The Ship
Historical Relevance
Spirit of Bermuda is a purpose-built sail training vessel based on civilian Bermudian-type schooners built in Bermuda by blacks and whites between 1810 and 1840. The original hull shape was adapted from the Bermuda-built Royal Navy "Shamrock" class: fast dispatch / patrol vessels that ran from the Royal Naval Dockyard northwest to Halifax and southwest to Jamaica to contain the rebel colonies.
After Bermuda’s agricultural economy failed (within 80 years of habitation), Bermudians turned to the sea that surrounded them- shipbuilding, trading and privateering kept the economy alive. Their principle vessel of interest was the ‘sloop’, a term given to any small vessel, usually unarmed, to undertake trading. Enslaved black Bermudians became some of the world’s greatest navigators and seaman as they made up the majority of the crew aboard these vessels. After emancipation these black Bermudians were highly sought after around the world for their maritime expertise. About two thirds of Bermuda-built vessels were sold overseas - first to the French (surprisingly, as the ‘Mother Country’s’ nemesis!) and then belatedly the Royal Navy. Bermudians sold the remaining vessels to countries across the Atlantic and beyond. The developing Atlantic World of the 17th and 18th centuries merged into the 19th century of the British Military. Fast Royal Navy dispatch patrol vessels, built in Bermuda, ran north to Halifax and south to Jamaica to contain the Americans and the French.
When finally done fighting the French and the new Americans, the Royal Navy aimed squarely at ending the slave trade. Bermuda-built vessels found themselves chasing slave ships in the Caribbean and off West Africa. The most famous of these ships is the Pickle III. The design innovations featured by the Pickle III gave rise to a new type of schooner that was distinctly Bermudian (portrayed above by artist John Lynn in 1834). These speedy vessels incorporated the triangular ‘Bermuda rig’ sail of the small coastal sloops onto large blue water vessels.
The Bermuda rig was innovated on the coastal Bermuda sloops that abounded in the 17th, 18th and early part of the 19th century. Faced with impassable pathways by land, locals had evolved the lateen rig to short-tack up the island to the fishing banks windward of Bermuda. Historically, these ships were world renowned for their speed, maneuverability, and the expert seamanship of the highly skilled black and white Bermudian crews that sailed them.
