Relic Hunting

Relic Hunting is quite possibly the oldest Bermudian tradition.  The first settlers arrived in 1609 when a hurricane forced them away from their destination of Jamestown, Virginia, and the broken ship made a daring move to travel around the island to St. Georges, pass through a narrow channel, and wreck on the reef close to shore.  This was the Sea Venture, and all of her passengers, and even one dog, made it safely to the nearby shores of Bermuda, and the bold move likely saved their lives.  Shortly thereafter, they got to the business of being Bermuda's first relic hunters.  The would have gone back to the wreck site and salvaged all that they could.  The ship actually remained atop the wreck for many many years before being entirely claimed by the sea.  When she was eventually rediscovered nearly 400 years later, her cannons were still in place, but most personal items had been stripped bare, likely by the original passengers themselves.  Those passengers used those supplies and foraged on the uninhabited Bermuda for another 2 years while they built 2 smaller ships, The Patience and The Deliverance, which would carry them all the way back to Virginia, 2 years later than planned and presumed dead most likely.  Not that many were looking for them...the colonists themselves had been waiting for supplies from the Sea Venture, and many of those died in the interim.

But I digress.  It was after this that Bermuda became colonized.  Only 2 of the original Sea Venture passengers remained.  Most had been headed to Jamestown to become colonists themselves.  Bermuda's first quasi national, a baby named Bermuda, was born to the Sea Venture survivors, but also carried on to Jamestown.  Had they known that many of them would perish in the New World at the hand of murder, yellow fever or at the hands of hostile encounters with Native Americans they may have reconsidered boarding The Patience and The Deliverance.  Had they had the foresight to realize that the few of them that would survive the next few years would have descendants that work 50 weeks a year to spend 2 weeks in Bermuda, they may have reconsidered.  But they didn't, and it was a different group that eventually settled in Bermuda.  Initially, it was British Navy personnel.  According to the documents at Fort St. Catherine, Bermuda's oldest fort, the first group of navy men dropped off with instructions to build a fort toiled away for over 11 years before anybody thought to come back for them.  It is documented that they were flat out forgotten about on their isolated rocky mid Atlantic outpost for a period of at least two years within that 11 year span, and when they were finally remembered, there was a debate about whether or not anyone ought to go back for them at all.  They did eventually send a ship with supplies, and more men, which got there 11 or 13 years after the first drop off.  I have never heard if they crossed paths with the other 2 original Sea Venture residents or not, but it's a small place so one could assume they did.  I am pretty sure that all of these people were pretty serious relic hunters, watching the shores diligently for anything useful that may wash up.

With time, more navy came, including officers, and families, and so civilians were finally introduced.  At a time where England was sending prisoners abroad, a good deal of labour was sent here in the form of penal colonists.  It is a result of their labours that brought us the Royal Naval Dockyard in the 1800's.  And it would be obtuse not to mention persons brought here under conditions of slavery.  Some of those earlier families arrived with enslaved persons in their entourage.  However, it is also notable that several slave ships were forced onto Bermuda's shores by storms, or wrecked on the reefs, and as a British colony the persons aboard were given the choice to continue to their destination enslaved, or stay in Bermuda as a free person.  Most stayed.  In addition to this, according to a demographic study of  Bermuda, agriculture was important in the 17th and 18th century, and with it came many indentured slaves from Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, and some Native Americans.  In the 19th century when he demand for labour again increased, there was a large immigration from Portugal and the West Indies.  And so this collection of people, from different countries, different races, and different walks of life, all make up the fabric of Bermuda's people.  At least one thing is common....every one loves a bargain, as they are hard to find on a remote island in the Atlantic.

Preceding bargain hunting is what takes us back to relic hunting.  Those earliest inhabitants of Bermuda were very dependent on those slow and infrequent ships coming to its shores with not just necessities, but the luxuries of society which had been left behind.  So imagine their glee when treasured items washed up on shore.  Bermuda's reefs are the final resting place of at least 150 known ships who sank on her reefs.  Some estimates place that number at greater than 300.  Whenever one of these ships sank, bounty was going to wash up on shore.  Sometimes the excitement was overwhelming, and there are tales that say early Bermuda residents would wait for ships to wreck, and paddle out to start looting before the poor ship had even sunk.  One can assume anyone who didn't hand over the goods was not getting a ride back to shore.  I like to think of it as reverse piracy.  The people on land rush out to sea to steal from the ships.  Things are a little different here in Bermuda, that in itself is a story as well.  If you climb to the top of the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in Southampton, you will read that the Bermuda Lighthouse was not that reliable, and they may have even extinguished the flames when a ship got close to ensure its wreck, and their gain.  And so many early Bermuda homes had wonderful wares from many different far away places.  The early relic hunters.

