Sir Charles Othniel “COW” Williams
“Larger than life” - This would probably be the only way to adequately address a biography on Sir Charles Othniel Williams, but fortunately the focus of this piece is a slightly less daunting task of chronicling his relationship with the sport of fishing. Nevertheless, fishing and sportfishing in Barbados will forever bear the unmistakable ‘brand’ of “COW” Williams as he was formerly known, due to his exploits at sea and the inextricable link to his success.
The 24th of November 1932 saw the birth of Charles Othniel Williams in rural Barbados, where farming was a way of life. It was not until he was 24 years old and married that he first ventured out fishing with his father-in-law Mr. Carson Walcott and Mr. Harold Nicholls to do some fishing from a 13 ft boat. The trip saw the two senior gentlemen and young COW heading out to Welches bar on the South Coast with two single strand wire lines trolling for kingfish. Sir Charles recalled catching a few fish on that trip and being firmly bitten by the fishing bug that continued to itch him to his final day whenever he looked out on the ocean. Most memorably about this trip, however, was the crash course he received from his father-in-law upon hooking his first fish. After the strike and the fish was firmly hooked, he proceeded to haul the wire line in by wrapping it around his hand. This drew the ire of Mr. Walcott who proceeded to question the young lad about what the “@#$%$” he thought was doing as he was kinking the wire, and then went on to coach him by saying that he should “haul de @#$%*# line like ya milking a @#$@% cow, boy”. The young “COW” understood clearly what the instructions were and what this unique language meant, and over the years since then he has been known to employ similar language skills to assist him in critical situations where orders need to be followed quickly. Following this beginning young “COW” bought his first boat in 1958 called the ‘Compass Rose’ which fished from Tent Bay in St. John. The money from this was saved and eventually bought his first piece of land in St. Joseph, and three more boats followed over the years and provided a welcome additional income.
Like many former commercial fishermen, the lure of the sea is a lot more than the money to be made, and this had proven true for Sir Charles who had keenly competed in fishing tournaments from the inception of the Barbados Game Fishing Club when the likes of the late Dennis Atkinson and Romper Marshall and others started the Club. In fact, Sir Charles put up the prize money for the first ever International Tournament in Barbados in 1990, and has continuously sponsored it to this day. It is with the late Dennis Atkinson that Sir Charles recalled his fondest memories of fishing, and stated that his three trips to Tobago with Dennis were some of the best times of his life. “Dennis’ cooking, story telling and mannerisms were a joy to behold”, according to Sir Charles, and so the familiar greeting from Sir Charles of “Hi Gunner” was a subtle tribute to those treasured moments spent with Dennis at sea and on land.
Over the years Sir Charles achieved many notable feats while fishing competitively throughout the Caribbean, and had competed in Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Antigua and Jamaica. In doing so he won International Tournaments in Barbados, Jamaica and Martinique, while placing well in several islands over the years. He also had the honour of representing a Caribbean Team in a Bluefin Tournament in Nova Scotia in 1970 along with Louis Devertille, Hugh Gransaull and John Streetly. The current Yellowfin Tuna record for Tobago of 149 lbs was set by Sir Charles in 1992, and he won the Jamaica tournament circuit championship in 1992 after fishing the Falmouth, Port Antonio and Montego Bay tournaments. He returned again to Jamaica in 1995 with a rented boat and won the Port Antonio tournament. It was during these tournaments that Sir Charles declared that he had inside information that Jamaican Marlin only like Pink lures, and proceeded to instruct that only Pink lures be deployed in the spread. When the first Marlin bite came he was ecstatic and proudly declared “yuh see, I told you all that they only bite Pink baits!”. Another memorable moment that he recalled was when he and the crew landed 105 Wahoo and Dolphin off the North of the island in one day to win a tournament.
The younger “COW”, and later Sir Charles, was remembered as an ultra-competitive force to be reckoned with in whatever activity he turned his considerable energy towards. A keen component in this was his ability to recognize the limits of his own ability (privately of course!), and successfully recruit individuals and teams around him to achieve his goal of winning. Sportfishing fell squarely within his lifetime aspirations, and as has been the hallmark of his personal and business life, he set out to craft a complex mix of personal and professional talent to achieve his goal. In this regard Sportfishing is unique in that winning is defined as much by one’s camaraderie aboard and on the dock as it is by hooking the biggest fish. Hence one can only speculate on the roles of each team member over the years, but cannot deny the success he had with his crew of John Inniss, Winston Leach, Harold Skeete, Francis Godson, Bill Tempro, Dennis Atkinson, Jeff Morris, Joe Brooker and Robin Dash. Over the years Sir Charles has made forays into the respective disciplines which make up his fishing unit, and these interludes have often served as stark reminders of the different areas of expertise that his crew brings and why he should leave them to their job! A classic example of this was the time when he forsook the usual services of his master knife sharpener / fish filleter Harold Skeete and his apprentice Robin Dash to clean his own dolphin for a party later that night at his home. Reports from friends indicated that while the flavour of the meal was good, the time spent picking bones out their mouths was tricky at best! Needless to say he did not bother with any such adventures again and accepted his crew’s services with renewed appreciation.
