GRENADA - Caribbean Compass

Right: Artist, musician and circumnavigator
David Wegman in his studio
— Continued from previous page
…had erupted from the dirt. Wegman claims
that it actually happens a lot in the Caribbean
on account of the weather.
“Now up until this point, I had been using mostly
cow bones [for my art],” said Wegman. “It was
then that I said to myself, why not use Kenny’s
bones?” Without consent, Wegman extracted the
bones and took them back to his studio.
From that day on Wegman used molds of
Kenny’s bones to make traditional Jolly Rogers
for his artwork. Currently he is up to number
eight. The bones have remained under Wegman’s
bed for the last 12 years. When asked what he
thought Kenny would think of his partially excavated
body lying under his bed, Wegman said,
“He would have loved it!”
In fact, Wegman claims that approximately two
years later Kenny sent him yet another message.
It happened shortly after the 50th anniversary of
Le Select, which was close to the tenth anniversary
of Kenny’s death. Wegman learned that fellow
sailor Roy — no last name was given — had
fallen off his boat and was lost at sea.
“We didn’t really know each other’s last
names, we just kind of went by first names,”
Wegman’s sculpture ‘A Pirate Wreck’ features molds of his
old friend Kenny’s skull — and cross bones
Wegman said.
Roy had been one of the friends responsible for burying
Kenny at sea in Antigua. Wegman felt bad about Roy not having
a proper burial, so he decided to dedicate Kenny’s grave
to all the sailors who lost their lives at sea. He called it the
Tomb of the Well Known Sailors, and decided to have a little
dedication ceremony the next day.
It was the next day when Kenny sent his final message.
Wegman and friends made a cross bearing the title of the
tomb. They were sitting around the grave playing music and
singing in a kind of Caribbean island-style devotional.
“A monarch butterfly flew down and landed on the cross.
That’s when another guest present at the ceremony whispered
to me that a butterfly landing on something is a
Buddhist sign meaning message received,” said Wegman. “It
was Kenny’s final message to me.”
Since then the grave has become an infamous site. Ashes
have been sprinkled upon it; names have been written on the
cross. The burial site has become an eclectic mix of remains
that mark a universal grave responsible for representing
those sailors who were both loved and lost.
JULY 2010 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 25