The main relic hunter of the past century though is Teddy Tucker, who sadly passed away earlier this summer.  Teddy Tucker was a diver (think Nick Nolte in the Deep, because Teddy is who his character was based on) who began diving for scrap metal after WW2 as the government was paying.  What he found was far more rewarding.  He located and documented the 150 wrecks that we know, and began an illustrious international career as a consultant, not just for wrecks and marine archeology, but for marine biology as well, amongst other things.  He also discovered the most valuable item ever reclaimed from the sea, the Tucker's Cross (pull up my old blog on Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute for more info), along with much much much more.  He has a room of sea shells collected and donated to the public at BUEI, and National Geographic posted a special dedication to him on their website following his passing.  So Teddy Tucker, the quintessential Bermudian relic hunter, also plays a role in my after work activity today.

Teddy Tucker -- photo compliments of National Geographic Magazine

An Civil War era American blockage runner named the Mary Celestia also met her end on Bermuda's reefs.  She had been well explored before, but, the ocean floor is not static.  And Bermuda, with its frequent summer hurricanes, experiences dynamic and violent alterations of the ocean floor,  Hurricane Fabian in 2003 pretty much made Elbow Beach unrecognizable.  Marley Beach is dramatically different each season -- after a hurricane the beach may be 6 feet lower, new rocks present, and visibly different.  With a few quiet seasons, the sand comes back, and it is re landscaped by nature yet again.  This happens to the ocean floor as well.  And so in 2009, after a fairly large hurricane, which if memory serves was hurricane Bill, divers noticed that the Mary Celestia looked different,  She was more exposed.  Teddy Tucker, and the next generation of relic hunter, Dr; Phillipe Roujja, were involved in re-exploring the Mary Celestia.  They found intact bottles of perfume, cologne, and wine.  Submerged below the sand, in the cooler temperatures and the dark, it is believed the contents of these bottles are as they were 150 years ago.  A pocket of air still exists within the bottles, showing that sea water has not seeped in.

While I have been known to go exploring the island for relics of information, beautiful vistas, and visible remnants of its rich history, exploring the depths around Bermuda is not my thing.  Not that I didn't try.  I got my PADI Scuba certification, and puked the whole way.  I threw up on the boat, over the edge of the boat, floating in the water around the boat, and in a moment of crowing achievement, with my feet on the ocean floor in full view of the cannons at the wreck site of the L' Herminie, I threw up underwater on the ocean floor....but fortunately it went upwards and so I did not actually throw up on the wreck itself.  I won't get into the subsequent humiliation that ensured with my notoriously cute dive instructor at this time,  but rather will just say that it isn't often I get to explore relics from the depths of Bermuda's waters.  Tonight though, I got a fabulous chance to do exactly that!  That famous perfume bottle is on display on Front Street at the new Lili Bermuda perfume store.  Lili Bermuda is a local perfumery.  They have teamed with Bermuda's marine conservation group and prepared votives from the original perfume.  So we can smell what was en vogue 150 years ago.  My first smell was wax, and it turns out wax was indeed used in the perfume industry 150 years ago.  The second smell I got was a hint of citrus.  The professionals say you can smell citrus and amber.  It is noticeably different than our perfumes today.  Heavier, deeper, less crisp.  However, Lili Bermuda also has prepared a sample of what it would smell like if essential oils of the current period were used.  It is quite agreeable actually.  And yes, they will be producing that and selling it as a limited edition fragrance, possibly later this year.  Watch for it!

And that was my small adventure today, my relic discovered.  I will add it to the strange compilation of things in my head, which earned me the title of "mini wikipedia" from the summer students at work today.  I think I would prefer Wikijennia.  Oh well, a good day all around.