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Small as it was, Cayman had its share of unusual personalities. Residents recall police Inspector Roddy Watler, known for his intimidating left hook; the speeches of firebrand politician Ormond Panton that would last for hours; the German who lived here quietly but was suspected of spying on behalf of German U-boats; Captain Tom Diaz, from Rock Hole, who piloted Lord Mountabatten's yacht back to England, after the captain fell ill, and was invited to dine at Buckingham Palace as a result. Residents recount some other enduring memories:
* "There was a huge cotton tree at the junction of Fort Street and Harbour Drive that was used as a lookout for when the Cimboco and other ships were coming in. It was about 50-60 feet high and this fellow Nathan Ebanks used to climb up there and call out "Sail Ho!" when he spotted a ship on the horizon. One day he fell from the top of that tree; it had huge roots and one space in the middle where there was sand; he missed the roots and fell flush in the sand; didn't break a single bone."
* "Reverend George Hicks was a respected preacher and teacher, but he was the craziest driver. We had no traffic, but he was always speeding. One day he was coming through South Sound -- the car was loaded, and Ena Watler's father was on the running board. Hicks swerved from some cows in the road, grazed the barbed wire fence, and ripped Mr. Watler's jacket from top to bottom. He never took his foot off the gas."
* "Commissioner Alan Cardinall did a lot for Cayman -- he got that road from Bodden Town east going -- but he could be cantankerous. People were afraid of him. During the Second World War, when blackouts were on, he would drive around and stop in at different houses to tell people to douse their lamps. He carried a walking stick, and he drank, and sometimes he would swing his stick and knock off the lamp shade from a lit lamp."
* Everybody knows taxi driver Benny Ross. He is a pure Damon Runyon character, although it was unusual when he started taking his younger child everywhere with him. When somebody asked him about it, he explained that the child had swallowed his mother's wedding ring, and Benny did not wish to run the risk of not recovering it." |