The Coaling Wharf, Georgetown, Grenada

Related extract from ‘W.S.W. A voyage in that direction to the West Indies’, by Robert Elwes (published 1866) (p94): "Coaling was going on with vigour, I might almost say with fury. Rum had had its effect, and the women were working away, shouting, swearing, singing, screaming; The loaded ones toiled up the plank with the coals on their heads, whilst the others came down swinging their empty baskets in their hands. Coal fires were burning on the wharf and on the planks in iron frames and by the red lurid light the women appeared to the eye and ear like so many demons. [The ship Mr and Mrs Elwes were on was the Wye, which was coaling at Georgetown]."