Digging for Cockleshells

“Digging for Cockleshells”, painting by Alton R. Lowe

I have always loved this painting. It hung for many years in my dining room on Green Turtle Cay until it was lost in Hurricane Dorian. In the painting, 4 children are shown digging cockleshells from the sands at Gillam Bay.

On the weekends, children from the village would often go to the area collecting the shells which could then be sold for export to the United States. This was many years before the island became a popular tourist destination. Shells were numerous then and children could raise a few pennies for weekend treats of homemade ice cream or candy from the village grocery.

Look closely and you can see how different the bay was fifty years ago. The sandbar was much smaller then. The many coconut palms on the right of the painting were removed to make a small runway for the American doctor’s plane. Today, the sandbar has increased enormously from what it was so long ago. However, given the change of sea currents, it is likely that all the sand will be washed out to sea once again to start the cycle anew.

Finally, there is a mystery and perhaps a tragedy with this painting. I sold it to a lovely young couple who, with their 2 children, were sailing around the world on their yacht. They loved the painting and left a deposit with the understanding they would return to claim it on their return from their voyage. I never heard from them again.

Were they lost at sea or perhaps ran into pirates off the African coast or in Indonesian waters? I was never able to trace their whereabouts and now they and the painting they liked so much are both lost in time. - Alton