"The Plantation"
TARA in the Indian Ocean!
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Some real history by a real historian and former DG resident...

"The most French of all her historic possessions." Jack London

Getting to the Plantation was practically impossible.  For old Jack London, and Robert Louis Stevenson, both of whom stopped long enough to admire the colonial overseers, it meant writing several sucessful books and using the profits to pay for a 'round the world cruise.  For the swabbies and other Americans living in downtown DGAR, it meant getting one of a limited number of permits from the Brits, then finding somebody with a truck to take you down there (it was possible to bicycle down - it was only a 45 mile round trip from downtown).  For the Filipino and Mauritian workers, it was even harder to work the deal, and I'll bet there were hundreds of them who worked on DGAR for years and NEVER got to go to the Plantation.  LOTS of interesting deals were made in exchange for a trip to the one place on the island that had any mystique about it.

 

This is one of those mysterious things:  "The Black Hole of Diego" - the jail at the Plantation.  It sure would be interesting to find out if anyone actually had to stay in it.  It was hotter than hell on DG most of the time, and inside one of those little cells, with the iron door closed, it must have been unbelievable.  Of course, a week in the hole probably ensured you'd never do anything to get put back in again!
 
 

The most interesting part of the history of the Plantation was that it played host to the German Cruiser EMDEN in October 1914.  The EMDEN was busy destroying allied shipping in the Indian Ocean, and put in to DG to scrape her bottom after a stunningly successful voyage of commerce-raiding.  At one point, the Emden's Kapitan (Von Muller) released a captured ship to continue on its way, simply because there were women passengers on board - one of the last gentlemanly commerce raiders, I guess.  Well, he ran off to DGAR to get repaired, and the British resident there, who did not know WWI had started, helped him get fixed up, reprovisioned, re-coaled, and on his way!  By the way, the EMDEN eventually sailed for Cocos Island, where the HMAS Sydney caught her and shot her to pieces on the reef (the SYDNEY stood off with her six-inch guns and the EMDEN couldn't return fire with her 4.1s).   What's really cool is that the shore party, which was busily destroying the Cable and Wireless station on the atoll when the SYDNEY arrived, stole a yacht and sailed to Arabia, and then hiked back to Germany - the longest Escape and Evasion in history (it took them seven month, and most died on the way).  For a blow by blow account of the EMDEN-SYDNEY encounter, check out the Royal Australian Navy's Ship History of the SYDNEY.

Yes, "The Plantation" was certainly the heart of island life, and its only "town" until it was closed by the British Government in 1972.  The furnaces for the copra drying sheds went cold, and ships stopped tieing up at the pier.  Then the "employees" of the coconut plantations, descendants of slaves called Ilios Islanders, were removed to Perhos Banos and Danger Island, and in 1976, they were removed from there to Mauritius.

The key event in 1972 was the agreement to use DG for joint military purposes by the U.S. and Great Britain.  The last civilian managers of the plantation left, and the Naval Party 1002 moved into the plantation house, and "commissioned" the island as a military base.  The U.S. sent SEABEES to construct a new town and operating facilities on the northwest point of the island and the south point.  Primarily these consisted in the early days of a USN communications station, and the receiving and transmitting antennas had to be located separately.  "T-Site" was located down by Turtle Cove, while R-Site and C-Site (the Communications Center) were located near the new downtown area.  In between, the SEABEES set about building an airfield about 5 miles south of "downtown", and the Brits, isolated in their little piece of paradise from the rest of what passed for civilization on the island, eventually moved up "on base", ending the occupation of the Plantation after at least a century and a half of habitation.  To see some photos of the Plantation and the original Brit Party and American Detachments, check out Dave's Page from 1972-1973.

I first visited the Plantation during a stopover in 1981.  We'd broken down and our loadmaster had a brother in the SEABEES deployed there at the time, and we hitched a ride over to the plantation in a construction van.  First we had to change a tire at the SEABEE work yard, and get some food from the "Silver Fox" there in Splinterville.

When I was deployed there myself in 1982, I met a young Australian Naval Officer, Steve Swayne, who as a member of the British Commonwealth didn't need to get a special pass to visit the Plantation, and we went over there 2 or 3 times, and strolled the Main Street!
 
