DUCK Diaries
Operation Americas
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Operation Americas
Important Stops | |
---|---|
★10★ Fortworth, Texas | The crew meet Robin the dog |
★39★ East Shore, Panama | The Jungle Cove Saga —the crew get stranded on an island. |
★55★ Pan-American Highway, Ecuador | The Duck almost plunges off of an 11,000 ft cliff and the crew has to wait for help in some pretty dismal conditions. |
★56★ Pan-American Highway, Ecuador | |
★98★ Bogotá, Colombia | The crew witness an assasination attempt on Cuban Marxist, Blas Roca. |
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The Jungle Cove Saga
The text below is transcribed from Fraser Shaw's Journal
January 24th, 1962
It was decided today that Bob and Ed would go to Colon, via another small craft that was in the bay and try to secure help, while the rest would set up camp here and wait. Consequently Bob + Ed set out at 7:00 A.M. in hopes of reaching Colon in two days, which means that nothing much is probable as far as aid is concerned short of 4 or 5 days minimum. The “Ondina” also left for her destination and on the way would notify one of our radio contacts with our situation at present. With her, instead of cash, she took 3 barrels of our gas in payment for services rendered including the hauling of the gasoline.
"Escibano Cove," jungle beach 30 miles NW of San Blas Islands; Jan. 22 - Feb. 2 1962 (stayed on beach). Crew member camp at a Cove in Panama before rescue.
Duck under protective cover (L to R: George and Colin), jungle cove area cleaned up; Jan. 24, 1962.
Duck under protective cover, jungle cove area cleaned up, white flag in ground with words "The World CK-18"; Jan. 24, 1962.
The first day was spent cleaning out the area and general cleaning up and making some sort of a camp out of our coconut tree habitat.
Colin building a shelter out of branches, jungle cove; Jan. 25, 1962.
Colin building a shelter out of branches, jungle cove; Jan. 25, 1962.
L to R: Dan, Tom, and Colin building a shelter out of branches, jungle cove; Jan. 25, 1962.
We also met a Jeff (who lives in sight on a house built on the bay) who speaks perfect English and who showed us a place to obtain fresh water 1 hour away—down the bay and then into the jungle. We’ve affectionately dubbed him Jeff “Cayuco”—the native means of water transportation.
Cayuca Jeff gathering yucca into a basket for the crew, jungle cove; Jan. 24, 1962
Shot of Cayuca Jeff working with the earth, jungle cove; Jan. 24, 1962.
Dan's Letter to Rosie — January 28th, 1962
Dearest Rosie,
We had trouble with our propeller and now on a tropical beach [sic]. We can't go on, so Bob and Ed are going to Colon to get us a tow back to Colon. All is well, T.G. The rest of us are staying here having a vacation. We living like the Swiss Family Robinson [sic.].
Love,
Dan
Bob's Letter on Dan's Behalf — January 28th, 1962
Jan. 28, 1961 [sic.]*
*Bob wrote the wrong date, it was 1962
Dear Rosie,
Dan asked me to write to you and tell you a little of what has been happening. Right now, we are temporarily stranded. Dan and all the fellows are in fine health and spirits and we are all confident that we will be able to get going again.
I will be seeing Dan Tuesday and he will probably give me a letter to send to you. It looks like we will be in Panama a little longer than we figured so I will give you a mailing address which is:
DR.LEVIN, P.O. BOX 2942, CRISTOBAL, CANAL ZONE
I am sending you an article which explains our problem.
One thing, don't worry about Dan or the fellows they are all okay.
Very sincerely,
Bob Hinds
January 25th, 1962 - February 2nd, 1962*
*Fraser did not label the days in his journal, he explained multiple days at a time across multiple pages. The pages on which he wrote are labeled in [brackets].
[25] For the past few days we have worked on our house, incomplete as of yet, done some fishing with negative results and in general, made ourselves a little more comfortable.
Fraser or George adding to the shelter with palm leaves, jungle cove; Jan. 26, 1962.
Walt taking care of clothes, jungle cove; Jan. 26, 1962.
[26] We have eaten Jeff’s donation of fish, bananas, and yucca (similar to potato) for some of our meals and we have enough food ourselves to last quite a few days more, [27] but then there’s always fish and yucca, if we even can catch any fish. Jeff is going to make us some bread and so we’ll be in pretty good shape if he does. The coconuts provide a tasty juice as [28] well as the meat and so existence here isn’t too hard (if we have to for an extended time).
L to R: Fraser (bent over cutting open a coconut), Dan, and Colin, jungle cove; Jan. 25, 1962.
Distance shot of Cayuca Jeff on cayuca with lobster traps, jungle cove; Jan. 26, 1962.
Colin siting in a cayuca on the water, jungle cove; Jan. 26, 1962.
There are quite a few natives around that come from down the coast for coconuts and usually a calluco [sic.] or two is available for our use, as well as our 2-man liferaft [sic.] which has proven to be invaluable.
Close up shot of Fraser struggling to row a liferaft with a rather heavy looking Robin (dog) in it, jungle cove; Jan. 31, 1962.
Fraser struggling to row a liferaft with a rather heavy looking Robin (dog) in it, jungle cove; Jan. 31, 1962.
Visitors—native boy standing on beach, jungle cove; Jan. 26, 1962.
[29] Everything was going fine until George, while cleaning his gun, accidentally shot himself in the leg, the bullet remaining there. We did all we could short of taking the bullet out, and the next day a moterboat [sic.] took George up to Porvenir where we found out later he [30] was soon taken by helicopter back to Panama. Walt went along with him, as he also cut his thumb pretty badly with an axe and two would have been necessary anyway. Now there are four of us waiting for either our rescue or a message of some sort.
