Reginald Mitchell was a red-headed giant of a man – some said as much as 7 feet tall. And he loved nothing more than building ships. He was born into a well-known shipbuilding family on Bequia, an island in the Grenadines.

In 1939, he set out to make his mark by constructing the largest ship ever built in the Lesser Antilles – the Gloria Colita. The three-masted schooner was 165-feet long, including her bowsprit. He named the ship for his daughter, Gloria Colita Mitchell, who was born in 1932.