‘Paul Bogle’ gets final mission under the sea
Published:Tuesday | August 29, 2023 | 12:08 AMGareth Davis Sr/Gleaner Writer
DRAPERS, Portland:
After three and a half decades of service, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Coast Guard vessel Paul Bogle was retired as an artificial reef, fish habitat, and diving site in Portland after a brief ceremony on Sunday.
The vessel, which is also called P8, made its final voyage across the sea, where it was sunk to rest on the reef of the Geejam beach near San-San in a special conservation area.
Rear Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman, chief of defence staff of the JDF, reflected on her missions on board the Paul Bogle, which started during her posting to the Coast Guard in 1994.
“I was posted on board Paul Bogle and she was renovated so that they could find accommodation space for me on board,” she said on Sunday.
“When I went to the Coast Guard in 1994, she was one of two larger vessels that could facilitate me going to sea as a female. At the time, there were no females going to sea in the Jamaica Defence Force,” Wemyss Gorman reflected, adding that she spent five years on board the vessel as a naval officer.
“ Paul Bogle is a special vessel. I probably spent my best time at sea, my best days at sea, and I also spent my worst days at sea on board her.”
The chief of defence staff noted that Paul Bogle served all over the Caribbean.
“So it’s a very happy [occasion] for me to able to have been a part of the journey with the Alligator Head Foundation,” she added, in reference to the environmental group spearheading the effort to use the retired vessel as an artificial reef.
According to the JDF, during its service, Paul Bogle was employed in the execution of numerous JDF missions as well as in assistance to local and foreign governments and non-government organisations. These missions include maritime law enforcement, search and rescue, port security, Customs and immigration enforcement, and fisheries protection.
It also participated in the International Naval Review in New York in 1986, Exercise Trade Winds in St Vincent in 1990, and an official visit to Trinidad and Tobago 1990.
The 106-foot offshore patrol vessel, which was commissioned into service as the first of the Hero Class line in 1985 and decommissioned in 2020. was also involved in the seizure of more than 15,000lbs of marijuana and 4,000lbs of cocaine.
Wemyss Gorman said that she wanted to preserve Paul Bogle as a museum, but noted that it would have been very costly to maintain a ship that size with all its amenities over a period of time. It was upon being approached by the Alligator Head Foundation that consideration was given to scuttle the vessel along the Portland coastline.
The chief of defence staff said that she set about to get the necessary approvals, including from the Ministry of Defence and the National Environment and Planning Agency, to facilitate the request.
Dr Gavin Bellamy, executive director of the National Fisheries Authority, hailed Sunday’s events as historic as the vessel will now be the birthplace of a new ecosystem and a haven for marine life.