 

By 1982, the Plantation had been abandoned about 10 years, and was in real bad shape.  When I was stationed on DG in 1987-88, the deterioration was severe, and the US Navy Chief's Association wanted to do a civic service project to restore some of the old buildings.  However, the British Minister for the BIOT came through on his annual visit, and told the USN not to permit it.  His reasoning was that then people would take photos of the restored buildings, and send them to relatives in Mauritius, where the newspapers would then print them, and create more hard feelings by the displaced Ilios Islanders.  Well, now there's the internet, and no Plenipotentiary Minister is able to stop the free flow of info and photos because it might be embarrassing to one government or the other!  Its also apparent that his decision was reversed sometime in the near distant past, as these "before and after" photos show.  The "Befores" are from WWII and the early '80's, the "Afters" from a current USAF DG web sites:

Just as at Point Marianne, there's a cemetary at East Point, and its a big one.  No one was allowed to fool around with the graves - it was a hanging offense if the Brits caught you, and only jail time if the Navy learned of it.  There is a great deal of concern in some quarters regarding the removal of the Ilios Islanders from their homes and the graves of their ancestors.  I'm sure it was done for some then-good reason, but I would not want to be uprooted from the good old USA and sent back to some plague-infested, filthy, smoke filled industrial town somewhere in Great Britain or elsewhere in Europe, just because my ancestors got shipped over here in indenture 200 years ago.  The graveyard symbolizes how the Ilios have been completely cut off from their past and their grandparents.  Although I enjoyed DG immensely, I ocassionally have a vague bothering thought about those people, even though I didn't have anything to do with their removal, and they were resettled with land and cash (supposedly!) on Mauritius.  I mean, why would the U.S. be party to such a thing?  I mean, we always hire the locals to do the jobs they can do, wherever our bases are.  We even employ Cubans from Cuba at Guantanamo.  Seems to me we could have put the Ilios to work (to replace their lost wages when the Coconut Industry was closed down).  Well.....its just typical American bleeding heart liberalism that makes me wonder.........Anyway, here's a photo of the cemetary at the East Point Plantation.

         I've found some material (surprisingly) on life in the plantation days.  I've had retrieved from the bowels of the PRO (Public Records Office) in England copies of reports from administrators and representatives from several hundred years back up until WWII.  There are some interesting tidbits in those:

         In a handwritten message from Auditor General E.C. Ashley, it is noted that in 1886 there were 363,094 litres of coconut oil exported to Mauritius.  In an 1886 report the Police Officer on Diego Garcia estimated that it cost about Rs 10,000 to maintain his station (apparently, they often used Indian Rupees as the currency in reports), and then went into options as how to pay for it.  A flat tax of Rs1 a ton on imported coal would "probably stop all industry", but a figure 1/4th of that (along with a subsidy) would do nicely. Apparently, approximately 3,000 to 6,000 tons of coal a year were imported to the island.  The British, however, concerned that such paying such a huge sum would wreck their empire ;-), were looking into getting rid of the police officer.

       A 1913 report by a visiting inspector discussed the "prison" on Pointe Marianne.  "There are three cells in good condition.  The Book contains one entry, Noel Bonguot--Disturbance--One day.  The prison diet consists of rice and salt, and the prisoners are given also black or red lentils or salt-fish and sometimes both............As regards the physical exercise granted to the prisoners, I have issued instructions to the Managers to grant at least one full hour to each prisoner to go out and walk about.  A fact which must be taken into consideration is that the maximum term of imprisonment which a Manager is empowered to inflict is 6 days.  So, supposing a prisoner were deprived entirely of physical exercise during 6 days, he would not suffer to an alarming extent."

        Some other data from 1913:   There were 18 births, 13 deaths, and 3 marriages.  Causes of death were "worms", heart disease, and tabes mesenterica (carreau).  There were 144 donkeys, 1 mule, and 2 horses on the island. There were 7 boats (pirogues) and 2 pinnaces.  Exports from Sept 1913 to March 1914 were:  16,109 veltes of oil   2,925 bags of coprah  2,186,285 cocoa-nuts.

Question:  How much was a velte?  How heavy was a bag of coprah?  Any idea what the population was at any given time?

       I don't recall offhand exactly how much a 'velte' was, but it was something like 10 bottles of a certain size.  At Pointe Marianne, in 1913, there were 135 men, 92 women, 67 boys, and 36 girls.   Sometimes the statistics are a bit hazy, because often they are broken up differently.  For example, sometimes Peros Banhos is included in stats for what were known as the "Lesser Dependencies", or "Oil Islands".  Peros Bahnhos is about 120 miles from DG, and its main settlement was  Ile du Coin.  At various times, there were also small populations occupying the 'Six Islands' and the "Three Brothers".

       In 1940 Magistrate M. Rousette wrote  "It was a moving sight to see two centenarians coming every afternoon to rest in the hospital bed when they are given tea; one of them suffering from "cataract"; in spite of all persuasive argument and solicitations the old man refused obstinately to come to Mauritius when I tried to convince him that he could successfully be operated on.  He refused, saying that he preferred to die on his island and be buried together with his wife"    (so much for the "no natives" line the Brits later took).

