The Friendship Rose Schooner
The Friendship Rose is a gaff rigged schooner and one of the very last original vessels of this type. The schooner sail-plan has two or more masts with the forward mast being shorter or the same height as the rear masts. The schooner design was developed for speed and manoeuvrability and they were popular in trades that required speed and windward ability, such as slaving, privateering, blockade running and offshore fishing.

The only real difference between Friendship Rose and what would be considered a classic schooner is the shape of the bows. She is more rounded than most and not quite as elegant and this reflects her place of origin and the materials available.

She was built on Friendship Bay on the island of Bequia in 1966 and used for inter island trade, as a ferry and then as the mailboat. Originally built without an engine this was added after she was becalmed for several days while carrying a cargo of manure - well that’s the story - not necessarily true!

During her service as the ferry between the islands there were a number of births on board as the only hospital was on St Vincent and she didn’t always arrive on time.

Booze Cruise Boat?
The present owners Alan Whitaker and Meg Crosthwaite bought her in 2000. They were in a bidding contest with a consortium that wanted to turn her into a tacky booze cruise boat. Horrified that such a historic boat would end up like this, Alan showed the owners an advertisement for the Jolly Roger boats to show what would become of their island heritage.

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Friendship Rose now caters for the more discerning tourist, day sailing to St Vincent, Mustique and The Tobago Cays. St Vincent and The Tobago Cays were used as locations for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean and the set for Port Royal can still be seen at Wallilabou Bay on St Vincent. She is still captained by Calvin Lewis, one of the three partners who originally built her and, although now 78, he does not seem to have any plans for retirement.

Location
See the Google earth placemark for the exact location of the Tobago Cays - which shouldn’t be confused with the island of Tobago. The placemark links to another pano shot from Jamesby Island and showing Friendship Rose at anchor. Petit Tabac, the island just outside the reef which protects the lagoon, was used as the location where Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightley were cast away in Pirates of the Caribbean. This is a paradise for snorkellers and divers and is a nature reserve with no building or overnight stays allowed on the islands. It is a major tourist attraction and I believe is being lobbied for World Heritage Organization status to further protect it

Shoot Details
The pano was shot on May 11th 2006 as we were leaving the Cays but still inside the lagoon. I used a Canon EOS 5D with a 15mm FE lens mounted on a 360 Precision head attached to a Manfrotto 338 levelling base on a Manfrotto 055 tripod. The results were stitched in PTMac. The main difficulty was the movement of the boat, which caused the horizon to be irregular and ropes and rigging to move about between shots.