood recounts stories of the discovery of a chest containing a flintlock pistol, an old cutlass, and copper and silver coins in a cave near Pedro Castle. Serious business Such stories may whet the appetite of amateur wreck hunters, but to professional marine archaeologists, they miss the point of the enterprise. “One thing we always hear from the treasure hunters is you can have the artifacts, we just want the gold,” said Leshikar-Denton. “That doesn’t make sense, because it is all part of the story.” Cayman’s Abandoned Wreck Law maintains that any vessel, including its presumed cargo, belongs to the government, once it has lain on the seabed for 50 years or more. While there is scope for prospectors to enter agreements with the government to salvage wrecks in return for half of the value of the items recovered, no such deals have been struck. Anyone who does salvage a wreck without explicit authorisation can face jail time. Leshikar-Denton said the aim of the 1979/1980 survey and of the work of the museum and others since then, had been to show that serious archaeological research has more value than treasure hunting. Wreck of the Ten Sail On a rocky promontory overlooking the craggy East End reefs, a stone monument records that on 8 Feb. 1794, 10 ships “foundered on the reef near this spot”. A short distance away, in an overgrown field, a tethered cow grazes beside a pair of rusting cannons. In the undergrowth, an old tin sign claims the weathered guns once belonged to the ships of the Wreck of the Ten Sail. If the real treasure is the stories, then this one stands above all others as the mother lode. The full account of Cayman’s most famous shipwreck is told in Leshikar-Denton’s recently released book, ‘Cayman’s 1794 Wreck of the Ten Sail: Peace, War and Peril in the Caribbean’. She became fascinated with the story during the 1980 survey. She later did her Ph.D research on the subject, unearthing previously unknown details of where and when 10 merchant ships, out of a convoy of 59 vessels, were wrecked in Cayman. Until the late 1970s, the most reliable account came from Commissioner George Hirst, and was based on an interview with a man named R. Tulloh Coe in 1910. His recollection of the story handed down was that a fleet of Jamaican merchant ships led by HMS Cordelia had struck the reefs off East End some time in the 1780s. In her Ph.D research and subsequent book, Leshikar-Denton used a mix of oral histories, underwater archaeological surveys and extensive archival research to uncover the full story. Perhaps the most significant breakthrough came when she discovered the real identity of the lead ship in the convoy, HMS Convert, and the nine merchant ships that wrecked along with her, in the British archives. The Convert was previously a French ship named L’Inconstante and had been claimed by the British in a battle off Haiti, then known as Saint Domingue, and transformed into a naval frigate. From there, she discovered the letters of the ship’s captain, John Lawford, transcripts of his subsequent court martial, and the records relating to all the ships in the ill-fated convoy. In one passage, from an obscure 1794 naval intelligence report in the British Royal Gazette, published in Jamaica, she found the first news report of the disaster. It read, “Thursday night arrived from the Grand Caymanas, Lieutenant Bogue, of His Majesty’s Ship Convert, with the melancholy intelligence of the loss of that frigate, with nine vessels of the fleet under her convoy…”. The report went on to give the date and time of the wreck and to name all the vessels lost in the disaster, which it attributed to navigational error. Other sources corroborated local stories that Caymanians in canoes had come to the aid of the stricken ships in the wake of the incident. For Leshikar-Denton, discoveries like these are more valuable than gold. She said the museum’s focus, through its land-based maritime heritage trail and other initiatives, is to illuminate the islands’ rich history. “Once a ship wrecks on these reefs, it becomes part of Cayman’s history,” she said. “The more we know, the richer the knowledge of who we are emerges. “We want to educate and empower people with knowledge of who they are [and] where they came from.” “The real treasure is the story.” Peggy Leshikar-Denton , Cayman Islands National Museum Peggy Leshikar-Denton says the true treasure of Cayman’s shipwrecks lies in their rich stories. Two rusted cannons, purportedly from the Wreck of the Ten Sail, lie almost hidden in the long grass in a farmer’s field in Gun hidden in the long grass in a farmer’s field in Gun Bay. cayman compass 9 I issues MONDAY, 6 JANUARY 2020Next >