Wanted On Voyage: January 2023

An outstanding ship in many ways but with such an unfortunately short life that she is often forgotten was the Bermuda of 1927.

J.H. Isherwood

When ill luck begins, it does not come in sprinkles, but in showers.

Mark Twain

"The Luck of the Irish," like most sayings oft tested by reality, was surely challenged when it came to Belfast-built liners of the 20th century and in addition to Titanic (1912) and Magdalena (1949) being lost on their maiden voyages, we have the unfortunate Furness Withy liner Bermuda of 1928 which was tormented by fate and possibly foul play like few ships before or since.

Bermuda began her short life as an epoch-making vessel, only the second built specifically for the New York to Bermuda "Millionaires Run," boasting the most luxurious accommodation of any ship of her size or era and belonging to that exclusive group of British quadruple-screw motorliners, an icon of The Motor Ship Age. Bermuda, too, was simply a splendid, well proportioned vessel, paving the way for the larger Monarch of Bermuda and her sister, sovereigns of the booming Bermuda run that Furness maintained until 1966. She had it all, except good fortune, and that so fine a ship could be so tortured and twisted so within the span of less than two years, makes Bermuda's story the sadder still.

But before fortune, fate and fire, appreciate the splendid "Millionaires' Ship" that was

M.V. Bermuda

M.V. Bermuda by Charles Dixon, 1927. Credit: eBay auction photo.

"The Millionaires' Ship" during her shortlived heyday. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com

Happily our Tourist Trade has developed and prospered in spite of much keen and highly organised opposition of other resorts and there are good reasons for anticipating even further developments calculated to place us in a sounder and more secure position. Though far too early to judge final results with any degree of certainty tbe initiation of an English trade marks a degree of enterprise and courage sometimes lacking in the past.

The happy relations between ourselves and the steamship companies doing business with us continue and many competent observers predict an important addition to our communication with America in the shape of a new ship, or even two ships.

Royal Gazette, 1 January 1926

Of the many steamship "End of an Era" moments during the Jet Age, few were as poignant as the arrival at New York on the morning of 25 November 1966 of the Furness Bermuda Line's Queen of Bermuda on her, and the line's, final voyage from Hamilton, Bermuda. If Furness were not the originators of regular steamship service from New York to Bermuda and if cruising there continued to flourish as it does to this day, it was Furness who created modern day tourism on the island… not just the means of getting there, but the resort hotels, golf courses and infrastructure and, most importantly, the marketing and the creation of "The Millionaires Run" image that made Bermuda one of the "it" destinations of the heyday of 1920s-30s America and established it as a perennial tourist favourite that it enjoys to this day.

Discovered in 1503 by Juan Bermúdez, what came to be known as Bermuda was first settled by 150 English survivors from the wrecked Sea Venture en route to Jamestown, Virginia, and the island eventually administered by the Virginia Company. In 1684, Bermuda was governed by the Crown and is credited as Britain's oldest colony. Described as Mid Ocean, the island lies directly 550 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina and its strategic importance seesawed between Britain (which maintain a naval base on the island for the West Indies Squadron) and the United States (in which it was a staging area for blockcade runners in the Civil War) whilst commercially its proximity to New York (660 miles) ensured close ties with the U.S. and a market for agricultural exports.

A stereophoto of Canima alongside Front Street, Hamilton, Bermuda in the 1870s. Credit: eBay auction photo.

But it was a Canadian company, the Quebec Steamship Co., that began the first regular steamship service to Bermuda from New York in 1874 with the 692-grt Canima. Expanding traffic, including an increasing number of tourists drawn to the island's balmy winter climate, resulted in the commissioning of the larger 100-passenger Orinoco in 1880, the 180-passenger Trinidad of 1884 and, most significantly, the 5,550 grt, 340-passenger Bermudian introduced in 1905. Plans for a pair of 10,000 grt liners for the route were shelved with the outbreak of war in 1914 which effectively disrupted regular communications between Bermuda and the U.S. and saw Bermudian immediately requisitioned as a transport.

