The Bermuda Sun – Jan 1st 2004 The scoop on the sloop By Malcolm Kirkland, Bermuda Sloop Foundation (News from 2004-01-09 Edition) The Bermuda Sloop Foundation (BSF) has embarked on an ambitious programme — with the blessings of Government — to design and build a Bermuda Schooner for the purpose of acting as ‘hand in hands-on training’ tool for Bermudian students, much as the former Bermuda Technical Institute. It will be a veritable floating classroom, allowing students to experience the full gamut of operations — technical, mechanical, theoretical and practical. In this article BSF project manager Malcolm Kirkland explains how the BSF decided on the Bermuda Rigged Schooner as the vessel of choice for this project costing more than $4 million. The target date for completion of the construction is 2005. Bermudians were renowned for their sailing innovation in the “Age of Sail” (until the 1880s) when SAIL was the ONLY means of transport of goods, people and culture — transport that laid the seeds of globalisation. (Culturally, eight out of the first ten autographies by black men in English were mariners). Bermuda was a player at the hub of this developing “Atlantic World”; her population in 1700 was one tenth of the British Colonies in North America! The Bermuda Sloop was a distinct vessel type designed for speed in the early Atlantic World for fast cargo carrying, privateering and the “illegal trades”. This single-masted, fast sailer was lighter because of Bermuda Cedar construction and presented a tremendous amount of sail area with a huge gaff-rigged mainsail with square topsail. They were known to be prone to capsizing or simply ‘sailing themselves under’ in heavy weather — a 72’ low slung sloop with top heavy guns on decks was difficult, if not impossible, to control with a 65’ main boom sweeping over the deck and the 60’ lunging out over the bow (1804- RN “Lady Hammond” Class). Downwind in a seaway, the sloop was prone to “synchronous rolling”, which unchecked, could culminate with the sloop spinning out and laying down in the water. Knocked down or rolled down, the sloop was then vulnerable to flooding. The loss of vessel and crew was an acceptable risk for that time in history for the potential financial rewards, especially when used in the “privateering trade”. The insurance rate for maritime slaves was in the region of 71/2 % of their value — an extremely high rate equivalent to the insurance rate on helicopters today, where roughly one in 10 crash annually. How many black and white Bermudians were lost at sea since 1640? Hundreds? Probably thousands. Bermudian sailors were famous throughout the new and Old World for their adeptness in handling the sloop but foreign navies usually eliminated the huge single mast sloop rig in favour of the more manageable two or three-masted schooner rig. The size of a navy ship’s complement was a function of the number of guns so single-masted Bermuda sloops became longer, two and three-masted “sloops of war” and carried more guns. Therefore, the Bermuda Sloop Foundation (BSF) could not build a replica of a Bermuda Sloop given its education and development of young Bermudians and the need for safety and stability. BSF then mimicked the resourcefulness of Bermudian ancestors. Bermuda’s foremost sailing innovation had been the “Bermuda Rig” — the attacking triangular sail that coastal Bermudian sailors had evolved since 1650 on small sloops to sail up the country from St. George’s to Somerset into the prevailing southwest wind. Between 1820 and 1850, they adapted the Bermuda rig onto the larger multi-masted, ocean going navy schooners (RN “Shamrock” Class) that came to be known as “Bermudians” or Ballyhou schooners. Following Bermudian forebearerss, BSF moved the design following purpose from the old fashioned gaff-rigged, topsail rig to the clean and efficient Bermuda rig, in use today all over the world, and from the 18th century, burdensome Bermuda Sloop hull shape to the nimble “Bermudian” schooner hull shape that foretold the modern yacht.