Haitian schooners

[ameehan]

Greetings all,
Some 30 odd years ago I was chief officer in a heavy lift vessel discharging machinery at a cement plant in Haiti. I cannot remember the name of the place but it was about 2 hours by road from Port au Prince. On the other side of the jetty where we tied up was a fleet of about a dozen schooners of c.60/70 foot. These were used to transport cement around the island. They had no power whatsoever, cooked on an open fire on a cement slab aft and their sails were a patchwork of sugar sacks. Their ship handling and manoeuvring ability was extraordinary. I have often wondered what happened to the fleet, anybody out there who knows anything of this?
Regards,
APWM