Sir Charles recalled that the day on the ocean that stands out the most for him was when he and his crew on Rocky Bluff happened upon a pod of humpback whales feeding on small fish and a school of large yellowfin tuna were jumping almost into the whales’ mouths to pluck the small fish that fell out. This spectacle involved several whales blowing bubbles under the baitfish which drove then to the surface, and then 5 or 6 whales would rise up from the deep together with their mouths open and devour huge mouthfuls of bait. The whole food chain was represented as the birds above plucked scraps from the water while the whales devoured the baitfish from below and the tunas charged in to share in the spoils while man hooked some of the tunas. A shark even got in on the action and ate part of one of the tunas that had been hooked, and trimmed the weight down to 139lbs. Two others were caught at 156lbs and 117lbs respectively, but not before several lines were popped in vain efforts to land one of the big fish.
Sir Charles confided once that whereas sportfishing at one point for him was very competitive and involved a heavy emphasis on trying to win tournaments, in his latter years he focused more on the camaraderie that exists and fun times spent at sea. He had an insatiable desire to beat Frank Armstrong whenever he got the chance, and said that this ranked amongst his lifetime enjoyments along with beating Kent Cole in Polo. He confessed however that he also derived equal pleasure listening to Joe Brooker and Frank Armstrong try to outdo one another on the radio in seeing who can tell the biggest lies. He recalled with pride the day he beat Frank Armstrong in a tournament so bad he forgot to put fuel in his boat, and then took a $1 bill to the prize-giving ceremony to help him pay to fill the tank. These moments however did little to dull his memory of the day that he recalled when he saw the boat named ‘Blue Marlin’ circling in the distance and hailed them on the radio to inquire what was happening by them. As the oft repeated story goes, he was told that they were only hooking a few bonito so he carried on off in the distance. When Sir Charles later found out that in fact the boat was in a massive school of dolphin and the captain and one crewman had proceeded to hook 150 dolphin, he was livid! Up to the day he passed away Sir Charles never forgot the incident and told the story wherever he went. On his last trip to fish in the Grenada Tournament in 2019 he was able to interrogate the crewman who finally put his mind at rest over the events of that day.
Sir Charles said that Sportfishing was the #1 provider of relaxation, and is the ultimate de-stressor of the human body. Those who fished with him for years, however, were not as confident in this statement given his manic excitement at times when fish were around the boat. In fact, it is this ultra competitive spirit that drove his excitement to the point where he collected the nickname the “Boscobelle Stick Licker” back in the 1980’s. The name first appeared after an incident in Grenada when a youthful Harold Skeete fought a big Yellowfin Tuna for over 2 hours and when it finally got near the boat and ever powerful leader man Winston Leach started bringing it close. COW (as he was called back then), had worked himself into a frenzy and charged forward with a gaff and swung it from overhead downwards like a hoe stick at the Tuna. What happened next is unclear, but eyewitnesses all agree that the gaff hit the tired Tuna somewhere and awoke it the hook ripped out and away it swam. A similar episode ensued again in the 90’s with Robin Dash on the rod this time for 2 hrs but a Blue Marlin this time. The result was the same as the now infamous Boscobelle Stick Licker drove the gaff downwards from on high and awoke the tired marlin with a lash to its rear that resulted in a burst line and fish swimming away. Those who are familiar with the legendary “COW” would be able to envisage the cussing that followed, but in spite of this he always managed to retain a sense of perspective and was quick to remind crew who turned their disappointment towards the fish and say “don’t curse the fish boy, the fish is a good fish”.
In an earlier interview, Sir Charles said he would like to see Barbados developed as a sportfishing tourist destination, and programs put in place to educate the local fishermen about the tremendous rewards that they could reap by concentrating on preserving fish stocks and “hooking tourists” as an economic solution to better utilizing our marine resources. He sees the future for our talented fishermen in using the legendary Bajan ingenuity and intelligence to maximize the earnings potential from the sea through tourism, as in his lifetime he has seen a big reduction in the quantity of fish around and wonders how long will it last at the present rate. This view was reinforced when he went to 2018 Offshore World Championships in Quepos Costa Rica where at 86 years old he was the oldest competitor by far, and got to experience the potential of this billion dollar worldwide industry which in America alone generated some $129 billion in economic output and employed some 826,000 persons in 2021.
Sadly Sir Charles left us in 2021 for the great beyond, and we are eternally grateful for all he has done for sportfishing here and in the wider Caribbean. His spirit is with us whenever we go out fishing, and we give thanks for all he has done. R.I.P.
