Taking the Kids: Making Scuba Diving a Family Sport

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Media Services on Dec 1, 2014

It was simply fate that The Rhone was here at all that fall day, Oct. 29, 1867 to be precise, explained our dive master Melisande Rowe. The state-of-the-art ship was actually supposed to go to the much busier port of St. Thomas, but because of an outbreak of Yellow Fever there, the passengers and cargo came to Tortola to take on coal and provisions.

When the hurricane blew in, Captain Robert Wooley was the first casualty -- washed overboard as he tried to assess the weather. The crew tried frantically to get the 300-pound anchor up and get the ship out to sea, but the anchor and chains were stuck. It was all over in a matter of seconds. The ship exploded. To this day, no one knows exactly why; the red-hot boiler furnaces blew the ship in half.

Some 200 perished on The Rhone and 75 other vessels were either lost or seriously damaged in the hurricane. Amazingly, there were some survivors -- one washing up on the island of St. John 17 miles away. Because the people on Salt Island (so named because they harvested salt) worked so hard to save the survivors and bury the dead, Queen Victoria gave them the island -- a wonderful gift for the poor islanders.

We saw the gear box house and rudder, crow's nest and mast, the hatch -- all covered with coral and sponges. The Rhone is now a national park but, according to Rowe, that hasn't stopped people from trying to steal the lucky porthole.

I'm glad they weren't successful. I rubbed the porthole -- number 26 -- three times as instructed and we had great luck the rest of the trip. Everyone was happy (for the most part). Meltdowns were few. Memories were made.

I need a lucky porthole every time I take the kids.

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For more on Eileen's adventure in the BVI, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.