Bermuda Travel Guide

Let me tell you about our beautiful island home Bermuda.

History of Bermuda

Bermuda takes its name from Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez, who sighted the islands around 1503. Spain did not claim the islands, but Bermuda soon became a navigational mark for ships crossing the Atlantic. Bermuda is surrounded by vicious reefs and many nautical wrecks caused the Spanish to swim ashore on many occasions. Bermuda and the surrounding sea bed is still home to lost booty and people find treasure more often than not.

Admiral Sir George Somers was en route from England in 1609 with supplies when his ship, Sea Venture, wrecked off Bermuda. Finding Bermuda a nice place to be stranded, the admiral built replacement ships of Bermuda cedar, sailed off and left a couple of men on Bermuda to establish a British claim to Bermuda. The experience of these British castaways is thought to have inspired Shakespeare to write The Tempest. Somers returned to Bermuda later that year but died after arrival. The British renamed Bermuda the Somers Islands in honor of the admiral, but the name failed to stick and Bermuda is still the name.

The Virginia Company took an interest in Bermuda after hearing of their mild climate and the fact Bermuda was at peace. Three years after Somers' adventure, the company organized 60 settlers to establish a permanent colony on Bermuda. Bermuda were not as abundant as was first thought. The topsoil was shallow and limited agriculture and the lack of water prevented crops like sugar cane from being grown. The settlers soon became dependant on food imports from the American colonies, which they paid for by supplying sea salt secured from other islands.

For many years the Virginia Company, and then the Bermuda Company, ran the islands like a kingdom. The settlers did not like this so they sued to have the company's charter rescinded, and in 1684 Bermuda became a British crown colony. Slaves were first introduced in 1616, most of them brought from Africa though some were American Indians. Slaves lived in sad conditions but were generally employed as domestic servants or trades people rather than agricultural laborers. The skills they learnt were to stand them in good stead when slavery was abolished in 1834. At the time of emancipation 5000 of the 9000 people residing in Bermuda were registered on the census as black or 'coloured.'

Despite Bermuda's reliance on trade with the American colonies, political bonds with Britain proved stronger during the American War of Independence when Bermuda remained loyal to the crown. During the War of 1812, the British Navy used Bermuda as a base from which to ransack Washington, DC. The Americans responded by confiscating the unprotected cargo of Bermuda's merchant fleet, devastating the local economy. The US Civil War proved more lucrative for the island. When the north blockaded southern ports, cotton traders employed small, fast vessels to outrun northern naval gunboats. These vessels were not capable of an Atlantic crossing, and Bermuda blossomed as a trans-shipment center on the blockade runners' route to England. Good at picking losers, the island's shortlived prosperity collapsed with the defeat of the South.

Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, is credited with putting Bermuda on the tourist map after paying an extended visit to the islands in 1883. The princess was the wife of the Governor General of Canada and was keen to escape the long Canadian winter. By the turn of the century, Bermuda was well on the way to becoming a fashionable winter destination for 'snow birds,' who flocked aboard steamers crossing regularly from New York to Hamilton.

Bermuda's strategic location in the Atlantic secured it a role in Allied military and intelligence operations in WWII. However, its proximity to the US mainland made it inevitable that the US take primary responsibility for developing bases on the island. Much to the locals' consternation, the British subsequently signed a 99-year lease handing over substantial portions of Bermuda's territory to the US military. The US constructed an air base on St David's Island, where the international airport is now located.

In the wake of WWII, women were given the right to vote and, after boycotts, some of the franchise qualifications restricting the power of black voters were removed. In 1963 the Progressive Labour Party was introduced, in part to represent the interests of nonwhite Bermudians in the face of a government almost totally made up of white landowners. The rest of the parliamentarians united to form the United Bermuda Party. The two parties worked together to produce the 1968 constitution which provided for full internal self government, while leaving security, defense and diplomatic affairs to the crown.

Although Bermuda had long prided itself on the relative harmony of its race relations, riots and race antagonism in the 1970s resulted in the removal of all de facto discrimination and the beginning of talks on independence from Britain. In the decades that followed, the independence movement became the dominant political issue, but a referendum in 1995 failed by a two-thirds majority as Bermudians became apprehensive about the political and economic cost of independence. Two weeks later they did, at least, regain control of 10% of the island's land mass when post-Cold War military cutbacks resulted in the closure of the US base on the island. In 1998 the PLP's Jennifer Smith was selected as premier, replacing the UBP's Pamela Gordon, who was Bermuda's first female premier and the youngest person ever to hold the office.

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Bermuda is a clean, prosperous and inviting place where people of all ages can be seen as a door way back to simpler times.

Wish you were here!