Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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21 ing by day, and furnishing watches for possible landing places by night. Actually, on Sunday, May 15th, the day of the Test, opera- tions, as ' far as we were concerned, only took place in th« afternoon, thus night patrolling had to be practised by daylight. We were allotted four areas for which to be responsible. The Posts had naturally to be established in those positions which com- manded the best view of the area, and we set up one at each of the following places — Spanish Point, Ducking Stool, Shelly Bay and El- bow Beach. These, as no doubt will be observed, were considerable distances apart, and consequently rather difficult to be adequately supervisied by any one officer. When they were visited, however, they seemed to have the situation well in hand, the only trouble being that they did not have enough to do to keep them well occupied through- out the afternoon. The main part of their activity, in fact, was tele- phoning. Each post was by a telephone and there was also a group H. Q. for the two posts in the Pembroke area. Each one of these was in touch with Command H. Q. and with each- other. The telephone for the Ducking Stool was at Government House which was very fortunate for those on duty there, as they received afternoon tea for their pains. It is the fervent hope of all that an emergency such as the one envisaged in this Test will never arise. If it should arise, however, surely it would be as unreasonable as it would be impossible to try to restrain the youth of Bermuda from going out and doing what they could to defend their country and protect their home. The Cadet Camp begins this: year on Tuesday, June 24th. In the last camp, the Saltus Platoon was very successful and won most of the competitions. Everyone enjoyed himself and seemed to be ex- tremely glad that he went. It is hoped that we will get an even better turn-out this year. BERMUDA CADET CORPS FIELD DAY. March 23rd., 1938. ' Way back in early 38, before the days of Test Mobilization, operations were carried on in no small way along the North shore of the Bermuda Islands, approximately Lat. 32° 18 ' N and between Long. 64° 46 ' W and 64° 47 ' W. Except for a few vendettas, there had been no bloodshed on the Bermoothes for a twelvemonth; the rival chiefs of Saltus and Whitney having been silenced by debt and loss of fighting strength sustained in their last campaign, the islands: had known peace.

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20 arduous ' task in carrying the largest of the wreaths for some min ' utes while they marched in slow time immediately behind the gun-carriage, VISIT TO B. V. E. CAMP. The Band was invited to spend a night at the B. V. E. camp at St. David ' s Island, They went down on the evening of Friday, May 20th. and stayed down until the middle of the following morning. As was the case last year, the boys were very warmly welcomed and kindly treated. After supper, they were shown the wireless section — a new institution there — and spent some time exchanging riddles with a man in a boat a mile off shore. The next morning, the B, V. E ' s fell-in at six o ' clock and went for a route march headed by our Band. For them to have played as; well as they did was almost more of a gymnastic than musical achievement because St, David ' s Island is not noted for its broad highways and, at some places , marching practically amounted to jumping from boulder to boulder. However, they acquited themselves well and were rewarded by praise which was as hearty as was their breakfast. After breakfast, they were shown the guns, range finders and magazines, the intricacies of which were most interestingly and care- fully explained. They then had to leave rather hurriedly to catch a train. The boat whiqh was to act as ferry refused to start until only fifteen minutes were left in which to accomplish a twenty minute trip. Thus in spite of the throttle being fully opened, we were still about a hundred yards off shore when we saw the train begin to move. With one accord, everyone started to roar and gesticulate furiously, and someone had the presence of mind to blow one long blast on his bugle. This had the miraculous effect of making the train stop, with the result that despair gave way to frenzied delight and we were able to rush and get on board in time. Once back in Bermuda and in the train, the strain of the pre- ceding night began to tell. From all accounts, no-one had had so much as one wink of sleep. There was no-one who was not blamed for having kept the others awake for part of the time, and yet, no- one admitted having done anything except endeavour to keep the others quiet. Anyway, although they were like so many corpses in the train, the visit to the B, V. E, camp was highly successful and extremely enjoyable. The Cadets were very pleased at being asked to take part in the Test Mobilization schemes for Bermuda. We had to provide four patrols, each consisting of one N. C. O. and six cadets. In this ima- ginary emergency, the function of these patrols would be coast watch-

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22 Not for long however was this Utopian state of affairs to continue, for the people of the islands make up in resourcefulness and virili- ty what they liack in fighting capacity. The fact is that when March ' 38 came along the rivals thought that the time was ripe to do a little battle. As in the previous year the pretext for hostilities was fish. There were many incidents ' leading up to the final outbreak, but it is understood that one of the most provoking was that Chief Saltus received a consignment most inadequlately done up in a mere scrap of paper. A-ctually, a state of war — which, as will be indicated later, was mainly guerilla — was, as it were, uncaged on March 22nd. when the Tribe of fishermen at St. David ' s Island went to St. George ' s to insist that chief Whitney should give them better prices and terms for their catches, Whitney refused, and rioting broke out at St. George ' s. The St. David ' s Islanders were joined in the rioting by the local fishermen. Chief Saltus, on whose finger the pulse of the whole situation rested, having heard of these disturbances, gave orders consequent- ly for his bodyguard to march to St. George ' s on 23rd. March and join hands with the rioting elements. Accordingly, he issued forth from the gates of his fortress. Having no thought for secrecy it wkas a noisy debouch for he was headed by his newly acquired band. It is not clear why he decided to do this but tacticians have it that he ' was aware that his band would be more of a menace to the enemy than of an encumbrance to himself. (Note: He saw fit to discard his instruments later feeling that protests he met with en route might amount to throwing local sympathy agtainst him). As it happened. Chief Saltus would have done very much better not to have been so cocksure and to have paid more attention to secrecy all along, for his intentions were made known to all, and Chief Whitney ' s espionage was such as to give him plenty of time to send out forces to meet Saltusi ' advance. Saltus, in fact, was no more than an hour ' s: march from his fortress when his Advanced Guard met with desultory fire from Whitney ' s scouts. The Genera- lissimo, however, )did not let this worry him, and it was only a mat- ter of minutes before he had ousted the scouts and proceeded with his advance. Shortly afterwards, he encountered more firing, this time from an enemy section secreted in a small quarry a sling-shot ahead of him and about a niblick shot to the right of the road. Sal- tus swiftly formulated la plan for attack with his leading platoon,