A. J. N. Calder

The culture and history of the Cayman Islands →Go uptown A JC special apocryphal exposition Cayman Islands history Important disclaimer: The author has never been to the Cayman Islands, and he’s hardly going to get an invitation now. There is, therefore, much fantastical speculation in this article and you should assume it is, at the very least, mostly false. Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

A dour Glaswegian botanist and songwriter, and the other founding partner of Maples and Calder, A. J. N. “Egg” Calder, also noted for his unfortunate gift for unwitting double entendres, Calder is nonetheless not nearly so interesting as either the ex-Chocolatier Maple brothers, nor their longtime cake-baking collaborator George Robert Maguire Ugland, who between them all but created the world of high finance that we all associate with the Cayman Islands these days.

The naturalist boarded the Die Fliegenden Dudelsäcke bound, so he thought, for the Galapagos. Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding the Dudelsäcke was in fact a whaler bound for Nantucket, a fact which “Egg” only uncovered as the ketch rounded the hook of Holland and pushed out westward into the Channel. Calder demanded that he be brought off immediately, but the skipper, equally fond of the double entendre, did not take him literally, assumed this to be the usual salty talk you expect from sailors at the start of a long journey, and carried on towards Greenland.