On Saturday, February 29th, our community laid to rest a remarkable Anguillian. Mr. David Hodge was eulogized as a good and decent man, an insightful entrepreneur, a good father and a gentle giant whose word was his bond. Indeed, he was all those things and their virtues compounded to make him special and indeed significant. But he was also a remarkable patriot who understood that a strong community needed an economy that was built as much as that was possible by Anguillian vision, risk, hard work and effort. This endeavour is never easy and is fraught with difficulty in such a small society as ours where human and financial resources, along with access to larger markets, is very limited. This did not deter David from facing up to that imposed risk.
My company, Rebel Marine Ltd, committed itself from inception to reestablish Anguilla as a centre of excellence in the marine trades. I say reestablish because that is what it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when our forebears, despite grinding poverty and deprivation, distinguished themselves as some of the best schooner and sloop builders in the Caribbean. That feat was all the more remarkable given the severe lack of access to capital that that generation faced. Inspired by that history, which still discloses itself today in the art and passion for boat racing, I along with other very talented Anguillians committed ourselves to rebuilding that industry albeit not with old and even ancient technology but with today’s more hi-tech systems and materials found in resins, composites and glass fabrics. To say it has been easy would be laughable, especially with the limitations in the early years of a total absence of experience, training, know how and especially opportunity. Who in their right mind would build a modern hi-tech boat to an international standard in a little unknown Caribbean island at that time, and expect to obtain a quality product? It was precisely at that point that David Hodge showed his patriotism in a way that, for me, has earned an undying respect.
To be clear, David had already tested our mettle when he and Mr. Thomas Bryan commissioned a small 34ft. outboard boat which they named “Big Bird” to help kick-start the new cross channel ferry trade. Those were the days, before Big Bird’s launch, when a trip to St. Martin involved catching the “Silver Still” at 9 am, sitting in the open, with no proper seating, in the company of bags of lobsters and a few goats for an hour long ride across the channel. The Silver Still’s schedule included a final return trip around 1 pm, giving shoppers a mere three hours to do their thing. This meant that if you missed the boat you would have to face a night in St. Martin as there were no other rides to catch back to Anguilla that day. “Big Bird”, along with another of our boats called “Two Cheers”, revolutionized the St. Martin passenger trade providing what at times was a non-stop service every half hour across the channel. Incredibly, for that time, in one short year both boats clocked a distance of more than 25,000 miles criss- crossing the channel, a distance which is equivalent to the circumference of the planet at the equator.
But then David stepped the game up again by commissioning a much larger vessel than “Big Bird” that could seat fifty persons, was air conditioned, powered by triple diesel Mercruiser stern drive engines (a triple installation was unheard of at that time), teak gunwales and a beautiful ceiling made of Port Orford cedar which taxed our expertise to the max. Appropriately, and to my delight, he named this vessel “Excellence” which is what she was in her class at that time. David took a huge gamble in doing this and in trusting a local company to do this work when he could have easily gone to the US and hired far more established naval architects and builders who would have provided warranties and performance guarantees – things that we could never have provided at that time. In doing, so he realized not only his own entrepreneurial ambitions but also gave an incredible boost to a fledging local industry. But “Excellence” was also historic for another reason. In February 1994, as her construction was nearing completion, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth visited Anguilla. As it was, and still is, standard form for the Queen to visit local industry wherever she goes, the organizers of the visit recommended that she visited the boat yard to see what local capital and expertise could produce. Unfortunately for me, who was at that time a candidate for the upcoming elections, her visit to see “Excellence” was politicized to the max in order to sully my candidacy. Small minds at the time chose to overlook the combination of Anguillian vision and capital with Anguillian expertise in boat building for their petty political advantage. Interestingly, those same small minds were quick to acknowledge David’s vision when “Excellence” was launched a few months, later after the elections, on July 22nd, 1994.
David’s pioneering vision goes unnoticed by most of us today when we see and take for granted the multiplicity of small and larger vessels crossing the channel between Blowing Point to Marigot and Blowing Point to Juliana. The vast majority of all our visitors come to Anguilla today on boats which, in many ways, are the descendants of “Excellence”, and Anguilla owes much of this trade, which now employs scores of sailors, captains and handlers and adds millions to the Treasury in taxes, to David’s willingness to take a risk.
For my part, he holds my undying respect, and I will miss his short halting manner of speaking that was laced with a unique unassuming humour. I give thanks for his life and for having known him.
May his soul rest in peace.
