In 1972, I sailed with three friends to Belize and Guatemala from Florida on a 45-ft ketch, the Thai. It was owned and skippered by Ed Valier of Ft. Lauderdale. The vessel was a wooden Stonington.
After visiting Lago Izabal in Guatemala, we replenished in Livingston. Upon leaving Livingston, we visited an island called Frenchman’s Caye, just off the coast of Punta Gorda, Belize. It was owned by a former Navy underwater demolitions expert (frogman), Richard “Dick” Moore.
Dick was considered the first real underwater SCUBA diving pioneer in Belize. He settled on Frenchman’s Caye after living in the Yucatan and diving the shipwreck “Matanceros,” a Spanish galleon that was apparently bound for the New World from the Old World.
Dick ran a successful diving business from Fenchman’s Caye, throughout the Great Honduras Reef during the 1960s and 1970s.
He owned the entire island and enjoyed the luxury of “spreading out”—He scattered all of his living stations over the whole island.
This photo is of Dick Moore’s island washroom, thus “Island Loo.”
Thai was moored at Frenchman’s Caye for about three days before getting underway for Placencia Cove, Belize.
Wonderful light quality to this B&W photo John. One of those great
Photos that tells a visual story of time & place. Title says it all.
Thanks, Ward. Film still speaks to us, right?
Oh wow this is amazing. My Dad was business partners with Richard Moore! That bell still hangs on our farm 8 miles west of Frenchmans Caye. Do you have anymore photos from then? Did you by any chance meet my father, John Spang? He was in his 20s at the time. We still own Frenchmans Caye, but it has been abandoned since Richard Moore passed away in the late 70s.
Hi Lyra. During my short stay at Frenchman’s Caye, Dick Moore had a nephew visiting. He was a teenager, maybe 16-18 or so. I understand he was from Philadelphia. Could this be your dad? I always wondered how the caye would evolve after the days of Dick Moore. I do have some photos but not from the caye. They are of Placencia Cove and thereabouts—some from the market at Belize City. Did the name Jane McElvaine McClary or Nelson McClary ever come up in conversation? She was a novelist and he was a former National Geographic photographer. They sailed in tandem with us on their large Baltic vessel, “Josephine” (it could have been “Geraldine”). It’s great hearing from you. BTW, I was 29 at the time—now 78.