🇧🇶 Bonaire: WindJammer (aka Mairi Bahn) Tec Wreck Scuba Dive

The Windjammer was one of a series of three-mast iron ships, each designed for speed on the long haul shipping goods between England and India for the MacIntyre Company. Built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1874 by Barclay, Curl and Company, it measured 239 feet long, weighed 378 tons and had a 37-foot beam. Nicknamed the Windjammer, the ship officially sailed under the name the Mairi Bhan, Gaelic for “the Bonnie Mary.”
The Windjammer made its maiden voyage from Glasgow to New Zealand in a record seventy-five days. Like the Cutty Sark, the Windjammer was one of the fastest boats ever built. The ship continued its illustrious career, sailing all over the world until 1890.
As the power engine began to revolutionize the shipping industry, many companies such as MacIntyre, vested in sailing ships, had severe financial difficulties. Consequently, the clipper was sold to Bengris & Morzola, an Italian company based in Genoa. Without a permanent route to work, the Windjammer moved from port to port, picking up more-or-less legal cargo as it went.
Loaded with olive oil, Italian wines, marble and clothing, the ship set sail on its last trip-from Genoa to Trinidad and then back to Marseilles. While in Trinidad, the ship picked up some unforeseen cargo, namely asphalt, and headed towards the coast of Venezuela.
In December 1905, the ship docked in the port of Kralendijk, Bonaire. The reputation of Captain L. Razeto and his merry band of bandits preceded him and the Bonaire harbormaster ordered the ship out of the harbor.
On December 7, the ship left the port of Kralendijk, hitting the reef at the deserted northern end of the island. How the clipper went aground, no one knows. Was there a fire on board? Severe winds? There are many dramatic versions of the story. Maurice, who studied the Lloyd’s archives, believed the end of the Mairi Bhan to be less dramatic. After forty years of sailing, the clipper was taking on water through the hull rivets. Maurice believed that the weary sea captain chose to run the boat ashore rather than sink at sea.
With the Mairi Bhan lodged on the reef, the captain and crew abandoned the ship, carrying all that they could potentially sell.
For Bonairians, the crash of this big clipper was like an early Christmas present. With axes, they salvaged the wood from the bridge, the ropes, the sails, the copper, the nails and the rigging-they skinned the carcass of the old clipper. After several weeks of carnage the main mast fell, killing two people.
Finally in 1912, a hurricane dislodged the Mairi Bhan from the reef and the ship rolled, capsized and sank to the bottom of the sea.
Among fishermen of Rincon, the tale of the Mairi Bhan is still very much alive. Legend says that the ship didn’t sink-it simply vanished. One day she will return to the shores of Bonaire, seeking revenge against all those who salvaged parts of her rigging.
Predominantly used as chartered sailing vessels, other clippers of the Windjammer series have sailed the waters of the Caribbean. But in 1999, off the coast of Honduras, the last of the Windjammers mysteriously vanished. Apparently the captain heard of an impending hurricane, leaving his one hundred and fifty passengers at the nearest port to head out to sea with his crew to fight the storm. All that was ever found was a buoy on which the name of the ship-Phantom-was written.