Published 31 July 2018
Buckie got It St Kitts and Nevis News Source
By Times Cariibean
Memories of the MV Christena: St.Kitts-Nevis’ Worst Disaster ! by Ivan C. Buchanan, CBE
The 30th of July, 1970, was an epoch making catastrophe in St. Kitts and Nevis. On that particular day 48 years ago the MV Christina sank between St.Kitts and Nevis during her passage. I can recall the events of that day because of my involvement in the salvaging of many of the passengers who perished. That Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny and very calm and I was more or less excited because I was having my daughter, a school girl at the time, Carla Donna, to collect from the ferry on its return trip from Charlestown, Nevis because she had gone to spend some of her school holidays with her friend Irma Johnson at Cradock Road. I journeyed from Greenlands in my car to the waterfront and mingled with the crowd that was all congregated on the pier fronting the Treasury. There were those who were going to Nevis because the Monday following was August Monday which was an annual event to celebrate the abolition of slavery which was officially granted in 1834. Each year, people went over to Nevis for that particular occasion. It was similar to another occasion where one Easter Sunday , people went to Brimstone Hill and sure enough in 1950 there was also an incident in Brimstone Hill where many persons were trampled to death because of a light shower of rain.