After three months Bermudian was returned to service on which she remained until requisitioned again "for the duration" in 1917. Desperate for a ship for its vegetable exports, mails and essential passengers, the Bermuda Government managed to get the old cruiser Charybdis (b. 1893) from the Admiralty which was disarmed and refitted as makeshift passenger ship. As such, she made 37 voyages over 21 months upon her final arrival at Hamilton on 10 December 1919.

H.C. Blackiston in his office, c. 1918.

One of the best friends Bermuda ever had.

Royal Gazette, 24 January 1954

He had the vision to see the need for large passenger vessels to bring tourists to Bermuda, and it was he who gave us first of all the MS Bermuda and after that the Monarch of Bermuda and Queen of Bermuda.

Sir Howard Trott, Governor of Bermuda, 24 January 1951

If there was a single personality who did more to create the Bermuda tourist industry in the inter-war years, it was H.C. (Henry Curtis) Blackiston (1872-1951). Born in Chestertown, MD, he began a life's career at age 18 with the company when he became a checking clerk with Furness Withy in Norfolk and at age 25 was manager. In 1914, Blackiston became manger of the New York office. At the time, Furness Withy (which dated to 1891 and initially centred on passenger and cargo trade between Britain, Canada, Newfoundland and Boston), was about to embark on an ambitious acquisition of other lines to expand their routes and markets. Paramount among these was Prince Line (founded in 1884) with their 38-ship fleet operating an expansive network of routes from New York to South Africa, South America and the Far East and the Britain to South America and Mediterranean. At a stroke, the United States Eastern Seaboard and the New York office became a central part of Furness Withy market and management and Blackiston played an increasingly important role going forward.

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, banning the production and sale of alcohol in the United States was ratified on 16 January 1919 and took effect a year later. Prohibition had unforeseen consequences, one of the more benign of which was a sudden explosion in "Wet Tourism" to nearby offshore countries or islands such as Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, Cuba and… Bermuda. The "package tour" and cruising exploded in popularity especially the later in which the bar aboard ship opened once the Three Mile Limit was crossed and for many that was destination itself. Suddenly, the dormant Bermuda run presented new opportunities.

Taken over by Canada Steamship Lines in 1913, the disruption to their Bermuda services during the ensuing war and their new owners' different priorities, saw Quebec Steamship Co. looking for a buyer for the route and with Blackiston and Furness Withy already intimate with the Bermuda operation being their agents in New York during the war, negotiations were well in hand between them and the Bermuda Government to assume their mail contract.

Sir Frederick Lewis (later Lord Essendon) c. 1920, by Herbert Arnould Olivier. Credit: Hartlepool Museums and Heritage Service.

All this occured during a period of considerable uncertainty in the post-war shipping industry and upheaval within Furness Withy themselves. This was manifested in a clash of personalities and vision for the group's post-war future between Viscount Furness, Chairman, and Sir Frederick Lewis, a Director since 1899, with the result that Furness resigned in 1919 and the family shares in the shipping company were bought out. Going forward, Lewis concentrated the group's resources on shipping and away from Furness' interests in steel and shipbuilding.

Under Sir Lewis (later Lord Essendon), Furness Withy truly entered the liner era with such vessels as Newfoundland (1925) and Nova Scotia (1926) for Furness Warren Lines; Northern Prince, Eastern Prince, Southern Prince and Western Prince (1929) for Prince Line; Fort Townsend and Fort Amherst (1936) for Furness Red Cross; Bermuda (1928), Monarch of Bermuda (1931) and Queen of Bermuda (1933) for Furness Bermuda and after they were acquired in 1926, the greatest of all, Shaw Savill's Dominion Monarch of 1939.

Amidst it all, Lewis and Blackiston proceeded with the acquisition of Quebec Steamship Co. and set the groundwork for grander things in Bermuda. An initial undertaking was proposed on 15 June 1919 to restore Bermudian to service with an annual subsidy of £15,000 and this was passed by the Bermuda Legislature on 22 July.

