Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

him and hired two Bermudans to take his place. By the time he had paid off the cook and settled
the bills for fresh water supplies, mooring and pilotage, the Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition
was in danger of running out of money before it even arrived in the Caribbean.
Two days out from Bermuda, bound for Martinique, Ron discovered that all the fresh water which
had been taken on board had leaked away and his relationship with the Captain became even
more acrimonious. It took the Doris Hamlin seventeen days to reach Martinique, where she arrived
a month to the day after leaving Baltimore.
As soon as the anchor splashed into the blue water of the bay at Fort de France, once notorious for
yellow fever, several more 'gentleman rovers' abandoned ship and made their own way home,
disinterested in further roving with Ron. After they had gone ashore, Ron decided on a showdown
with the increasingly surly Captain Garfield. As a result of the fresh water débâcle, he said, he
would not be handing over any more money to the Captain. Garfield stomped off, muttering dark
threats.
News of this development instantly reached the ears of the six-man crew, whom Ron had earlier
affectionately described as 'old sea dogs'. Faced with a threat to their wages, they instantly turned
rabid and demanded Ron pay them in full, in advance. The leader of the rapidly disintegrating
expedition tried to placate them and promised to cable home for more money.
Meanwhile, Captain Garfield was sending his own cable home - to the owners of the Doris Hamlin,
warning them that the charter fees were at risk. Their response was immediate and unequivocal.
Garfield was ordered to sail the ship straight back to Baltimore. Ron pleaded for more time, swore
there was no shortage of money, threatened dire retribution in the courts, appealed to the Captain's
better nature - all to no avail. In desperation, he went ashore to seek advice from the US Consul in
Fort de France, but was told there was nothing that could be done.
The Doris Hamlin weighed anchor and set a course for home with not a single pirate haunt
explored. The 'gentlemen rovers' could do no more than stare moodily from the schooner's rails as
the islands they hoped to visit passed by on the horizon and dropped astern. 'When we left
Martinique, the whole aspect of the trip had changed,' Ron confessed. 'Morale was down to zero.'
Captain Garfield was obliged to stop at Ponce in Puerto Rico to take on supplies of food and water
and Ron went ashore once more to make a final attempt to salvage the expedition. At the Ponce
Harbor Board he was told he could take legal action against the owners of the Doris Hamlin but
that it might take months to resolve. Sadly, he accepted defeat and the remaining 'gentleman
rovers' were carried unwillingly back to Baltimore.
After his return to Washington, he wrote an account of the expedition's troubles for the Washington
Daily News, contriving to cast Captain Garfield in the worst possible light. To head off assumptions
that the whole trip had been a flop, he concluded in typically rhapsodic vein: 'Despite these
difficulties, we had a wonderful summer. The lot of us are tanned and healthy and we know what
few men know these speedy days - the thrill of plowing thru blue seas in a wooden ship with
nothing but white wings to drive us over the horizon.'
By the time Ron and Ray Heimburger got round to preparing a report for the Hatchet on 17
September 1932, the Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition had been miraculously transformed into
something of a triumph. Slow sailing, unforeseen expenses and lack of experience were blamed
for the cutback in the itinerary, but 'although the expedition was a financial failure, nevertheless the
adventures and scientific ends accomplished well compensated for the financial deficit.'