Open Writing

Three rousing cheers, hooray, yippee and wacky-doo! In a recent Eric Shackle Writes column I described weather stones in New Zealand, Iceland, Germany, Bermuda, Canada and Ireland, and wondered where those comical tourist attractions originated.

Now I've found a stone that may well be the daddy of them all - it's said to be more than 500,000 years old!

Discovered in the British Virgin Islands, it's now proudly displayed at St. Michaels Marina, a fishing and boating resort on Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, U.S.A., "only a leisurely drive from Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond and New York."

It's a smooth grey stone seemingly the size of a football, hanging from a notice-board that proclaims:

Captain Frank's WEATHER STONE
This stone, thought to be over 500,000 years old, churned and polished by the waves
of the Atlantic Ocean and transported from the British Virgin Islands, is an official and
highly accurate weather forecaster.

AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE DREW WILLIAM LANDIS,
HONORARY MAYOR OF TORTOLLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS.

Be sure to read Captain Frank's hilarious account of the stone's discovery at Tortola (not Tortolla), in the British Virgin Islands, by visiting his website (in the list below).

Last month, we mentioned the weather stone notice in tropical Bermuda, that says "If it's white on top, believe it or not, it's snowing." Corey Butterfield, who lives in Bermuda, kindly sent us a photo of the stone, which he saw displayed at Fort Scaur historical park.

"This sign had me cracking up," he said. "It typifies the Bermudan spirit. I'm surprised that tourism officials had enough of a sense of humour to produce it.

"In addition to observing the weather stone, Bermudians of old used to hang shark oil outside (mainly on their clothes lines) in glass bottles, to tell the weather. If it was cloudy it would be stormy; clear oil meant a fine day, etc."

Fort Scaur was built by British colonial authorities in the late 1860s and early 70s to defend the island's dockyard from attack. American forces were stationed there in WWII.

Our global search for the original weather stone began in New Zealand, and ends there too. We've discovered a second New Zealand weather stone hanging outside a store in Russell, Bay of Islands. It's called an Early Polynesian Weather Stone.

Russell, like Captain Frank's St. Michaels and Corey's Bermuda, is a great fishing and boating centre. Anglers and boaties always want accurate weather forecasts. That must be why they put so much faith in those weather stones.

Potential weather stones in Tortola

An evening drive in Tortola can quickly turn into an adventure. Such was the case last Friday when a friend was driving two reporters to a gathering at a co-worker's home. With the sun setting and little traffic on the road it was a serene drive, until a loud bang shattered the tranquillity.