First U.S. newspaper advertisement for Furness Bermuda Line, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 19 September 1919.

Announcement is made that Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd., have acquired the “New York Bermuda Line,” formerly operated by the Quebec Steamship Co., and will shortly place in the service two fine British passenger steamers of the highest class at Lloyds' fitted expressly for the Bermuda traffic, with large staterooms, many of them containing beds, and all having hot and cold running water, electric lights and fans. There will be cabins-de-luxe with private bath and suites containing bed room, sitting room and bath. The music and smoking rooms will be large and handsomely furnished and the dining rooms fitted with small tables. The "Fort Hamilton," of about 11,000 tons displacement, is expected to begin the service from New York to Bermuda early in December, making sailings every ten days in that month and weekly sailings from January to May, inclusive. The "Fort Victoria," of about 14,000 tons displacement, is expected to be ready to go into the service early in January, making weekly sailings until the end of May.

Exporters' Review, September 1919

In August 1919, the head of the Bermuda Trade Development Board, Salisbury Stanley Spurling, together with Arthur Bluck, Mayor of Hamilton, and John P. Hand, Hamilton businessman, went to New York to negotiate a new contract with H.C. Blackiston for a regular service. On the 2nd Furness announced it had acquired a second steamer and this was followed on 6 September with the news that regular New York to Hamilton sailings would resume with the refitted former Bermudian, renamed Fort Hamilton, and that two former Australian coastal liners, the 7,800-grt, 411 ft. x 57 ft., Wandilla and Willochra, built by Beardmore's in 1913, had been purchased to join her as Fort Victoria and Fort St. George respectively.

Our business is a steamship, one, pure and simple. It should never have been necessary for us to go beyond this, but the success of the steamship business depended upon the attractions of the Island.

Sir Frederick Lewis

Blackiston emulated the pioneering Henry Flagler (Florida and the Bahamas) and Alfred Jones (Canaries and Jamaica) in creating a resort destination in combination with a steamship service that went well beyond just transportation to "packaging" an entire leisure product. And he did so precisely when the market for vacation travel for the fastest growing and wealthiest consumer base in the world-- that of 1920s America-- was booming. For Bermuda, tourists became the economic salvation when the island's traditional agricultural exports (the famous Bermuda onion, potatoes and celery mostly) never recovered from the interruption during the War when American farmers grew their own.

The literal architects of Bermuda's tourist reinvention in the 1920s: (left) golf champion and course designer Charles Blair MacDonald and (right) architect Warren Witmore realised their ambitions and those of Furness Withy in a remarkable span of a few years.

Greater development of Bermuda was prompted as much by the new American mania for the game of golf as Prohibition. The first American amateur golf champion, Charles Blair MacDonald, now a designer and developer of golf courses, had already visited Bermuda to assess prospects and locations as well as interesting the famed resort architect Warren Witmore in a scheme to build a golf resort on the island. This was brought to the attention of Blackiston who then interested Lewis possibly joining forces with these pre-eminent experts in their respective fields with Furness putting up the $4-5 million capital for the development of golf courses, resorts and hotels.

Possibly not since the inadvertant arrival of Sea Venture at Bermuda, was one single voyage of more consequence to the island than that of the Prince Line's Moorish Prince which, outfitted as a veritable private yacht, sailed from New York on 1 November 1919 with Sir Frederick Lewis, H.C. Blackiston, Warren Wetmore, Charles Blair McDonald and Allan Davis, Furness New York accountant, for Hamilton for a comprehensive site inspection and meetings with the Colony's government. Moorish Prince arrived on the 3rd and during their 10-day stay, the party met with Governor Wilcox and shown around the island. Sir Frederick Lewis announced on the 25th plans "to construct a magnicent tourist hotel at Bermuda, and will add the various appointments of luxury, including a fine golf course and other sport facilities."

Bermuda also was responsible for originating Furness Withy distinctive funnel livery adopted in 1919.

