Bermuda Hundred

“ The unfamiliar is often unnecessarily alarming.
I remember a small ten-year-old white Bermudian boy who accompanied his father to England for King George's coronation. The boy had never before left his cedar-clad, sunlit native archipelago, and after the ship had passed the Needles, and was making her way up the Solent, he looked with immense interest at this strange land which had suddenly appeared after three thousand miles of water. All houses in Bermuda are whitewashed, and their owners are obliged by law to whitewash their coral roofs as well. ”

“ It must indeed be owned, that some will be obliged to go a long way to any one place, which we suppose resorted to, from all parts of our plantations; but if we were to look out a spot the nearest approaching to an equal distance from all the rest, I believe it Would be found to be Bermuda. ”

“ Bermuda is to me a perpetual economic puzzle, for it seems to defy triumphantly all the rules which govern other places. Here is a group of islands whose total superficies is only 12,500 acres, of which little more than one-tenth is capable of cultivation. There is no fresh water whatever, the inhabitants being entirely dependent on the rainfall for their supply; and yet some 22,000 people, white and coloured, live there in great prosperity, and there is no poverty whatever. I almost hesitate before adding that there are no taxes in Bermuda beyond a 10 per cent. ”

“ A signal was immediately hoisted for a pilot, who lost no time in coming off to us; and before dark we were at anchor opposite to the tanks in Bermuda.
The appearance of Bermuda is altogether as different from that of St. Michael’s as one thing can be from another. Whilst the last, with its lofty mountains and bold shores, can be seen at the distance of many leagues, a ship must be within a few miles of the first before the slightest symptom of land is discernible. ”

“ General Hamilton, Department of State, Washington, DC 20520-5300
Flag description: red, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Bermudian coat of arms (white and blue shield with a red lion holding a scrolled shield showing the sinking of the ship Sea Venture off Bermuda in 1609) centered on the outer half of the flag
Economy
Economy—overview: Bermuda enjoys one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, having successfully exploited its location by providing financial services for international firms and luxury tourist facilities for 360,000 visitors annually. ”

“ Bright birds flitted, dusky maids danced and beckoned, rivers ran over golden sand, and toward the South Sea was the Fount of Youth, whose waters made the aged young again. Bermuda Islands were an enchanted den full of furies and devils which all men did shun as hell and perdition. And the feet of all who had made history had trod that broad path to the owner’s heart and home. ”

“ I have never seen a sea of deeper sapphire-blue, and this is reflected not from above, but from below, and is due to the bed of white coral sand beneath the water. On the dullest day the water keeps its deep-blue tint. When the oleanders are in bloom, the milk-white houses, peeping out from this sheet of rose-pink, with the deep indigo of the sea, and the sombre green of the cedars, make one of the most enchanting pictures that it is possible to imagine.
Bermuda has distinctly an island climate, which is perhaps fortunate, as the inhabitants are entirely dependent on rain-water. ”

“ On this account it is that mariners find greater difficulty in making Bermuda than perhaps any other island or continent in the known world; the most experienced seaman frequently sailing past it, and not a few suffering shipwreck every year upon its numerous shoals and rocks. For not only is the land itself low, and thus apt to be run against by vessels which may have approached in stormy weather too near to put about, but for many miles round, reefs of sunken rocks stretch out into the sea in every direction ”

“ Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English colonists headed for Virginia. Tourism to the island to escape North American winters first developed in Victorian times. Bermuda has developed into a highly successful offshore financial center. A referendum on independence was soundly defeated in 1995. ”

“ The colony was in such extremity in May, 1610, that it would have been extinct in ten days but for the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers and Captain Newport from the Bermudas. These gallant gentlemen, with one hundred and fifty souls, had been wrecked on the Bermudas in the Sea Venture in the preceding July. The terrors of the hurricane which dispersed the fleet, and this shipwreck, were much dwelt upon by the writers of the time, and the Bermudas became a sort of enchanted islands, or realms of the imagination. ”

“ The major sniffed. He was surprised, it is true, and rather pleased, because Bermuda is so much nearer New York than is California; but it was his custom to object.
“Patsy can’t go,” he declared, as if that settled the question for good and all. “The sea voyage would kill her. I’m told by truthful persons that the voyage to Bermuda is the most terrible experience known to mortals. Those who don’t die on the way over positively refuse ever to come back again, and so remain forever exiled from their homes and families—until they have the good luck to die from continually eating onions.” ”

“ There is a statement, too, in the deposition of Farrally, one of the firemen of the Bermuda, that the Herald was at Bermuda with several captains, while the steamship was there, and was understood to be intended to run the blockade; and that it was 'the talk that the Herald was connected with our ship.' It appears, also, from a bill of exchange drawn by Mitchell, master of the Herald, on Fraser, Trenholm & Co., that Westendorff supplied funds for that steamer at Bermuda. ”

“ Bermuda is the right country for a jaded man to “loaf” in. There are no harassments; the deep peace and quiet of the country sink into one’s body and bones and give his conscience a rest, and chloroform the legion of invisible small devils that are always trying to whitewash his hair. A good many Americans go there about the first of March and remain until the early spring weeks have finished their villainies at home. ”

“ For some reason not stated, and inferable only, she ran into Savannah instead-a port also in rebellion and under blockade-running out again and back to Liverpool in the autumn of that year. Her master was now changed. Captain Tessier was transferred to the Bahama, which afterwards became notorious in the United States as having carried armament to the rebel corsair Alabama, sunk off the coast of Normandy by the United States ship of war Kearsarge. A certain Westendorff was put on the Bermuda. ”

