Page 417 - The British Big Four

Introduction to Bermuda
In 1609 Admiral Sir George Somers was en route from England with
supplies for the recent British settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, when
his ship, Sea Venture, was wrecked off Bermuda. Finding it a rather
pleasant place to be washed up, the admiral built replacement ships of
fine Bermuda cedar, sailed off and left a couple of men behind to estab-
lish a British claim to the islands. The experience of these temporary
British castaways is thought to have inspired Shakespeare to write The
Tempest. Somers returned to Bermuda later that same year but died
soon after arrival. The British renamed Bermuda the Somers Islands
in honor of the admiral, but the name failed to stick.
The Virginia Company took a keen interest in the islands after hearing
of their suitability for colonization, particularly in light of Jamestown’s local economy. The US Civil War proved more lucrative for the island.
hostile relations with the local Indians. Only three years after Somers’
misadventure, the company organized 60 settlers to establish a per-
manent colony on the islands. Unfortunately the islands were not as
abundant as was first thought. The shallow topsoil limited agriculture
and the lack of water prevented commercial crops like sugar cane from
being introduced. The settlers soon became reliant on food imports
from the American colonies, which they paid for by supplying sea salt
secured from the Turks Islands.
For many years the Virginia Company, and then the Bermuda Com-
pany, ran the islands like a fiefdom. This wearied the settlers so much
they sued to have the company’s charter rescinded, and in 1684 Ber-
muda became a British crown colony. Slaves were first introduced in
1616, most of them brought forcibly from Africa though some were
American Indians. They lived in degrading conditions but were gen-
erally employed as domestic servants or tradespeople rather than ag-
ricultural 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 ‘colored.
Despite Bermuda’s reliance on trade with the American colonies, po-
litical 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 confiscat-
ing the unprotected cargo of Bermuda’s merchant fleet, devastating the
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 short-lived prosperity collapsed
with the defeat of the South.