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All the news and information on Bermuda’s historic Dockyard—and beyond
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INSIDE
Shipwreck Island: 500 Years of History
Sunken clues to Bermuda’s past
The Hall of History mural in Commissioner’s House is not to be missed
By Elena Strong, Curator of National Museum of Bermuda
See page 4
Historic Dockyard: A Jewel in Bermuda’s Crown by Elizabeth Jones
Get Wet & Wild! Dockyard is the gateway to all the best watersports on the island. See page 14
Bermuda: A Diver’s Dream Being the unofficial shipwreck captial of the Atlantic, Bermuda is a dream location. See page 26
PLUS Eat, Drink & Be Merry pG 10 Go & Do pG 12 Shop pG 16 Experience It pG 19 Beyond Dockyard pG 22
Officially, Bermuda has just two towns, the City of Hamilton and the Town of St. George. But arguably the Royal Naval Dockyard, locally known as Dockyard and situated on the western tip of the island, has so many amenities it could be seen as the island’s third town. Boasting Bermuda’s largest museum, a marina, a shopping mall, restaurants and an authentic British pub, as well as a number of arts related centres, Dockyard is one of Bermuda’s key attractions. In fact for many of our visitors arriving on
the island by ship, Dockyard is their first destination since it is currently the only port suitable for mega cruise ships. It can easily be explored on foot and during the cruise ship season by Segway and or by train. Scenically, Dockyard is always engaging for its views of yachts, tugs, and pilot boats, for its cruise ships and ferries. When berthed at Dockyard, the Spirit of Bermuda, a schooner designed by the Bermuda Sloop Foundation to train Bermuda’s youth in maritime arts, recalls the days when Grassy Bay was filled with sailing ships. Casemates, a forbidding stone edifice dominating
the skyline, was built by convicts as a military barracks. Subsequently, it served as a prison whose thick, impregnable walls are reminiscent of the Bastille. Now in the process of being renovated as part of the National Museum of Bermuda, it closed as a prison in 1995. The Royal Naval Dockyard’s name and the names of its roads and lanes—Freeport Road, Maritime Lane, Camber Road, for example—give the clue to its naval history. Once Britain lost its American ports after it lost the American War of Independence in 1783, it needed a Continued on page 2
The House on the Hill
Fascinating and Historic Commissioner’s House By W. C. Stevenson From 1919 until the closing of the Dockyard in 1951, the Commissioner’s House was actually a ship called the HMS Malabar. It did not sail, or motor, or even float, but it was a ship nonetheless. The British, with infinite patience for tradition, have a habit of commissioning such houses as ships, and the HMS Malabar was one of them. Unsurprising, considering that the building served as
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allied HQ for North Atlantic radio interceptions during WWII. But that is only a sliver of the story. Edward Holl, Chief
Architect of the Royal Navy, designed the extraordinary building in 1822. Construction began in 1823 and was complete by 1827. Commis-
The Fairmont Southampton & The Fairmont Hamilton Princess
sioner’s House was designed with cast iron replacing all structural wood, and was the first residential building Continued on page 2
The National Museum’s newest permanent exhibit is officially open to the public and is housed where the Museum first began—inside the Queen’s Exhibition Hall in the Lower Grounds of the Keep Fort, Royal Naval Dockyard. Shipwreck Island: Sunken Clues to Bermuda’s Past tells the story of Bermuda’s discovery, early settlement and history (from 1505 to 1684) through the lens of a collection of 16th- and 17th-century shipwreck artifacts recovered from Bermuda waters. It features Bermuda’s earliest wrecks, with more than 1,500 shipwreck artifacts on display that are of international and local significance. The collection includes large cannon, rare New World indigenous weapons, intact olive jars, silver coins, colonial pottery, medical, navigation and ship tools and exotic trade goods from the New World and Asia. The exhibit also explores life aboard ship, the people who discovered Bermuda’s earliest shipwrecks, underwater archaeology and the importance of protecting our underwater cultural heritage for future generations. For five centuries, hundreds of vessels have come to grief on Bermuda’s encircling reefs due to reasons such as pilot error, raging storms, inaccurate charts and the historical inability to accurately determine one’s position at sea. These wrecks are more than a collection of fascinating and precious objects. They are material records of Bermuda’s interaction with Continued on page 5
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