Great Harbour Cay

Pirates, Wreckers, and Smugglers

The Bahamas' history is filled with such gnarly characters.  In the 70's and 80's there was a lot of marijuana smuggling.  The aircraft of choice for moving the baleful product was the remarkable DC-3 or its military transport twin the C-47.

We have now snorkeled two downed DC-3s.  The first at Great Harbour Cay.  The second at Norman's Cay.  The latter remains in better condition.  We were able to snorkel through the remains of its fuselage.  Here is Great Harbour Cay's DC-3.  She went down in 1983 with a load of marijuana.

 

The DC-3 prototype first flew on December 17, 1935,  just the 32nd anniversary of the Wright brothers' Kitty Hawk flight. It went into operation with American Airlines in 1936.  It was the first financially successful passenger airplane.  Production of the commercial DC-3 ended in 1942 at 607 aircraft with the US's entry into WWII.  Production continued as the military C-47 and other variants.  Over 10,000 were produced during the war.  Licensed copies of the DC-3 were built in the USSR and Japan.  Eventually, over 16,000 were built.  The design was no longer commercially successful after the war.  But, thousands continued to work for smaller airlines around the world, and for drug lords.  In 2017, it was estimated that more than 300 were still in commercial operation.

We returned to Hiatus after snorkeling the wreck at Norman's Cay.  The Cay is building a new marina and has extended its runway.  We have seen single and dual propped planes and even small jets come and go.  As we settled onboard, remarkably, a DC-3 lazily dropped to the runway.  It had commercial markings I couldn't read.  After an hour or so, it lifted off and away, seemingly loafing off, where the other aircraft had sped away.