Tweet

Former Marine Affairs Director says Team Unity-built memorial has remained without formal commissioning under the Drew administration, as he calls for an August 1 national remembrance in Basseterre

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS — Former Director of Marine Affairs Mac Clean Hobson has issued a pointed call for the Federal Government of St. Kitts and Nevis to formally recognise and memorialise in St. Kitts the 233 victims of the MV Christena disaster, arguing that remembrance of one of the darkest days in the Federation’s history must rise above partisan politics.

At the centre of Hobson’s concern is the MV Christena Monument behind the Old Treasury Building on the Basseterre waterfront, close to the location from which the vessel departed on its final voyage on August 1, 1970.

The monument was constructed and completed under the former Team Unity Government led by then Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris.

An official SKNIS report published on July 31, 2022 stated that the monument had been completed and “will be commissioned at a later date.”

Four years later, Hobson says that formal commissioning has still not taken place under the administration of Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew, which assumed office following the August 2022 general election.

For Hobson, the continued absence of an official opening and a formal annual Federal Government memorial ceremony at the site is difficult to understand.

And he believes politics should have absolutely nothing to do with it.

The former Marine Affairs Director argues that the fact the monument was conceived and constructed by the previous Team Unity administration should not prevent the present government from embracing it as a national monument belonging to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Hobson and other critics of the situation have characterised the continued lack of a formal commissioning as appearing unnecessarily political. He argues that whatever political differences exist between the former Team Unity administration and the governing St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party administration, the memory of the Christena victims should never become entangled in partisan considerations.

“Memorializing the 233 victims from the 1st of August 1970 MV Christena disaster is beyond petty politics,” Hobson declared.

The MV Christena sank while travelling between St. Kitts and Nevis on August 1, 1970. Historical accounts record 233 people losing their lives and 90 surviving, making the disaster the greatest single catastrophe in the modern history of St. Kitts and Nevis.

The tragedy devastated families across the Federation.

Yet Hobson notes a stark difference in how the anniversary has been commemorated on the two islands.

For years, the Nevis Island Administration has hosted an annual memorial observance, allowing survivors, relatives, government officials and members of the public to remember those who perished.

On St. Kitts, however, Hobson says the monument constructed specifically to help preserve that same national memory has never been formally commissioned by the current Federal Government and has not become the centre of a comparable annual government-led observance.

He wants that changed.

CALL FOR AUGUST 1 MEMORIAL IN BASSETERRE

Hobson is proposing that on Saturday, August 1, 2026, the Federal Government host a formal commemorative service at the Basseterre monument to mark the 56th anniversary of the tragedy.

Such an observance, he said, would provide Kittitians and Nevisians residing on St. Kitts — particularly relatives and descendants of those who perished — with an opportunity to pay homage without having to travel to Nevis every year to participate in the established Charlestown ceremony.

The location carries particular historical significance.

It stands near the Basseterre waterfront from which the Christena departed on that fateful August morning.

For Hobson, that makes the site far more than another monument.

It is a place where national history can be taught.

Where families can remember.

And where another generation can learn the names and stories behind a tragedy that changed St. Kitts and Nevis forever.

“THIS MONUMENT DOES NOT BELONG TO A POLITICAL PARTY”

Hobson’s intervention also raises a wider question about the treatment of national projects when governments change.

The Christena monument may have been constructed under Team Unity, but Hobson maintains that its purpose transcends the administration responsible for building it.

It honours 233 lives.

Those men, women and children were not Team Unity victims, Labour victims, PAM victims, PLP victims or NRP victims.

They were sons and daughters of St. Kitts and Nevis.

They were mothers, fathers, grandparents, relatives, neighbours and friends.

And their memory belongs to the nation.

That, Hobson argues, is precisely why the Drew administration should formally commission the monument and establish an annual Basseterre remembrance.

The former Marine Affairs Director is therefore urging the Federal Government to move expeditiously to adopt a new approach to the site and ensure that both the tragedy and those who perished aboard the MV Christena are never forgotten.

After nearly 56 years, the Christena tragedy still touches families across St. Kitts and Nevis and throughout the diaspora.

And as another August 1 approaches, Hobson’s message to those in authority is unmistakable:

Honouring the 233 must be bigger than politics.

Should the Federal Government officially commission the Basseterre MV Christena Monument and establish an annual August 1 memorial ceremony in St. Kitts?

TIMES CARIBBEAN