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Presents BUILDERS OF TORTOLA |
George Dawson Forster George Forster was born at Inniskillen, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in 1932. After spending some time in Canada with the RCAF (from 1953), and being ‘certified’ as a ship driver in (the Province of Nova Scotia, he moved to the Caribbean in November 1968. He travelled by freighter to Puerto Rico and eventually on to Tortola where he first went to visit a friend. He bought the first drink in “The Pub” in 1969. He was still ‘driving freighters’ at the time when he dropped in to see his friend, and stayed. He now lives on the water near The Pub and the Yacht Club – two of his favourite haunts.
Always water oriented, George was involved in yacht racing and charters before settling down as Harbour Pilot in 1977, taking over from a friend who had decided to concentrate on other business interests inTortola. At that time George was one of two pilots who guide (in theory) all ships over 200 tons into the harbour at Roadtown, and “help and advise” the ships’ masters. There are now three pilots. He continued in this career, as well as passing on his skills to others, until 2004 when he retired. He is still part owner of the pilot boat. George feels that ‘his job’ has not changed substantially over the years, although there is now a lot more responsibility falling on the pilots’ shoulders due to the increase in traffic, and ship size in the Roadtown area.
In addition to ‘piloting’ George has been involved with shipping agencies, marine surveys, and other small businesses. He part-owned The Pub for eight years, has been involved with VISAR (since its inception in 1978+), was Captain of the Golf Club (when there was a 9-hole golf course across the road from Prospect Reef ), and Commodore of the Royal BVI Yacht Club.
George has, of course witnessed tremendous change in Tortola over the past four decades – although these changes had begun before he arrived in the late ‘60s. A massive increase in big, expensive houses is apparent as are the increase in Cruise Ships – he remembers passengers being ‘lightered’ to the ferry dock before the cruise ship pier was completed. There are also more and bigger freighters than in earlier times. Again, in the past all of the freight was lightered in. There has been an improvement in health care, the tremendous growth of Port Purcell, the construction of the Government Building and significant population growth.
George is a true Tortolan and has no plans to leave the BVI.
Draft of December 11th, 2008