About Bermuda | Outerbridge Originals

“You can go to heaven if you want, I’d rather stay in Bermuda.” – Mark Twain

LOCATION… LOCATION… LOCATION

The real estate adage certainly pertains to Bermuda. Situated 570 miles east of Cape Hatteras, Bermuda is a thousand miles north of the Caribbean but in proximity to major metropolitan centers on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The warm Gulf Stream to the west ensures a moderate sub-tropical climate and affords the most northerly coral reef system in the world. Bermuda’s position has allowed the island to prosper over 400 years of civilization, transitioning from a navigational menace into a premier vacation destination and axis of international business. With about sixty thousand residents on only twenty-one square miles, Bermuda is one of the most densely populated places in the world… but also one of the wealthiest.

Bermuda is named after Spanish explorer Juan de Bermudez but during the 16th Century, it was known as The Isle of Devils. This is due to the perils presented for early mariners and also because of the haunting sounds they heard while sailing by in the night… shrieking cahows, Bermuda’s national bird, and the howling of wind through the cedar forests.

The island was first settled in 1609 when the Sea Venture, flagship of a nine vessel fleet bound for Jamestown, Virginia, was shipwrecked off the eastern shore. Languishing in a storm and leaking badly, the vessel was intentionally sailed onto coral reefs by Admiral Sir George Somers, saving the lives of all one hundred and fifty men and women aboard.

In Bermuda, they found an abundance of fresh fish, turtles, wild hogs and nesting sea birds to thrive. They spent nine months in Bermuda, salvaging materials from the Sea Venture and using endemic Bermuda Cedar trees to build two rescue vessels, the Deliverance and the Patience. They continued to Jamestown where they found the fledgling colony in despair.

Sir George Somers died in Bermuda after briefly returning aboard the Patience for additional supplies. His heart was buried on the island and his body was taken back to England. A third crewman joined the two volunteers who had stayed behind from the prior sailing, retaining England’s claim to the island and making Bermuda one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1612, Sir Richard Moore, Bermuda’s first Governor, arrived with sixty settlers who began construction of Ye Olde Towne of St. George, today a United Nations World Heritage Site. The House of Assembly met for the first time in 1620… about the time the Outerbridge Family settled in Bermuda. The Somers Isles became a self-governing colony, fundamentally the same status that exists today.

Bermuda’s tobacco based economy struggled through the early decades until shipbuilding and seafaring emerged. Bermuda-built sloops, quicker than the cumbersome galleons of the day, began to dominate the western Atlantic. Bermudians colonized the Bahamas in 1647 and the Turks and Caicos in 1681 where they built a prosperous salt and cod trade triangle to Nova Scotia. This is the origin of Bermuda’s traditional Sunday morning cod fish and potato brunch.

Bermudians soon diversified into whaling and privateering. Traveling comparatively short distances and carrying abundant ancillary crew members, Bermuda Sloops preyed on ships of Spain, France and other nations under sanction of the Royal Crown. The most famous Bermudian pirate was Hezekiah Frith based at Spithead House in Warwick Parish. He was the wealthiest man in Bermuda at the time and was elected to Parliament.

Hezekiah Frith 1763-1848On April 19th 1775, the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” was fired at the Battle of Lexington… America and England were at war! A trade embargo was introduced blocking exports from Bermuda and creating hardship for local merchants.

On August 14th, after a personal plea from George Washington, a group of Bermudians lead by Henry Tucker stole a large quantity of gun powder from the British Army stores in St. George’s and delivered it to ships waiting outside the reefs. It was transported to Revolutionary forces in Charleston, South Carolina and the embargo was lifted. The infamous “Gunpowder Plot” caused uproar among loyalists in Bermuda but nobody was ever charged for the treason despite a substantial reward offered by the Governor.

After American independence, Britain acknowledged the strategic importance of Bermuda as a sanctuary between Europe and her colonies in Canada and the Caribbean. Fortifications where strengthened and construction began on the Royal Naval Dockyard in the west, now home to the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Over the next several decades many skilled laborers from the West Indies, along with convict labor from Britain, came to Bermuda to work at the Royal Naval Dockyard.

The American Civil War was an especially prosperous time for Bermuda when many family fortunes were made. In defiance of British neutrality, Bermuda’s oligarchy backed the Confederacy who was forced to look overseas for munitions. Shipments of arms and supplies from Europe were loaded onto blockade runners in Bermuda for delivery to southern ports. Other Bermudians were Union sympathizers, particularly black Bermudians, many of whom served honorably in the Union Navy and colored regiments of the Union Army. Slavery in Bermuda was abolished by the Emancipation Act on August 1, 1834. The day is celebrated during the annual Cup Match Holiday featuring a two day all-star cricket game between east and west end clubs.

Tourism in Bermuda developed gradually from the second half of the 19th century. Only a few days by sail or steam, Bermuda’s temperate climate and rustic lifestyle appealed to wealthy socialites escaping the harsh winters along the bustling eastern seaboard. The first regular steamship service from New York commenced in 1874 augmenting visitor arrivals and in 1885 The Princess Hotel opened in Hamilton and immediately became a center of social activity. Bermuda also exported fresh fruits and vegetables, Bermuda Onions and Easter Lilies back to the east coast. Portuguese farmers from Madeira and the Azores were recruited to work the fields.

Over the following hundred years, except during the World Wars, tourism became the foundation of Bermuda’s economic prosperity. Dedicated steam ships called regularly from the major metropolitan ports of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Flying boats began offloading passengers at a new terminal on Darrel’s Island. In 1940, the U.S. Military was granted a free ninety-nine year lease and began construction of Kindley Airfield on St. David’s Island. Bermuda introduced its own currency in 1970, replacing pounds and shillings with a decimal system. The Bermuda Dollar was fixed at par with the U.S. Dollar and either currency is accepted island wide. By 1980, over half a million tourists visited Bermuda each year, arriving mostly by air and staying in one of the luxury hotels or guest houses operating across the island. Since then, competition from inclusive Caribbean resorts bolstered by more efficient jet travel has eroded Bermuda’s supremacy as a vacation destination. Following trends in the industry, today most visitors to Bermuda arrive by cruise ship and contribute much less to the local economy.

As tourism declined in Bermuda, a surge of international business replaced the lost earnings, sustaining Bermudian prosperity. An American businessman named Frederic Reiss introduced the concept of captive insurance during the 1960’s and concluded that Bermuda was the ideal domicile. The island was offshore but accessible with an educated English speaking population and stable legislative and judicial systems. Bermuda helped pioneer the insurance and reinsurance industry over the last fifty years and today ranks behind only London and New York in worldwide significance. Thousands of companies have been established in Bermuda, with most of the Fortune 500 having had presence. These visionaries inspired a complete Financial Services Industry that could not have been imagined half a century ago.