“ So the Reverend and I had at last arrived at Hamilton, the principal town in the Bermuda Islands.
We took a long afternoon walk, and soon found out that that exceedingly white town was built of blocks of white coral. Bermuda is a coral island, with a six-inch crust of soil on top of it, and every man has a quarry on his own premises. Everywhere you go you see square recesses cut into the hillsides, with perpendicular walls unmarred by crack or crevice, and perhaps you fancy that a house grew out of the ground there, and has been removed in a single piece from the mold. ”

“ On the 23d January, 1862, the branch house at Liverpool wrote to the Charleston house, giving advice of the immediate despatch of the ship Ella to Bermuda with a cargo consigned to John Fraser & Co., or their authorized agent, with authority to dispose of it in any market they should select. This letter suggested that if the Charleston house should not think best to send an agent to Bermuda, any communication for the master of the Ella should be sent, under cover, to Butterfield, and added, that the master was instructed to await orders at Bermuda. ”

“ The islands of Bermuda rise some 15,000 feet from the floor of the ocean, and project above the water to heights varying from 50 to 260 feet above sea level. Like jewels nestling upon the bosom of a sub-tropical ocean these islands, from one half to three miles wide, are strung along so close that one almost can hop over from one to the other. ”

“ In the mean time, the officers and the young gentlemen of the flag-ship at Bermuda, in the beginning of 1803, I suppose, to keep their hands in for the war which they saw brewing, and hourly prayed for, were constantly blazing away amongst the cedar groves and orange plantations of those fairy islands, which appeared more and more beautiful after every such excursion. ”

“ Blow o'er Bermuda's isle;
Where every man is pleasing
And only Prospect vile."
Few people seem to realise that Bermuda is a first-class fortress, a dockyard, and an important naval coaling-station. A glance at the map will show its strategic importance. Nature has made it almost inaccessible with barrier-reefs, and there is but one narrow and difficult entrance off St. George's. This entrance is jealously guarded by a heavy battery of 12 in. and 6 in. guns, and the ten-mile long ship-channel inside the reefs from St. ”

“ Every voyage must have a terminus a quo and a terminus ad quem; the latter of which, under the evidence, was a port of discharge in the United Kingdom; and no part of the evidence shows that the Bermuda herself was to proceed as a part of her voyage to any blockaded port. It was no breach of the blockade of any such port to intend to land her cargo, either at Bermuda or Nassau, even though some other vessel was afterwards to endeavor to carry on the cargo to Charleston, provided the Bermuda herself was to return to England. ”

“ Bermuda, as all the world knows, is a British colony at which we maintain a convict establishment. Most of our outlying convict establishments have been sent back upon our hands from our colonies, but here one is still maintained. There is also in the islands a strong military fortress, though not a fortress looking magnificent to the eyes of civilians, as do Malta and Gibraltar. There are also here some six thousand white people and some six thousand black people, eating, drinking, sleeping, and dying. ”

“ But as there are spots in the sun, and the brightest lights throw the deepest shadows everywhere; so on the Bermuda coasts there are, in its rare storms, dangers of no small kind among its numerous reefs and rocks. The North Rock, in particular, is the monument which marks the grave of many a poor sailor in by-gone days. At the present time, however, tug-boats, and the use of steam generally, have reduced the perils of navigation among the hundreds of islands which constitute the Bermuda group to a minimum. ”

“ We will not attack you for the possession of the Bermudas, for we deem a just principle even more important than such an accession; but when you ask us to cede, we hold out our hands to take an equivalent in return. The policy of this nation is not to be influenced by saw-logs, but by these manifest, important, and ulterior interests. If you wish Maine, give us Bermuda in exchange, or go with your wishes ungratified." Happily, among us, events are stronger than men ”

“ BERMUDA RISE: In the center of the North America Basin and surrounding the island of Bermuda is an oval asymmetrical arch about 300 by 600 miles with the long axis oriented northeast. The topography of the Bermuda Rise is relatively gentle as compared to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge but considerably more rugged than the continental rise (Pl. 27) . The rise is usually distinctly marked on the west by a 10- to 100-fathom decrease in depth and a change from the monotonously smooth abyssal plain on the west to gently rolling hills, 20-50 fathoms high and 2-10 miles wide (Pl. 16) . ”

“ All about the island one sees great white scars on the hill-slopes. These are dished spaces where the soil has been scraped off and the coral exposed and glazed with hard whitewash. Some of these are a quarter-acre in size. They catch and carry the rainfall to reservoirs; for the wells are few and poor, and there are no natural springs and no brooks.
They say that the Bermuda climate is mild and equable, with never any snow or ice, and that one may be very comfortable in spring clothing the year round, there. ”

“ Bermuda, “the blest little island,” as the fascinating Tommy Moore styles her, although now well supplied with all the necessaries of life, especially since the improvements in husbandry, introduced by its late excellent governor, Colonel R——d (now Sir William) , was formerly but little better provided with fresh meat than a man-of-war victualled for a six months’ cruise. ”

“ And, as the commerce of Bermuda renders it a very fit place, wherein to erect a seminary, so likewise doth its situation, it being placed between our plantations on the continent, and those in the isles, so as equally to respect both. To which may be added, that it lies in the way of vessels passing from America to Great Britain; all which makes it plain, that the youth, to be educated in a seminary placed in the Summer Islands, would have frequent opportunities of going thither and corresponding with their friends. ”

“ After saying that a detective was watching them, and that great jealousy existed on account of the cargo, it declares: 'Fortunately they cannot stop us. We are on a lawful voyage. People won't believe it. They are bound to think we are for running the blockade.' And this foregone conclusion about the Bermuda, which it seems was conveyed here by detectives when she was on the stocks, has been one of the worst impediments to justice in our case. The government had ordered the Bermuda to be captured wherever found. ”