       Another report from this time frame covered the early boozing days   "Bacca: Legislation should be passed to prevent the preperation or drinking of 'bacca' a fermentation of vegetables and sugar which is not only highly deleterious of health but promotes great excitement with the result that disturbances and affrays commonly occur."

       During World War II some of the Brits on the island were secret GCHQ types (radio intel, predecessors to modern cryptologists).  They apparently made at least one significant discovery, they found that the Portugese embassy in India was secretly retransmitting messages from the Japanese, forwarding them to the Germans in Europe.

       For most of the Islands "recent" (150 years) history there have been two settlements, one being Pointe de l'Est and the other Pointe Marianne.  I don't think that the current "downtown" area was permanently inhabited until the early 1970s when the base construction began.

Question:  Do you recall the incident with the German Cruiser EMDEN (Oct 1914)?  Brian Mendham, who was the Cable & Wireless Station Manager there in 1988 told me the story of her sailing to East Point, and getting refurbished just before sailing for Cocos, where she was blown to bits.

       This is basically what happened.  IIRC the Emden was damaged during an engagement near Madagascar but escaped in a rainstorm.  When she pulled into Diego Garcia the captain claimed the ship had suffered "storm damage".  The Island managers were very suspicious, but helped the Germans restock and soon the Emden was off.  A few days later a couple of British cruisers pulled into the islands and the inhabitants were informed that the 'Great War' was ongoing.  The Emden was destroyed later at Cocos, the first warship ever sunk by the then newly established Australian navy.  It was not until after WWI that the island got its first radio set.  Several books have been written about the "Emden" and her crews exploits.

Question:  Have you run across any explanation as to why they expelled the Illios?  I almost understand from DG, but why from the whole archepelgo?  Was it just the economics of keeping up a civil administration?  As I say somewhere on the web site, I'd not be very happy if they tried to run me back to Glasgow or Reuen or Cadiz.

       The reasoning was fairly straightforward -- the islands were wanted for military purposes, and the US in particular did not want to have to deal with any "natives".  The late 60s and early 70s were times of some tumult.  The British were making their famous withdrawal from "East of the Suez" and the US was afraid that the Soviets would move into the area with the assistance of regional third-world nations.  The original treaty did not specify which island/islands the US would use "for defensive purposes", and the US wanted them all cleaned off 'just in case'.  Originally, the US wanted to use not Diego Garcia but another nearby island  (Adabaran?? or something like that).   At any rate, the US was getting kicked out of Vietnam, our very large intelligence station at Asmara, Ethiopia, was about to be abandoned (due to civil war), it seemed the Indians and Somalis were getting ready to host the Soviets, etc. etc.  The US wanted a facility in the region, and did not want any hassle with "local natives".  So for a pile of money the British kicked the Ilois off for us.

       I've thought of the Ilois as the "american indians" of the Indian Ocean.  They basically did not own land or settle 'permanently'.  They moved freely over the islands of the central and western Indian Ocean --- Mauritius, Seychelles, Chagos, Maldives, Ceylon.....   They might be born on one island, be raised on another, go from island to island working, get married on another..... and so on.    Everywhere they went they were an ethnic minority, with the exception of the various Chagos Islands which served as a sort of 'homeland'.  It probably never even occurred to them to try and stake out any 'legal' claim of ownership. Unfortunately for them, as 'westernized' nations took over various islands all sorts of legal and economic factors started interfering with their free movement.  If they now had to sign an 'employment agreement' to get from Island to Island, so be it.

       As for "amply compensated" [following there removal], well.....    To make a long story short, the island of Mauritius thought that when it got its independance from the UK its territory would include the Chagos Islands.  At the last moment, the Brits formed the BIOT and told the Mauritians that they had to drop their claim.  Well, the Mauritian leaders basically agreed as long as any compensation for the dislocated Ilois was paid to the Mauritian government, and not directly to the Ilois.  The Mauritian government would see to it that the money was "fairly distributed".  Most of the money apparently dissappeared.  Most of the Ilois ended up living in the worst ghettos in Mauritius (though I've never visited, I'm told that the *best* ghettos in Mauritius are pretty darned bad).

      The statistics and data I've given are mostly from a stack of official British reports from the Public Records Office of the UK (newly located in Kew).  The paper is footnoted, but it is hard to find good data on the island.  Most of the time you just find a short mention here or a one-liner there.  I've got a couple of books that were printed in India, but they mainly deal with political/diplomatic aspects of Indian Ocean issues not much with history.

regards,
Steve Forsberg,
Wizard 87-01