Natives taking George and Walt to San Blas Islands for air transport to Colon, Panama (L to R: Fraser, George (under tarp), Tom, and Walt), jungle cove; Jan. 30, 1962
We have already been [31] dropped some food (a couple of days ago), but no message, and so we are in sort of a mystery as to just what is going on. We have been passing the time reading, fishing + resting but every amusement seems to lose its appeal as time marches forward.
[1] We’ve been just dropped some more food by plane and this time a message was in it relating the incidents back in Panama, all very encouraging, and so our few more day-stay will be a little more endurable.
[2] One of the days past, I visited Jeff in his hut across the bay for lunch, which was very good, and listened to him talk of by-gone days of Nicaragua (Bluefields) and Panama that were filled with family problems that finally drove him to this get-away-from-it-all spot out here in the middle of nowhere. Soon, though, hes’s going to get a job somewhere [3] for he’s fed up with the lazy, indifferent attitude that the natives around here have, all take and no give. He’s pretty sharp for a person leading this kinda(?) life, and also very well-built for a man of any age(?), although he must be at least fifty. We’ve invited him over several times for dinner and we have a very nice reciprocal relationship going—one extremely unusual thing that kept reocurring was that of dreams. Without exception (except once) every night’s sleep had a dream and rather grotesque at that. I found that to be true with [illegible] almost everyone else except Dan’s [illegible].
[4] When one has as much time as we do here, he often reflects back, and such has also been the case here. But instead of thinking of home + college so much, I find myself thinking of Costa Rica. Never in my life will I probably have another so rewarding an experience [sic.] as that one, and I will never forget the kindness and generosity of the people of Alajuela, Costa Rica; Jose Joaquin Barrantes et al, “La Capitala Del Mando” as they say in Alajuela.
February 3rd, 1962
[5] I’m a little ahead of myself here, Feb. 3rd is the correct date, as I write aboard the M. Army LCM 8143, in their rescue mission long overdue. It took us quite a while to get the duck on this LCM, but after finding a steep beach we managed to accomplish this task, and head back to Colon, where who knows what the future will hold for us.
LCM backing up to load the Duck onto it, Bob(?) standing in the middle, jungle cove; Feb. 3, 1962.
February 11th, 1962
Since our arrival back in Panama, much has happened. We have been the guests of Dr. +Mrs. Levin who have opened their arms to us and for this we will always be indebted to them. We have finally managed to get “El Pato Valiente” aboard an ocean-going vessel for unfortunatley not a free price but almost 1/3 (?) fare of $550 including ourselves. The ship is the Bolevar(?) and it’s a medium-small freighter. We leave Sunday, Feb. 12, at around 7:00 or 8:00 P at Pier 8 in Cristobal, C. 2. (?) During our stay we have done much on the duck getting it into top condition mechanically and physically, getting all the rust off from our ocean crossing, and touching up these spots with paint. We’re very well organized for a change and everyone is looking forward to traveling on in South America which is now only 24 hours away via our ship which seems about 2 seconds in comparison with our would-be crossing.
Colombia here we come!!
La Bola
La Bola de Guachala, Linea Ecuatorial
An Assassination Attempt on Blas Roca
Blas Roca, Former General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Popular Socialist Party
July 12th-13th, 1962 — Fraser Shaw's Journal
"Our first stop was Lima at 2:30 AM, the landing was quite smooth for a "thing" this size and the take off sh[illegible] for the Rolls Royce engines of 17,500 lb. thrust each. Then around 6:30 AM the mountains abruptly descended into the beautiful plateau where Bogota is situated and we landed several minutes later at the modern (?) international airport. Before we boarded more than two hours later we were treated to a little excitement. It seems that our traveling companion Mr. Roca had an enemy or two at the airport who when several photographers boarded the plane with the resulting confusion tried to do away with our dear friend. All of us except Bob were outside and after the officers of the plane subdued the armed would-be assassin (knife and piece of metal) [sic.] he was taken off the plane handcuffed while he put up a little fuss (Colin got some photos of this). Then came a bomb scare of sorts and for about an hour we were shuffled on and off the plane while the Colombian authorities "investigated," a la Latin America of course. Finally, we boarded and took off (Bogotoa by the way was a lot warmer than when we were there) for Mexico City where after four hours of flying the coast of Central America, the big blue Pacific we arrived, landing with the snow capped peaks of Popocatépetl (?) in view. Here we weren't allowed to enter the terminal building and so we just stood outside the plane and soaked up the very pleasent rays of the suny Mexico City also being a lot warmer than it was when we were there before. While we waited Colin took some shots of ourselves + the plane with its captian + [illegible] got a fleeting shot of Blas Roca + his cronies sneaking (?) off the plane by the first class exit instead of the tourist class exit. There wasn't any excitement that time and a while later we took off for LA, landing there some three hours at the "quite" (?) modern and huge airport..."
Scan of Fraser's journal pages from July 12th-13th, 1962
Postcard from Dan to his parents concerning the crew's flight and the assassination attempt [undated]
Transcription of Dan's post card to his parents [undated]:
Dear Mom + Dad,
This is the plane we flew home in. Blas Roca, Cuba's number 3 man was on the plane, also. In Bogota some men tryed [sic.] to kill him, but failed. A while later the was [sic.] a call saying that there was a bomb aboard. None was found [sic.]. Our passage was "first-class" which normally costs $676 per person. We felt very lucky to get a ride to the States.
Dan
"The world hasn't changed ...the US still treats Latin America like its back yard...we need El Pato Valiente every week."