PondStraddler Finance Media Productions
Martha Harris Myron, Founder
PARDON!
WORK-IN-PROCESS some sections incomplete as at September 10 2024
Welcome to Bermuda: The World's Climate Risk Capital
Scott Stallard Photography/Videographer
Kade Stallard, Editor
Bermuda! This is the island that we all know and love. Have a look!
Bermuda: Our Unique Maritime History
Longitude 32.3°N Latitude 64.7°W
The fourth most remote spot on the globe, Bermuda is an ancient North Atlantic archipelago, a dangerous promontory fabled and avoided at all costs by mariners throughout centuries of translantic travel.
In 1505, when Juan de Bermudez, Spanish navigator and inveterate mariner, discovered the "Isles of the Devils" there was little to write home about.
NOTHING! that is except for treacherous reefs stretching more than 60 miles in all directions (see early chart to the right), azure sparkling blue boiling seas, 350 days of sunshine, incessant trade winds, scant water resources, multiple forms of marine life and lush vegetation, including surprise, tobacco. Not being into sunbathing, snorkeling, and pure lounging, nor possessing significant metallic commodity treasures portable to the home country, the crew moved on to the more profitable waters of the Caribbean and Latin America.
SURVIVAL LIFE ON THE EDGE OF AN OCEAN WAVE!
What is this place called Bermuda? Who are we?
1511-
Bermuda island makes first known appearance
Ancient Mariners already knew about our treacherous reefs recording mention in various ship journals (and shipwrecks) over the next century
Pietro Martire d'Anghiera Map of the Caribbean
400 Years of Survivalist Living
Remote, inaccessible, and deemed unsustainable for human life, the island lapsed into obscurity for a hundred more years. Just a Forgotten group of reefs, but ever stealthily perilous, Bermuda claimed various and sundry victims (and many shipwrecks) over the ensuing decades. Ships were rebuilt from the remains of wrecks, or from native cedar, but none of those early documented survivors remained to build a legitimate colony.
In 1609, a seven-ship fleet left England en route to Jamestown, Virginia, the United States, with vital supplies for the new colonists. Six vessels eventually arrived at the severely overcrowded under-rationed colony. The seventh, the Sea Venture was rendered asunder on treacherous reefs surrounding the “Isles of the Devils,” the ancient mariners name for the island of Bermuda, forever memorialized by William Shakespeare
The Bermuda shipwrecked survivors built two new ships from local cedar timbers and remnants of the wreck. The following year, the Bermuda-built ships, Deliverance and Plough, rescued the few remaining Jamestown inhabitants from the terrible fate of their deceased fellow colonists.
Cannibalism, the last resort in starvation conditions then documented in a historical personal narrative from that time, was recently confirmed contemporaneously by excavations in May 2013 at Jamestown.
1609
Bermuda island is settled
Bermuda 1594 World map by Petrus Plancius - the Levanthal collection at Boston Public Library
Nicholas Wade. Girl’s Bones Bear Signs of Cannibalism by Starving Virginia Colonists,
New York Times, May 01, 2013.
Bermuda’s Earliest Economic Environment.
Numerous individuals remained in Bermuda, building a settlement and an economy that was supported by both Bermudians and English shareholders (of the time) invested in the island's future.
The evolution of a sophisticated disciplined civilization, more than 160 years before the America's Declaration of Independence, was accomplished with the establishment of a parliament, government, legislation and community cooperative strength.
Bermuda's Continous Sitting Parliament is one of the oldest known Legislatures dating back to 1st August 1620.
HMS Deliverance life-size replica reflected in St.Georges, Bermuda evening light.
Bermuda: In the Eye of All Trade
Bermuda was deemed to be of sufficient strategic holding value by the British Empire (under King Charles II) due to its proximity, almost dead center in the Atlantic Ocean of the major shipping lanes ( the eye of all trade) to the North Atlantic and Caribbean, that Bermuda today remains an British Overseas Territory with almost complete autonomous government rule.
Early Bermudians were intensive farmers and traders originally producing fine tobacco for sale to England and the American colonies. The small Bermuda land mass size eventually depleted this economic earnings crop, along with competition from the more well-land endowed and farming population in southern US states, where Bermudians originally taught the settlers how to grow tobacco.
