At the end of the twentieth century, no Bermuda sloop remained anywhere in the world, and most Bermudians had no practical or romantic connection to the island's long history as a maritime economy. These were among the facts that prompted the construction of a new Bermuda sloop, the Spirit of Bermuda, and the creation of a sail training organisation, the Bermuda Sloop Foundation, to utilise her in instilling an awareness of the sea and of Bermuda's maritime heritage in her youth.
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Bermudians also vigorously pursued whaling, privateering, and the merchant trade. The Bermuda sloop became highly regarded for its speed and manoeuvrability, and was soon adapted for service with the Royal Navy. The Bermuda sloop carried dispatches of the victory at Trafalgar, and news of the death of Admiral Nelson, to England.
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An Aero Rig was also fitted to some Hirondelle 'Family' boats in place of the conventional Bermuda sloop configuration.
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The Bermuda sloop carried dispatches of the victory at Trafalgar, and news of the death of Admiral Nelson, to England.
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In December 2005, Nova released Together As One, an EP supporting the Bermuda Sloop Foundation which operates the Bermuda sloop Spirit of Bermuda. In 2002, she self-published The Sorrowjoy, a 72-page book of her poetry and drawings. An album of the same name was unofficially released in March 2006, which featured Nova reading the poems from her book set to ambient music. She also collaborated with the German trance artist ATB on tracks like "Love Will Find You", "Feel You Like A River" and the international hit "Renegade".
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The target was a fort that guarded a little used passage through the encompassing reef line. After the soldiers manning the fort were forced to abandon it, they spiked its guns and fled themselves before reinforcements could arrive. A Bermuda sloop engaged as a privateer.
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The first naval action of the War of 1812 took place on 8 July 1812, when the Bermuda sloop, HMS Whiting, its crew oblivious to the US declaration of war, lowered anchor in Hampton Roads. As its captain was being rowed ashore, the Royal Naval vessel was seized by the American privateer Dash, which happened to be leaving port.
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They carried gaff rig, whereas in modern usage, a Bermuda sloop excludes any gaff rig. Jamaican sloops were built usually out of cedar trees, for much the same reasons that Bermudian shipwrights favoured Bermuda cedar: these were very resistant to rot, grew very fast and tall, and had a taste displeasing to marine borers.Evans, Amanda M. 2007.
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Bermuda sloops at anchor and under sail The Bermuda sloop is an historical type of fore-and-aft rigged single-masted sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century. Such vessels originally had gaff rigs with quadrilateral sails, but evolved to use the Bermuda rig with triangular sails. Although the Bermuda sloop is often described as a development of the narrower-beamed Jamaica sloop, which dates from the 1670s, the high, raked masts and triangular sails of the Bermuda rig are rooted in a tradition of Bermudian boat design dating from the earliest decades of the 17th century. It is distinguished from other vessels with the triangular Bermuda rig, which may have multiple masts or may not have evolved in hull form from the traditional designs.
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The Bermuda Sloop Foundation was founded in 1996 by Malcolm Kirkland, Alan Burland and Jay Kempe. During the next eight years, the foundation grew as donations were sought, and the design decided upon. Bermudian singer-songwriter Heather Nova recorded the single Together As One to raise funds for the project. Rockport Marine, in Rockport, Maine, was contracted to build the ship in 2004.
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The West Country Class steam locomotive No. 34009 was named "Lyme Regis" after the town. In 2005, as part of the bicentenary of Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, there was a re-enactment of the arrival of the news aboard the Bermuda sloop HMS Pickle. The actor playing the part of Trafalgar messenger Lieutenant Lapenotiere was welcomed at Lyme Regis.
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Bermudians built large numbers of ships, including the Bermuda sloop, with which they explored every opportunity to exploit distant markets. This meant, however, that they became completely dependent on trade for foodstuffs and basic supplies, and their primary trading partners were the now rebellious American colonies. The ban on trade with the rebels that followed the outbreak of the war meant Bermuda was faced with economic ruin and famine.
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Most of the party was made up of emigrants from England who had arrived in Bermuda enroute to the establishment of the settlement in the Carolinas. Sayle arrived in Carolina aboard a Bermuda sloop with a number of Bermudian families to found the town of Charleston. In 1670, William Sayle, then in his eighties, became the first Colonial Governor of the colony of Carolina.The Exodus, by Michael Jarvis, in The Bermudian magazine, June 2001.
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Bermudian work boats racing. They feature the Bermuda rig, also used on the larger Bermuda sloop ships. These workboats, effectively scaled-down models of the seagoing sloops, were themselves scaled-down to produce the Bermuda Fitted Dinghy. The Bermuda rig, also known as a Marconi rig, refers to a configuration of mast and rigging with a triangular sail set aft of the mast with its headsail raised to the top of the mast.
