|
Marine geologists say that 100 million years ago, this hook-shaped chain of little islands was part of the lip of a huge volcano, now long dormant. The submarine mount on which we’re perched rises 15,000 feet from the bottom of the sea. That part of Bermuda that is above the surface of the sea is surrounded by a wide platform of underwater coral reefs that protect us from stormy weather. This shallow platform gives our inshore seas colours that you won’t soon forget – stunning blues and greens that lap at the pink sand of our beaches.
But in years gone by, Bermuda waters were well known for more than their beauty to the earliest navigators who had business in the New World.. The reefs were deadly to ships that ventured too close, and the wreckage of scores of ships dot our outer reefs as a result. Early seamen called Bermuda "Isle of Devils" for that reason. We take our name from a Spaniard, Juan de Bermudez, who paid a call in 1503. But the island remained uninhabited, despite visits by Spanish and English ships, until more than a century later.
Blessed with a temperate climate and magnificent pink sand beaches it sits like a tiny atoll in the mid-Atlantic.
It wasn’t until a hurricane blew a British ship called the Sea Venture onto the reefs here in 1609 that a settlement was begun. The Sea Venture, which was commanded by Admiral Sir George Somers, was on her way to the New World settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, with settlers and supplies. Although most of the settlers continued on their way in a vessel they built while they were stranded on Bermuda, there have been people living here since that visit, and Bermuda’s character as a British colony was established.
In the early days of the settlement here, Bermudians were traders, and built swift ships of native Bermuda cedar to carry them and their goods south to the West Indies and west to the United States. They were a cosmopolitan, practical people, who earned their way in the world with their wits. Their shipbuilding skills were well known – Bermuda sloops were known as the fastest things on the sea. At first, these vessels were gaff-rigged, but Bermudians developed the Bermuda rig, which is now the basis for the rigging of nearly all-sailing yachts. The cosmopolitan nature of those early inhabitants is carried on by present-day Bermudians, some 67,000 souls who are among the world’s most-traveled people, and who trace their heritage back to Britain, to Africa, to the Azores, North America and the West Indies.
|
