Down to the Sea in a Sloop

Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda gained fame as a world-class builder of ships.

By Malcolm Kirkland

There's a good reason that Bermudians once enjoyed worldwide acclaim as shipwrights and sailors: The island archipelago is surrounded by the sea.

Bermuda first based its economy on agriculture, but the island was ill suited for mass-scale farming and the plantation economy collapsed within 80 years of English settlement.

Islanders naturally turned to the sea, focusing on shipbuilding, trading and privateering. But what of the slaves brought from Africa to work the now-defunct plantations? They moved on to the shipyards. Soon they earned a stunning reputation as master builders of sleek, unique Bermuda sloops.

Probably two-thirds of Bermuda-built vessels were sold abroad. The ships were favoured by the French and later by the British Royal Navy. After the American Revolution, the fledgling United States relied on Bermuda ships to defend its coastline. Bermudians retained the remaining third of the ships they built and used them to ply the Atlantic and beyond.

In the 19th century, Bermuda turned out fast dispatch/patrol vessels for Britain. These ships ran north to Halifax and southwest to Jamaica as they attempted to contain the Americans and French.

Later the Royal Navy chose Bermuda-built ships to spearhead its quest to break up the Atlantic slave trade. Bermudian vessels chased down slave ships in the Caribbean and off the coast of West Africa. The most famous of these was the Pickle III.

The Bermudian schooners depicted by artist John Lynn in 1834 were based on a design that evolved from Pickle III. These large but speedy vessels incorporated the triangular Bermuda rig sail of the small coastal sloops.

Spirit of Bermuda, a modern sailing ship based on Royal Navy and civilian Bermuda-style schooners from the mid-19th century, came home to Bermuda in 2006.

Today the Spirit of Bermuda provides academic and technical education for crews of young Bermudians, who learn to take care of the vessels and appreciate their island home and nautical heritage.

The Bermuda Sloop Foundation is a public/private collaboration, a registered Bermuda charity that is 501(c)(3) eligible. The ship's home is the Royal Naval Dockyard. When not serving youth, it provides soft adventures for group charters. For more information, visit the website at www.bermudasloop.org.

Where on "Google Earth" is Bermuda?

Want to really see how important the ocean is to Bermuda? Log onto earth.google.com. The site allows you to zoom down from space to sea level and explore the world in virtual reality.

As you drop down into the northwest Atlantic, Bermuda emerges from a tiny dot. Rising 15,000 feet from the ocean floor, the Bermuda sea mount is like a geological axle in a great geographic wheel.

What you can't see on Google is the great Gulf Stream, flowing northward from the Florida Straits up "Hurricane Alley" between Bermuda and the East Coast, and then swirling north and east. This warm oceanic river carried the Spanish treasure fleets north to Bermuda before they turned east and headed for home.

Given Bermuda's strategic location, it's understandable that Britain considered the island chain to be one of its most important North American colonies.

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