Removal of car deemed historical icon sparks outrage at Smugglers Cove
The car, which was in dire condition, was reportedly removed during a clean-up exercise by the Elmore Stoutt High School Environmental Group in collaboration with the Belmont Association over the weekend. Virgin Islands News Online was told that the clean-up groups received permission from the National Parks Trust for the vehicle to be removed.
Some vendors in the area, however, were not impressed as they claimed thousands of visitors to the beach every year visit the site of the old car and are fascinated by the history. “Imagine the other day 65 persons came in a boat just to see this car. This car has a lot of history and tourists come to see it every day, now today they have turned up and are disappointed that it is not there. They are wrong to have removed this car during the tourist season,” Don Cameron aka Rickey told Virgin Islands News Online.
According to Devin Parsons, who is also a vendor at the beach, he was instrumental in clearing the area where the car was and identifying the history of the car for tourists by erecting a write up on it at the site. “People come to look at it all the time. This place was in bush and now we cleaned it up for the car to be on display and they now come and move it just like that is not fair at all.”
Tourist Dan Rosa of Manhattan, New York said the car, despite its poor condition, was a historical icon and was disappointed to know that it was removed from the beach. “They should have kept it there. This was something with a lot of history and it was like magical.”
Olive Lawrence of Boston also expressed the same sentiments and although she did not manage to get a picture of the car, she had it vividly in her head but feared the way it was removed it was certainly headed to the wreck rather than to be restored somewhere else.
Rebecka Berggren, also of the United States, was fortunate to have taken a photograph of the old Lincoln before it was removed from the beach. She too believed the car should have remained.
Some vendors alleged that Preston Stoutt and Brian Russ were the ones responsible for the removal of the vehicle, however, Stoutt only said there was a clean-up involving the ESHS Environmental Group and the Belmont Association and he could not comment further. Russ, however, admitted he had a part to play in the removal but said it was only after permission from the National Parks Trust (NPT).
A sentiment was also expressed by one individual, who had knowledge of the car’s removal, that authorities should have tried to restore the car a long time ago and now it had fallen in a state that was beyond that, hence it needed to be removed as it was more of an eyesore on the beach.
Efforts to contact Director of the National Parks Trust Joseph Abbott Smith proved futile.
First District Representative Hon. Andrew Fahie, when contacted, said while he appreciated the clean-up efforts by the two groups he was not in support of the car being removed in the manner it was done. He also said the groups had indicated their intentions to clean up certain areas in the district but he was not told that Smugglers Cove was one of the areas and that the removal of the car was to also be done.
On learning that it was said the NPT had given permission to have the car removed, Hon. Fahie said he should have been informed as the district representative about such intentions so that he could have conveyed it to his constituents so that the matter could have been handled differently and to everyone’s understanding.
Meanwhile, Devin Parsons gave Virgin Islands News Online some history about the old Lincoln, which he said Queen Elizabeth II rode in during her visit to the Territory in 1976 for her Silver Jubilee. He said at that time, Bob Denniston owned the newest automobile on the island and was asked if it could be used in the Queen’s motorcade in Road Town.
“He agreed, and later in the day, Bob and Nell (wife) met the Queen at a reception party. The Queen told Bob she understood it was his automobile that she had been riding in. Nell chimed in, "Yes, we spent the whole of last night cleaning out the empty beer cans left in the back seat by our kids." The Queen reportedly leaned in and said, "My children do the same thing!"
The old Lincoln had stood just outside of the old hotel at Smugglers Cove beach that was used for the remake of parts of the movie, Hemingways, "Old man and the Sea" in 1990, starring Anthony Quinn.
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