Bermudians then turned to other agricultural crops, shipping them abroad for dearly needed cash for trade in goods. The agricultural trade initiative faded inevitably as well in dominance as the American colonies became adept at self-sufficiency.
For literal survival then, Bermudians, opportunistic, entrepreneurial, and fiercely independent, did what they knew best.
They took to the sea.
Superb mariners, pilots, shipwrights, and nautical engineers, Bermudians developed and built an ultra fast sailing sloop that became the envy of the world.
Adapted from Dutch designs of the period, the fore and aft rigging was an incredible innovation that changed the dynamic design of sailing ships and the basis of shipbuilding forever.
Bermuda ships and shipbuilding became the prized product, highly sought after and eventually competitively emulated.
According to “In the Eye of All Trade” by Michael J Jarvis, more than 4,000 revolutionary-new design fast Bermudian sloops were built and sold during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”
Bermuda also prospered through the activities of its own merchant sailing fleet who were a dominant player in the salt trade, privateering for private companies and the British government, as well as the fleet transport of goods between the American seaboard and the West Indies.
1720 Bermuda in the eye of all trade
Bermuda 1720 Spanish map of the West Indies includes the old slow square-riggers and the Bermuda-built sloops with modern international rig - the fastest ships on the high seas
Maritime trade, privateering, shipbuilding - Bermuda invents the Modern International Rig. The Bermuda Sloop dominated Atlantic Trade +
George Washington sends a Letter......
Close geographical proximity also promoted four hundred years of close relationships between the avant-garde tiny island and the mighty United States nation.
Throughout these four centuries, our history is replete with United States / Bermudian co-operative relationships.
On August 14, 1775, the Bermuda Gunpowder Plot secures Bermuda’s store of gunpowder for the American patriots when sympathetic Bermudians cooperate with the Continental Congress to deliver the gunpowder to them.
The first U.S. president, George Washington, wrote weeks later to the Bermuda Governor seeking Bermuda gunpowder (stored there) to replenish supplies to aid in the 1776 American Revolution while promising protection in return. It was too late!
The GunPowder Plot
https://www.californiasar.org/2022/08/the-bermuda-gunpowder-plot/
Author: Dr. Edward C Harris PhD MBE FSA Director Emeritus (retired) National Museum of Bermuda Bermudian Gold Star, excerpted from 450 article volume Heritage Matters
George Washington Writes a Letter 1775
To the Inhabitants of the Islands of Bermuda
Gentlemen,
In the great conflict which agitates the continent, I cannot doubt but the asserters of freedom and the right of the constitution are possessed of your most favorable regards and wishes for success.
As descendants of freedom, and heirs with us of the same glorious inheritance – we flatter ourselves, that, though divided by situation, we are firmly united in sentiment. The cause of virtue and liberty is confined to no continent or climate – it comprehends, within its capacious limits, the wise and good, however dispersed and separated in space and distance.
You will not be uninformed, that the violence and rapacity of a tyrannic ministry have forced the citizens of America, your brother colonists, into arms. We equally detest and lament the prevalence of those counsels, which have led to the effusion of so much human blood and left us with no alternative but a civil war – or a base submission. The wise Disposer of all events has hitherto smiled upon our virtuous efforts. These mercenary troops, a few of whom lately boasted of subjugating this vast continent, have been checked in their earliest ravages, and are now actually encircled in a small space, their Arms disgraced, and suffering all the calamities of a siege. The virtue, spirit, and unison of the provinces leave them nothing to fear, but the want of ammunition.
The application of our enemies to foreign states, and their vigilance open our coasts, are the only efforts they have made against us with success. Under the circumstances, and with these sentiments, we have turned our eyes to you, gentlemen, for relief.
We are informed there is a very large magazine on your island under a very feeble guard – We would not wish to involve an opposition, in which, from your situation, we would be unable to support you; we know not, therefore, to what extent to solicit your assistance in availing ourselves of this supply; but, if your favour and friendship to North America and its liberties have not been misrepresented, I persuade myself – you may, consistently with your own safety, promote and further the scheme, so as to give it the fairest prospect of success.