The Moorish Prince voyage also elicited new funnel livery when, having admired the original Prince Line colours on her funnel (black with a deep red band and a Prince of Wale feather in white), Sir Frederick Lewis and H.C. Blackiston spent some of the voyage tinkering with a variation which they adopted for Furness Withy and Furness Bermuda which added an 18-inch red band separated by a black band of the same width. This was first adopted by Merchant Prince (which as a Prince Line ship retained the white feather) and Fort Hamilton in time for her maiden voyage.

The former Bermudian, the refitted Fort Hamilton sails from New York on 8 December 1919 to commence the new Furness Bermuda Line. Sporting the just adopted new funnel colours, the attractive French grey hull lasted only a few months and like Fort Victoria and Fort St. George, she soon sported a black hull. Credit: sunderlandships.com

Fort Hamilton inaugurated the new Furness Bermuda Line upon her departure from New York on 8 December 1919 with 315 passengers and arrived on the 12th. Fort Victoria followed on 28 February 1920. Together, the two carried 22,000 passengers the first year and the service prospered beyond all expectations with passenger profits totalling $2 mn. and those from cargo, $500,000.

In 1920, H.C. Blackiston was made a Director of Furness-Withy, the first American to hold such a position within the company and would guide the destinies of Furness Bermuda Line and in large measure the tourist trade of Bermuda for the next 15 years that would mark a period of remarkable growth and prosperity for both.

The Furness initial Bermuda properties comprised the St. George Hotel (top left), the Mid Ocean Golf Club (top right) and Warren Wetmore's big Bermudiana Hotel in Hamilton (bottom) with the tender Bermudian passing.

[Blackiston] envisioned our beloved island as a resort of preeminence. Fools could have developed a Coney Island; a soulless corporation could have converted us into a tripper's paradise. But it was H.C. Blackiston who foresaw us as a resort so renowned that each visit added prestige to our very visitors, and who aimed at a Bermuda unspoiled in the process of development.

Royal Gazette 8 March 1935

The Bermuda Development Company was created in July 1920 to realise Furness' ambitious resort plans. The 100-room St. George Hotel, in St. George's and dating from 1906, was purchased, enlarged and given its own golf course and enormous indoor swimming pool. A huge 645-acre parcel of land in Tucker's Town was acquired for MacDonald's $1 mn. 18-hole Mid Ocean Club which opened on 3 March 1922. But the most impressive project was the $1.6 mn. 248-room Bermudiana in Hamilton, designed by famed American architect Warren Wetmore. The hurricane of September 1922 and chronic shortages of labour (100 Portuguese masons had to be brought from the Azores) nothwithstanding, it opened on 28 January 1924.

With the acquisition of the Trinidad Shipping & Trading Co. in 1920, Furness further expanded their interests in the West Indies and these were consolidated with the Furness Bermuda Line into the Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Co. Ltd. which was estabished in January 1921 and under which Fort Victoria and Fort St. George were eventually registered under.

Fred. J. Hoertz painting of Fort Victoria and Fort St. George, mainstays of the New York-Bermuda run from 1920-28.

Bermuda's tourism, hitherto concentrated in the winter season, expanded into the summer. A new contract signed with Furness on 1 September 1922 provided for weekly sailings in winter and two sailings every three weeks July-December and Fort St. George joined Fort Victoria on the run augmented by Fort Hamilton.

Finally, the 200-grt Artic Whaler, built in 1915 for the Admiralty, was purchased in spring 1923 and converted into the tender Bermudian at Queenstown and left in tow by the Johnson Line Rexmore for Boston on 12 September. From there she sailed under her own steam to Bermuda where she first attended Fort St. George on the 28th. Bermudian took passengers from the steamers at Murray's Anchorage, St. George's, direct to the St. George Hotel or Mid Ocean Club, saving long carriage rides on Bermuda's not too good roads, remembering that private motorcars were prohibited on the island until 1946.

