“TO LIVE IN hearts we leave behind is not to die”, is a true indication of the memories that live on in the minds and hearts of Lindeners of that fateful day when 43 Lindeners lost their lives in what is called “the Son Chapman Massacre.”

As Guyanese here and in the diaspora continue to celebrate our 50th year of Independence, for many Lindeners there is a feeling of ambivalence as Linden was still recovering from the Son Chapman and the Wismar massacre when Guyana gained Independence.

It was only two years before Independence that blood created a wall to wall carpet in the streets of Wismar and subsequently after washed the shores of the Demerara River. For the old timers, that were alive during that dark period, 53 years seems like yesterday. As the story has been told to young people like myself, approximately 16:00 hrs. Monday July 6th 1964, the Son Chapman vessel had just left the docks of Hurudaia, a timber grant settlement 16 miles up the Demerara River after letting off three passengers. The vessel was owned by Norman Chapman but was captained by Herman Softleigh on that day. The persons on board inclusive of passengers and crew men were all enjoying the cool afternoon breeze and the surrounding scenery of the banks of the river. Unfortunately, this solitude was shortly interrupted about 300 yards from Hurudaia by a loud explosion which caused the lives of 43 persons inclusive of two children and six Demba employees. Pandemonium broke loose as the 27 persons and six crew men who were on the decks of the boat who survived the explosion by swimming to shore while others were rescued by passerby vessels as they watched the “Son Chapman” sink. It was a titanic scene in the Demerara River as news spread of the horrific tragedy.

Donald Gentle, who lost his mother in the tragedy, related that he had just left Christianburg Government School and was heading for home at Lee Ting alley, when he observed an unusual amount of people standing on both banks of the Demerara river in the vicinity of Linden.
“What I was told was the reason why those people were standing around crying, made me cry too, knowing that my mother travelled every Monday on the Son Chapman,” he said.
His mother was a huckster who travelled to Georgetown every Sunday evening to purchase commodities and return the following day with the Son Chapman.
“Unfortunately on July 13, 1964 she did not make it back to Wismar where she lived and sold her commodities from a stall erected at the side of Burnham Drive in the vicinity of Poker’s Sand road. She was the woman whose father pleaded with her not to travel with the Son Chapman on that particular day because he had heard rumors of a bomb being placed on the launch, Maybe it was because she had left nine children, including an 18-months’ old baby at home that she insisted in travelling with the launch. She did not make it to Linden alive,” recalled Gentle who was 15 years’ old at the time. The youngster was preparing to write the College of Preceptors Examination.
“Forty years later I can still picture the chaotic scene with screaming, crying and some people even swearing and cursing on that bitter memorable day at Linden. Mother has gone and may her soul rest in peace.”

He also remembers seeing bodies floating up at the Christianburg cemetery. By 8th July, 32 bodies had been recovered from the river and taken to the Mackenzie Hospital morgue to be buried. Two badly decomposed bodies were buried at Horadia and two in Georgetown. Some of the bodies that were identified and buried were Jean Abrams, Winnifred Giles, Irene Jordan, Daphne London, Edna Dublin, Carmen Carrly, Alphonso Peters, Joseph Brittlebank, Frank Adams, Evande Adams among others. With 43 fatalities, the sinking of the Sun Chapman is the single largest loss of Guyanese life. The river was commonly used for this journey before the Linden-Soesdyke highway was constructed in 1966.

The cause of this blood bath remains a mystery to date as many continue to put forth their theories. Some of the blame was placed on the PPP, the PNC, racial Indians taking revenge for those Indians who were murdered, raped or had lost their property to fire in Wismar Pogrom. Another theory suggests that the explosion was accidental – that a number of detonators were carelessly stored near the heated engine room of the “Son Chapman”.

Many alive today never knew the men, women and children of the Son Chapman massacre, but the tragedy that occurred sets a lesson for all of us, that racial and political division can lead to meaningless loss of lives. We must strive to live in unity and peace, not only for the preservation of live but for the making of a history free from hatred, bloodshed and strife.