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The term Bermuda sloop has come to be used outside Bermuda, today, to describe any single masted, Bermuda rigged boat, also known as Marconi sloops, although most are far less extreme in their design than was once the norm in Bermuda, with bowsprits omitted, masts vertical and shortened, and booms similarly shortened. Spinnaker booms and multiple jibs are rarely seen. The reduced sail area makes modern boats much more manageable, especially for small or inexperienced crews.
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The ability of the sloop rig in general to sail upwind meant a Bermuda sloop could outrun most other sailing ships by simply turning upwind and leaving its pursuers floundering in its wake. Despite Bermudian privateers preying heavily on American shipping during the American War of Independence, some historians credit the large number of Bermuda sloops (reckoned at well over a thousand) built in Bermuda as privateers and sold illegally to the Americans as enabling the rebellious colonies to win their independence.
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On March 15, 1670, under Sayle (who sailed on a Bermuda sloop with a number of Bermudian families), they finally reached Port Royal. According to the account of one passenger, the Indians were friendly, made signs toward where they should land, and spoke broken Spanish. Spain still considered Carolina to be its land; the main Spanish base, St. Augustine, was not far away. The Spanish missionary provinces of Guale and Mocama occupied the coast south of the Savannah River and Port Royal.
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The Bermuda Sloop Foundation chose a three-masted design for one of the reasons the navy had: it was easier to handle and less dangerous for the inexperienced youths who would crew her. A design with Bermuda rig was also favoured, although the majority of Bermuda sloops historically built probably were fitted with a gaff rig. The final design, naval architecture and engineering of the vessel was accomplished in Newport, Rhode Island by Langan Design Associates, headed at the time by company founder Bill Langan.
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Cadets often are attached to Royal Navy vessels for sea experience, and also train on the UK Sea Cadet Corps tall ship, TS Royalist. The Corps has also taken a leading interest in the building of Bermuda's own tall ship for youth training, the Spirit of Bermuda. Commander Anthony Lightbourne, RNR (SCC) is a Director of the Bermuda Sloop Foundation, which built and operates the traditionally designed vessel. Female cadets and instructors had technically belonged nominally to the Girls Nautical Training Corps (GNTC), although practically they served within the Bermuda Sea Cadet Corps units.
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The Bermuda sloop was a type of small sailing ship built in Bermuda between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Fitted with a gaff rig, a combination of gaff and square rig, or Bermuda rig, they were used by Bermudian merchants, privateers and other seafarers. Their versatility, and their maneouvrability and speed, especially upwind, meant they were also jealously sought after by non-Bermudian operators for both merchant and naval roles. Bermudians built large numbers of them for their own merchant fleet and for export before being obliged to turn to other trades in the nineteenth century.
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Unlike the original vessel, which would have been built almost entirely from Bermuda cedar, utilizing the plank-on-frame method of construction, the Spirit of Bermuda is constructed with more readily- available woods such as Douglas fir and teak, utilizing the modern 'cold- molded' method of wooden boat fabrication. She was built in the US for the charitable Bermuda Sloop Foundation (BSF) to serve as a sail training ship for Bermuda's youths. Bermuda sloops were built with up to three masts. While the term 'sloop' nowadays refers to vessels having only a single mast, the term was used differently in the past.
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Long lasting due to its resistance to marine organisms, the cedar also had the advantage of being readily used for ship building, and were even planned as such while still growing. Using enslaved and free labor and year-round construction, a 30-ton sloop could be built in three to four months. Bermudians also adopted a reforestation policy, with groves cultivated as long-term crops, and passed down to future generations as dowries or inheritances. The Bermuda sloop became highly regarded for its speed and manoeuvrability, and was soon adapted for service with the Royal Navy.
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The Dublin Bay Mermaid is a one-design, wooden sailing dinghy originally designed for sailing in Dublin Bay, Ireland. It is a 17-foot, half-decked, centreboard boat rigged as a Bermuda sloop, designed for the Dublin Bay Sailing Club in 1932 by John B. Kearney.Smyth, Paul (2000) The Dublin Bay Mermaid, A History 1932 - 2000, p3, Kompass Ireland, Dublin The class still actively races with fleets in Dun Laoghaire, Rush, Skerries and Foynes. The class usually have 5 Championship level events every year, these include the Munster Championship, the Leinster Championship, the National Championship, Skerries Regatta and Rush Regatta.
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1831 painting of a three-masted Bermuda sloop of the Royal Navy, entering a West Indies port. The Royal Navy sought to counter the threat of French privateers in the New World by commissioning its own light vessels, built along the lines of traditional Bermuda sloops. The first three vessels commissioned from Bermudian shipyards were 200 ton, 12-gun sloops-of-war, ordered in 1795, and commissioned as HMS Dasher, HMS Driver and HMS Hunter. Over the next fifteen years, the Admiralty would commission a great many more vessels from Bermudian builders, manned by locally recruited officers and crews.
