Got TIPS or BREAKING NEWS? Please call 1-284-442-8000 direct/can also WhatsApp same number or Email ALL news to:newsvino@outlook.com;                               ads call 1-284-440-6666

Wreath laid on Salt Island in memory of those perished on RMS Rhone in 1867

The wreath was laid by Director of the National Parks Trust Dr Cassander P. Titley-O'Neal and Miss Teen British Virgin Islands Pageant BVI 2024 First Runner-up Tiya M. Herbert. Photo: VINO
Director of National Park Trust Dr. Cassander Titley-O'Neal and Miss Teen British Virgin Islands Pageant BVI 2024 First Runner-up Tiya M. Herbert about to lay the wreath at Salt Island. Photo: VINO
Director of National Park Trust Dr. Cassander Titley-O'Neal and Miss Teen British Virgin Islands Pageant BVI 2024 First Runner-up Tiya M. Herbert about to lay the wreath at Salt Island. Photo: VINO
Among those attending the wreath laying event were Lily Mae, Nora Smith Manns, Daisy Durrant, Maggie Dawson and Anna Durrant who grew up on Salt Island and persons were able to hear stories from the ladies about their time growing up on the island. Photo: NPTVI/Facebook
Among those attending the wreath laying event were Lily Mae, Nora Smith Manns, Daisy Durrant, Maggie Dawson and Anna Durrant who grew up on Salt Island and persons were able to hear stories from the ladies about their time growing up on the island. Photo: NPTVI/Facebook
National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands Director Dr Cassander P. Titley-O'Neal, left, and BVI Wreck Week organiser Kim Huish. Photo: NPTVI/Facebook
National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands Director Dr Cassander P. Titley-O'Neal, left, and BVI Wreck Week organiser Kim Huish. Photo: NPTVI/Facebook
SALT ISLAND, VI- As part of BVI Wreck Week 2024, a wreath-laying ceremony was held on Salt Island on June 20, 2024, in memory of the many who perished on RMS Rhone in 1867.

The event was a partnership between National Parks Trust and BVI Wreck Week organisers BVI Scuba Organisation.

Among those attending the event were Lily Mae, Nora Smith Manns, Daisy Durrant, Maggie Dawson and Anna Durrant who grew up on Salt Island and persons were able to hear stories from the ladies about their time growing up on the island.

Also in attendance were Director of National Park Trust Dr Cassandra P. Titley-O'Neal, Director of BVI Wreck Week Kim Huish, and Miss Teen British Virgin Islands Pageant BVI 2024 First Runner-up Tiya M. Herbert.

RMS Rhone

Salt Island, which derived its name from its salt ponds, is sandwiched between Cooper Island to its east and Peter Island and Deadman's Chest to its west.

On October 29, 1867, a Category 3 hurricane (San Narcisco) sank the British ship RMS Rhone close to Salt Island. Only 23 of the 146 crew and passengers survived the wreck.

Some of the bodies drifted up on Salt Island shore where inhabitants of the island buried them in a mass grave at the western end of the island.

It is said that because of the kind act of the Salt Island people, Queen Victoria decreed that they and their descendants should occupy Salt Island for perpetuity.

The Wreck of the Rhone featured in the 1977 movie The Deep is now a popular dive site, and also the surrounding area is a national park.

11 Responses to “Wreath laid on Salt Island in memory of those perished on RMS Rhone in 1867”

  • Congratulations. (21/06/2024, 19:55) Like (13) Dislike (0) Reply
    Fantastic initiative. Congratulations to all involved.
  • Anonymous (22/06/2024, 01:21) Like (2) Dislike (1) Reply
    Please sailors be very careful, if it sounds like a very sad event but I am proud of the remembrance
  • Eldread (22/06/2024, 08:49) Like (6) Dislike (12) Reply
    Queen Victoria as she is called, but not my queen because mine is in my bed beside me, but Victoria is crazy and presumptuous to see the black owners on their property salt island, who are civilize people that have the dead a descent burial, and talking about she giving them island when it's theirs, only show the evil intent she had in mind to rob those black people of their lands and resources, because what the hell she stay in England and decide on people properties that is live on an occupied by our ancestors, look just chase them crazy baldhead ideology out of town.
    • Its true (22/06/2024, 12:46) Like (1) Dislike (1) Reply
      They brain washed my friend. We can't save them.
    • Tourist (25/06/2024, 08:57) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
      You say that the black people own the land, not the Queen, but I ask who owned the land BEFORE the black people came to BVI?
  • Kingfish (22/06/2024, 10:46) Like (6) Dislike (3) Reply
    A very good gesture, I do not recall any wreaths being placed on behalf of the hundreds/thousands of slaves who suffered and died under the hands of their cruel English slaves' owners. It is nice to see Nora and Maggie whom I grew up with in East End after many, many years.
    • DEDE (22/06/2024, 15:11) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
      @Kingfish

      The African Studies club has a wreath laying ceremony every year. You can contact them for more info on this. Po
      • Kingfish (22/06/2024, 22:22) Like (1) Dislike (0) Reply
        If I am not mistaken, I believe it is for the millions who died during the voyages from Africa to Americas and the Caribbean. Should we really be celebrating this event of a mail ship carrying mail from the UK to slaves' owners in the Caribbean.
  • E.Leonard (23/06/2024, 11:04) Like (6) Dislike (0) Reply
    Verbal history passed from one generation to the next indicates that my grandfather William Leonard aka Bulla . an extraordinary storyteller, survived the 1867 Gale ( Hurricane) in a barrel. His twin sister Rosetta it seems may not have not survive. Salt Island is my ancestral home with both of my parents and some of my siblings being born there. The Salt Island is a hardy, industrious, resolute, compassionate people. That compassion was demonstrated by the care taken in burying the deceased who drifted ashore from the Wreck of RMS Rhone. The Salt Island village was a place where each one help one culture was alive and well. The people look out for one another.
  • 11 (24/06/2024, 13:11) Like (1) Dislike (3) Reply
    They had no choice but to bury them. They very well could not have left the bodies to rot on the beach and risk catching some sort of disease from the decomposing bodies. in my opinion it had nothing to do with compassion and care in burying the deceased bodies that drifted ashore.


Create a comment


Submit comment

Create a comment

Submit comment
Disclaimer: Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) welcomes your thoughts, feedback, views, bloggs and opinions. However, by posting a blogg you are agreeing to post comments or bloggs that are relevant to the topic, and that are not defamatory, liable, obscene, racist, abusive, sexist, anti-Semitic, threatening, hateful or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be excluded permanently from making contributions. Please view our declaimer above this article. We thank you in advance for complying with VINO's policy.

Follow Us On

Disclaimer: All comments posted on Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) are the sole views and opinions of the commentators and or bloggers and do not in anyway represent the views and opinions of the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Virgin Islands News Online and its parent company.