Regretful fisherman wishes he kept his Port Royal treasures

Former fisherman, 74-year old Emmanuel Blake, is now regretting handing over a treasure trove of lost artefacts that he and other divers retrieved from the sea in Port Royal.

The Rastafarian, who has fallen on hard times, and also believes that he was the victim of witchcraft, feels that things would have been different if he had kept a portion for himself.

"It had coins, chalk pipes and onion bottle and other things. It come like I was stupid in that time, because I should have taken some of the coins for myself. I could change it out after a while and better myself," Blake said.

During the late 1960s to early 1970s, he joined an expedition to retrieve items buried at the bottom of the sea after the great earthquake of 1907, which caused a large chunk of Port Royal to sink. Many pieces of the artefacts were put on display at the local museums.

The challenges Blake and the team faced included lack of proper equipment, which was the cause of his eardrums bursting from the pressure under the sea. He said that he often suffered bleeding eardrums, but he loved what he was doing.

When THE WEEKEND STAR visited the senior citizen at his Port Royal residence, he was alone in his one-room dwelling. His face lit up on realising that he had guests, and he slid from his bed into an old wheelchair and pushed himself outside.

"Mi have mi youth dem, and some will look after mi. I get eight of them, but I see seven of them. Sometimes I can find a money and sometimes I don't. I might have a good friend and I might come in dem mind and dem do a ting for me. Only the foot a give mi problem. Mi would want a wheelchair, because this one [is] old," he said, adding that he has not gone fishing in many years.

Blake explained that he lived a normal life until an incident in 2010.

"A friend gave mi a pair of shoes. It look new and I put it on, and everything was alright. I walk go out on the beach, and move around a smoke a one spliff I went back in and take off the shoes, and I feel like something a move up and down inna mi foot. Dem say any time yuh do wickedness, sin will go up in yuh foot. But mi say, 'Jah Jah, mi nuh do nuh wickedness fi sin go up inna my foot,'" he said.

Confident that he was the victim of witchcraft, he went to a few obeah workers.

"Mi belly start hurt mi ... and I have to just let it go round one corner, and when I look pon it, it blacker than charcoal. I wah know what kinda summen a come outta mi. I really go out and seek what a gwan, but the people dem who I go to don't know what dem doing. Dem deh people is tief, one of dem rob mi $7,000, and one about $2,000. The next one dead now. Mi go to a next one who buss up a whole heap a bottle and ting, but dat never work," Blake said.

Blake's greatest wish is to "live comfortable".

"I want a nice apartment. Where I live is family land, but I wouldn't mind if I get this place fix. I have water, but I don't have any light for years now. I have a phone, but I don't have any chip in it. Sometimes I will have a grand ($1,000) and I could buy the chip, but I have to have food," Blake said.

He expressed his gratitude when a member of the news team offered him some money to purchase food.

"Mi really give thanks, and mi know Jah would send an angel. I have half-dozen ackee, and mi a say mi a guh look if mi can hussle a tin mackerel to go with it," Blake said with a wide grin.