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In his civil life, Richard Gorham became a prominent businessman and Member of the Parliament of Bermuda (originally titled Member of the Colonial Parliament, or MCP, but today simply Member of Parliament, or MP). He donated much of his wealth to a host of causes, including the Bermuda Maritime Museum, and the Bermuda Sloop Foundation. He was appointed an Ordinary Commanders of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order (CBE) in the Queen's New Year Honours on 31 December 1977,Supplement to The London Gazette, 31 December, 1977, Page 18 and a Knight Bachelor in the Queen's New Year Honours on 31 December 1994,Supplement to The London Gazette, 31 December, 1994, Page 2 for public services.
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In 1669, Sayle took over the command of a party of settlers to a new settlement in Carolina after Sir John Yeamans resigned, while undergoing repairs of his vessel in Bermuda. He arrived in South Carolina aboard a Bermuda sloop with a number of Bermudian families, and founded the town of Charleston. In 1670, William Sayle, then in his eighties, became the first Colonial Governor of the colony of Carolina (in 1669, Carolina would be split into two provinces, and in 1712 the southern Clarendon province, that included Charleston, became South Carolina while the Albemarle province became North Carolina). Sayles was also instrumental in encouraging the Lords Proprietors to successfully apply for a grant of The Bahama Islands in 1670.
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Bermuda Fitted Dinghy at Mangrove Bay The term Bermuda sloop was also to describe the working boats historically used for moving freight about Bermuda's islands, for fishing, and other coastal activities, and today is used to designate any single-masted yacht with Bermuda rig. Motor vehicles were banned in Bermuda until after the Second World War, and the roads were few and poor until the requirements of that war advanced their development. Boats, as a consequence, remained the primary method of moving people and materials around Bermuda well into the 20th century. Although such small sloops are rare today, the design was further scaled down to produce the Bermuda Fitted Dinghy, a class of racing vessel used in traditional competition between Bermudian yacht clubs.
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The Spirit of Bermuda was completed in August, 2006, and sailed to Bermuda that October. Since then she has operated locally and internationally on sail training cruises.The Bermuda Sloop Foundation website The name of the Spirit of Bermuda commemorates that of a fifteen foot, Bermuda-rigged sloop, also equipped with oars, which was sailed by cousins Eric Johnson and Carl Holmes from Bermuda to New York City, departing on the 27 May and arriving on the 15, June, 1935. The duo received a farewell telephone call from Admiral the Honorable Sir Matthew Robert Best, Commander-in-Chief of the America and West Indies Station, and were seen off from the City of Hamilton by the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Astley- Cubitt, and large crowds on shore and afloat.
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The Bermuda sloop became the predominant type of sailing vessel both in the Bermudian colony and among sloop rigs worldwide as Bermudian traders visited foreign nations. Soon, shipbuilding became one of the primary trades on the island and ships were exported throughout the English colonies on the American seaboard, in the West Indies, and eventually to Europe. Bermudians, largely slaves, built roughly a thousand ships during the 18th century. Although many of these were sold abroad, the colony maintained its own large merchant fleet which, thanks partly to the domination of trade in many American seaboard ports by branches of wealthy Bermudian families and partly to the suitability and availability of Bermudian vessels, carried much of the produce exported from the American south to Bermuda and to the West Indies aboard Bermudian mostly slave-manned vessels sailed southwest (more-or-less upwind) to the Turk Islands, where salt was harvested.
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The commercial success of the Bermuda sloop must be credited to the contribution of Bermuda's free and enslaved Blacks. For most of the 17th century, Bermuda's agricultural economy was reliant on indentured servants. This meant that slavery did not play the same role as in many other colonies, though privateers based in Bermuda often brought enslaved blacks and Native Americans who had been captured along with ships of enemy nations. The first large influx of blacks was of free men who came as indentured servants in the middle of the century from former Spanish colonies in the West Indies (the increasing numbers of black, Spanish-speaking probable-Catholics alarmed the white Protestant majority, who were also alarmed by native Irish sent to Bermuda to be sold into servitude after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, and measures were taken to discourage black immigration and to ban the importation of Irish).
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One of the first Naval actions of the War was the capture of the Bermuda sloop, , in a US port. During the War, the British blockade of American ports was orchestrated from Bermuda, and a squadron based in Bermuda was active in the Chesapeake from February 1813 until the end of the War, British forces briefly occupying Kent Island in 1813 and establishing a base on Tangier Island in 1814, where the Royal Navy recruited from among refugee slaves a Corps of Colonial Marines. Other refugees were first brought to Bermuda in May 1813, where they were employed in the construction of the new Dockyard on Ireland Island in the company of hired artisans, both free and enslaved, and finally to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for resettlement. In August, 1814, British forces sailed from the Dockyard to attack Washington, D. C., resulting in the Raid on Alexandria, the Battle of Bladensburg, the Burning of Washington, and an attempted assault on Baltimore, Maryland, in the Battle of Baltimore.
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