We spent our first three days in and around the Town of St. George and the surrounding parish of the same name. Bermuda didn’t have many actual towns per se. Hamilton seemed more like a small city. On the other hand, St. George actually felt like a town. Everywhere else just sort of sprawled across the archipelago though.
St. George had a long pedigree, going all the way back to 1612, only three years after English settlers first arrived. It served as the Bermudian capital for the first couple centuries and also its major port at the time. Many of the original structures still remained along its narrow streets, earning it a distinction as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We wandered all throughout the town. We also visited the rest of St. George’s Parish although those places made it into earlier articles for their scenery and trails. This article focuses primarily on the town itself and some of its history.
King’s Square
It took us nearly 24 hours to get to Bermuda because of airline problems. We finally got to our Airbnb in St. George’s at mid-morning the next day after we should have arrived. We changed out of the dirty clothes that we’d been wearing way too long, showered, and ventured out to find lunch.
Knowing very little about the place, we gravitated towards the center of town, to King’s Square (map) to see what we could find. Important colonial-era buildings ringed the square, including the 1782 Town Hall. A cruise ship happened to be visiting Bermuda that day so more activities were available than would typically be found in late winter. Historical reenactors worked the crowd and jokingly “threatened” to punish tourists by putting them in the stocks or the ducking stool.
400th Anniversary
Two years after the Virginia Company founded the Jamestown Colony, a fleet of vessels seeking to resupply the colony sailed into a hurricane. The storm blew one ship, the Sea Venture, away from the pack and into desperate trouble. Its crew spotted reefs off the Bermuda coast so they drove the ship aground deliberately to keep it from sinking. Everyone survived. The Bermuda colony would eventually grow from this 1609 near-disaster. It also likely inspired the opening act of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
Today a monument along Gates Bay commemorates Bermuda’s 400th Anniversary (map).
Deliverance
Just off King’s Square on adjacent Ordnance Island (map) sat a reproduction of the ship Deliverance. The Sea Venture’s crew found themselves stranded and alone on Bermuda after their wreck. It took nine months to build two new ships, Patience and Deliverance, from local Bermuda cedar trees. Most of the survivors then sailed to Jamestown although two remained behind. They were still there in 1612 when the Virginia Company decided to return to Bermuda to settle permanently.
St. Peter’s Church
Several features distinguished “Their Majesties Chappell, St. Peter’s Church,” established at the founding of the Bermuda Colony (map). It is quite simply “The oldest Anglican Church outside the British Isles and the oldest Protestant church in continuous use in the New World.” A portion of the structure dated almost all the way back to its founding although much had been modified, expanded or rebuilt over the years.
We didn’t go inside. I’ll save that for next time we visit. We had too much that we wanted to see already.
Unfinished Church
Why visit a completed church when one could visit an unfinished church instead? A hurricane damaged St. Peter’s so parishioners sought to replace it with a brand new structure (map). Construction began in 1874. However, infighting and funding problems prevented it from ever being completed. They finally decided to repair the old church instead.
It became more valuable as a tourist attraction in its unfinished state. Look closely at the masonry and it’s apparent that it’s been restored to remain eternally incomplete. They played it up even further by naming one of the nearby streets Church Folly Lane.
Gunpowder Plot
I found an historical marker not far from the Unfinished Church, a memorial for the Gunpowder Plot (map). Bermuda found itself in a tough spot during the American Revolution. It remained a part of Great Britain although it depended almost entirely on trade with the rebellious colonies. Naturally those colonies seeking independence in North American halted all trade with Great Britain. Bermuda faced starvation.
Private citizens on Bermuda led by Henry Tucker decided to fix the situation on their own. Tucker and his group traveled to Philadelphia in 1775 to see if they could convince the Continental Congress to reopen trade with Bermuda. The revolutionaries declined although they offered a deal. Any ship delivering munitions to the colonies would be allowed to return with food.
Tucker and his crew knew about a large store of gunpowder kept in a magazine in St. George. So they stole it. More than a hundred barrels. They rolled their looted powder over to Tobacco Bay and used skiffs to deliver it to ships anchored just offshore. These supplies arrived at a critical time during the American revolution and helped the rebels continue their cause.
Bermudians would switch sides during the US Civil War, though. Once again it would be all about the trade.
Articles in the Bermuda Shorts Series:
- Follow the Leader
- Shoreline Scenery
- The Outsider
- Bermuda Railway Trail
- St. George
- Forts
- Architectural Details
- Museums & More
- Lists
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr
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