For Furness, their efforts in putting Bermuda on the tourist map succeeded beyond all expectations. Whereas from 1908-1914, visitors rose from 5,418 to 14,718, diminished to 3,010 by 1919 owing to the war, 1920-1927 saw an astounding increase from 13,327 to 30,896. And there was enough business to go around and share with Royal Mail Line who began their own New York to Bermuda winter service beginning 1 January 1922.

Cover of Furness Bermuda brochurre, c. 1924. Credit: timetableimages.com

What Furness accomplished for Bermuda, Matson did with Hawaii with the introduction of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (designed like the Bermudiana by Warren & Wetmore) and the luxury liner Malolo (1927/17,226 grt) in 1927. Matson had gone one step further in making the sea voyage (admittedly a longer five-day affair than the 48 hours to Bermuda) part of the resort experience with a ship of unparalleled facilities and luxury in no way inferior to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel itself.

It was recipe for further success that did not go un-noticed and by the time the new Matson liner was laid down in May 1925, Furness began planning a comparable vessel for the Bermuda run which had already outgrown the modest Forts. Furness Bermuda were the most profitable of all British-flag liner operations and indeed they turned away customers during the peak winter and easter season. Even so, Lewis' pessimistic nature ensured that any big new ship, whilst principally designed with the constraints of Hamilton Habour in mind, had the capability of worldwide cruising (most likely under charter) should the summer traffic to Bermuda not sustain it.

Royal Gazette, 1 January 1926

That a new ship was forthcoming was presaged by the last voyage of Fort Hamilton which left New York on 9 January 1926, called at Hamilton on 11-12th and returned on the 14th. The 21-year-old vessel was sold on the 24th to Italy's Cosulich line and would become the first fulltime Italian cruise ship as Stella d'Italia.

A New Year ushering in a new era in Bermuda tourism was preceded by negotiations with Furness Withy and Bermuda Government regarding improvements in Hamilton Harbour and its approaches to accommodate what the line was proposing... a vessel almost twice the size and capacity of the existing Forts yet still be able to berth alongside at the preferred Front Street berth 1. The Bermuda Parliament in April 1926 took up the necessity of dredging at White's Island shoal and Washington Point to "provide the requisite turning space for a ship to come in and lay alongside" and dock at berth 1 at Hamilton.

A map showing the approach taken by Furness liners from arrival in Bermuda, first anchoring in Murray Anchorage in St. George's (upper right) then down towards Hamilton, via Grassy Bay (where the big liners and cruise ships anchored) and the winding channel down into Hamilton Harbour (lower left) to dock alongside Front Street. Credit: Motorship & Diesel Boating, June 1926.

They say

That when get the promise of a new boat we are so grateful that we request the owners to limit it to our present conditions

That soon, having improved our conditions, we will howl because the ship is too small

Royal Gazette, 16 June 1926

Credit: Royal Gazette, 8 June 1926.

Dredging work was already underway in the Dundonald Channel from Grassy Bay into Hamilton Harbour. This was the object of negotiation between the Bermuda Government and Furness with the line asking for a mean 28 ft. depth. Although the ship's draught was projected to be 25 ft., as a motor ship she would have to rely on her rudder more than her engines for the tricky navigation of the Dundonald Channel, making it essential sufficient water be under her rudder to make it effective. With the channel dredged to 26 ft. and with hard shoal to remove, the Bermuda authorities advised Furness that 28 ft. was impossible and in the end, they compromised on 27 ft. in the channel area.

The first announcement of tenders for the new ship was made in the Bermuda Parliament in April 1926:

For some weeks past it has been known that the question of a new ship on the New York-Bermuda route was being considered by both the Furness, Withy Co. and the R.M.S.P. Co., and yesterday the Hon. J. P. Hand set all anxiety at rest by making the announcement in the House that the former company had called for tenders for new vessel and expected to sign the contract within two or three weeks, the vessel to be delivered in 1927.

We are thus assured of the extra tonnange so urgently needed and should be mindful of the conditions suggested by the representatives of the Company at recent meetings. These comprise extra hotel accommodation and more extensive advertising, whilst the local suggestion was made that the sailing schedules should be re-arranged in order to avoid two boats arriving on the same day.