Be assured that in this case the whole power and exertion of my influence will be made with the honourable Continental Congress, that your island may not only be supplied with provisions, but experience every mark of affection and friendship, which the grateful citizens of a free country can bestow on its bretheren and benefactors.
General George Washington, Camp Cambridge, three miles from Boston,
Sept. 6, 1775
1800-1899
Bermuda built HMS Pickle at the Battle of Trafalgar as swiftest ship in the fleet, carries the notice of Admiral Lord Nelson's demise to England
Bermudians continue enhancing their strategic position in the Eye of All Trade while capitlizing on the strength of their maritime trade dominance.
Bermudian merchants and privateers brought goods from Europe to the United States, and then nimbly stepped into blockade running food, guns, and war supplies during the American Civil War.
The British buy 75 acres on Ireland Island + build a garrison.
Today, the historic Dockyard is the home of the National Museum of Bermuda
Tourism Arrives in Bermuda
Horse + buggy or Bicycle Transportation. No cars until 1948
1931 Bermudian investors build a railroad for Bermuda's 32,000 population
1942 US Army Air Forces (USAAF)/Royal Air Force (RAF) build an airport
Schematic Traced of Proposed Bermuda's Future Airport, on original 1934 map airport did not exist
Map: Donald M Kirkpatrick
Mark Twain in Bermuda
"You go to heaven if you want to,"
Twain wrote from Bermuda in 1910 during his last visit, "I'd rather stay here."
Bermuda Airport 1993 - built during WWII by the United States engineers under a land-lease agreement between the US and Bermuda Government
It was modernised completely in December 2020.
End of line - Bermuda Railway
Bermuda Railway trains were widely used in the 1930s by commuters, schoolchildren, shoppers, as well as heavy usage by U.S. and British armed forces stationed in Bermuda during World War II. After 1946, private automobiles became available to the local population and the railway was sold to Guyana.
Bermuda Today - Linked physically and digitally to the World
Welcome Home: A More Beautiful Place
The first glimpse of 'de Rock' from air as Bermuda islanders return, while visitors wonder if there is a place to land!
Hamilton Business District Bermuda
A sophisticated modern jurisdiction, the third largest Global Re/insurance Center.
Doing Business in Bermuda
The Bermuda’s Business Development Agency (BDA) connects you to industry professionals, regulatory officials, and key contacts in Bermuda. Bermuda’s history has created a highly respected and successful financial centre recognised for worldwide standards of compliance, regulation, transparency and infrastructure.
Explore the unique advantages of doing business in an international hub for industries, where lifestyle, stability and a business-friendly climate delivers growth.
As a blue-chip financial services jurisdiction, Bermuda remains committed to cooperation and compliance with global tax standards, while remaining competitive and retaining our value proposition.
What is reinsurance?
When disaster strikes, the public face of recovery is often insurance companies. Backing up these companies are reinsurers.
Like their customers, insurance companies buy insurance to manage their risk. To keep prices competitive, protect their capital, expand their coverage capacity, and keep the market stable, insurance companies share their risk with reinsurance companies. Reinsurance works to keep insurance premiums low by allowing more insurers to compete in markets. By absorbing risk around the world, reinsurers spread and diversify risk so that insurers don’t become over exposed. This means consumers get more insurance choices at lower prices.
Bermuda Monetary Authority
The Bermuda Monetary Authority (Authority or BMA) regulates Bermuda's financial services sector.
The Authority was established by statute in 1969. Its role has evolved over the years to meet changing needs in the financial services sector. Today it supervises, regulates and inspects financial institutions operating in the jurisdiction. It also issues Bermuda’s national currency, manages exchange control transactions, assists other authorities with the detection and prevention of financial crime, and advises Government on banking and other financial and monetary matters.
The Authority develops risk-based financial regulations that it applies to the supervision of Bermuda’s banks, trust companies, investment businesses, investment funds, fund administrators, digital asset businesses, money service businesses, corporate service providers and insurance companies.
Government of Bermuda
Bermuda is the oldest self-governing overseas territory in the British Commonwealth.
Its 1968 constitution provides the island with formal responsibility for internal self-government, while the British Government retains responsibility for external affairs, defense, and security.
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