Hammie Green recounts Son Chapman tragedy that took 40 lives, including children

Thursday, 6th July marks the 59th anniversary of one of our significant human tragedies. The tragedy happened on Monday July 6, 1964. It is the tragedy of the motor-launch, the Son Chapman which was blown up at Hurudaia on its way to Wismar taking over forty odd lives.

I was General Secretary of the PNC Party at that time and recalled the Leader along with the likes of Edgar Caryll, whose pregnant wife was among the victims, Joseph Aaron, Herman Stephens, Carl D’Aguiar, Elsie Mc Almont  and a host of residents working feverishly to assuage the anger of the community of Linden. This helped to restore calm in the community.

This was a herculean task.. It would be inappropriate to describe some of the scenes I witnessed in the Demerara River which caused anger and distress.

I recalled this sad moment in our history to help the media, our religious leaders, politicians and in particular young people with a sharpness of  intellect to analyze the root cause of this and other events of the 60s and beyond so that we can avoid any re-ocurrence.

I hope as this and other events at Wismar, the Abraham fire and the maginot lines along our coastal belt will persuade our leaders that injustice, discrimination, hate and greed will always express itself in one way or another. This has been the characteristics of human history everywhere, Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa.

The daunting difficult question is that as we recount that day, forty nine years ago, will Guyanese leaders on both sides of our political divide, will Guyanese young and old, will Guyanese of every race and of every belief  come to the understanding that the only way to avoid this type of explosion, this type of mayhem, this type of human suffering, this type of stupidity is for all of us and I repeat for emphasis, all of us is to respect our fellow human beings, who may not look like us, who may have a different background, but we are all children of the mighty Creator who established this world, who made the trees, the bees, the plants and the waters so that we can sustain life in harmony on earth.

 As one who lived through the trauma of those days, I ask that this humble message be conveyed to all and sundry, so that peacefully and harmoniously we can enjoy the bounty that beckons. A prerequisite is for our leaders to have the good sense to appreciate that any other pathway, no matter how clever we think we are, will lead to damnation, destruction and death.

Our leaders must have the good sense to be true nationalist to really believe in our credo of oneness. This requires more than bombardment with high sounding phrases. This road to glory, peace and prosperity requires those in the Captain’s deck and those in the Opposition setting aside their petty differences. It requires Statesmanship and courage and as we ponder the events of 49 years ago, I pose the rhetorical question,  Why do those elected to guide the destiny of our nation often ignore the lessons of history and even more troubling acts contrary to enlightened self- interest.

This day, let us therefore hope and pray to reverse these shared steps of stupidity which on to this day is stultifying our great potential.

—————–

The Hurudaia martyrs