It is gratifying to know that serious attempts will be made to meet these conditions and there is every reason to look forward with confidence to the continued prosperity of Bermuda. The prompt aetion of the Furness Withy Company is a further proof of their keen interest in our development and an eloquent testimony in their faith of its possibility.

Royal Gazette, 21 April 1926

The 8 May 1926 issue of the Nautical Gazette reported that Furness Withy had asked for tenders for "a new passenger vessel equipped with Diesel engines, to take the place of the Fort Hamilton in the Furness Bermuda Line service. The new vessel is to be about 575 feet long and 76 feet beam and will have accommodation for about 600 passengers, or about twice as many as can be carried on the Fort St. George or Fort Victoria. It was furthered mentioned the new ship would have some 65 staterooms with private bath and that "the new motorship will be have a somewhat higher speed than the ships now in the service and will reduced the present running time between New York and Bermuda by a few hours."

Almost lost amid a flurry of rumours linking them with a potential purchase of White Star Line from the International Mercantile Marine (IMM), Furness Withy asked for tenders for a new ship for the Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Co.. On 24 May 1926, the Belfast Telegraph reported that "the announcement is made in the States that Messrs. Furness, Withy, Co. will invite tenders in Great Britain for the construction of a new motor-ship to have accommodation for 600 first-class passengers—to serve as a passenger transport for the New York-Bermuda service, and, incidentally, to be the largest ship in the fleet engaged in this trade."

Credit: Motorship & Diesel Boating, June 1926.

One of the earliest and most detailed appraisals of the new ship and the considerations which went into her design and specification was in an American magazine published in June 1926 but obviously written around April:

Modernization of the New York-Bermuda service of Furness Withy & Co. is promised by the addition next year of a passenger motorliner to operate between New York and Hamilton, the capital of the cluster of coral isles known as Bermuda, which has become a favored resort for vacationers from the eastern half of the United States.

Increasing numbers visit Bermuda each year. Winter traffic has practically outgrown the service and the summer traffic has become profitable. Competition has entered, giving an added incentive to improvement, and the Furness Bermuda Line is responding with the style of ship that furnishes the maximum comfort and attraction to travelers.

The new vessel will probably be larger and faster than the two vessels at present operating in the Furness service, and accommodation is to be provided for 600 first class passengers, about 50 per cent more than the present vessels carry. The run between New York and Hamilton is made at the present time in about 48 hours, the running speed being about 15½ knots. The ships operate practically continously, staying only one day at the Bermuda end and two days in New York.

A good deal of alteration of speed is necessary in going up to, or leaving, her berth there, and it is understood that the idea of steam turbines for work of this nature was definitely turned down, because reciprocating engines were considered to have superior maneuvering qualities. It is within the realms of possibility that a Diesel-electric system of propulsion may be adopted because of the greater handling it presents in quick maneuvering.

Work is now being done on the preliminary designs of this vessel in the London office of the Line and it is understood that bids will be asked in Great Britain in the immediate future for the construction of this vessel.

Motorship & Diesel Boating, June 1926

The Liverpool Journal of Commerce pipped everyone with the news, slightly premature, of an actual order:

The Furness Withy Line are understood to have given an order for a big passenger motorship to run between New York and Bermuda, a trade which they have built up enormously since they took it over from the Quebec Line. The new motorship is to be ready for the Bermuda season, which starts in the autumn of 1927, and is to have accommodation for 600 first-class passengers-- something like double the number of the existing ships-- while it is also reported that she will cut down the time of the passage by some. hours. She will certainly be a big vessel for such a service, but the authorities in Bermuda have seen the advantages which have accrued to them by the enterprise of the company, and have carried out numerous port improvements accommodate the ship.

Meanwhile, I gather the influx of visitors to the island shows no signs of reaching its limits. Bermuda is, of course, the nearest 'wet' point to New York, while its climate offers a very pleasant change from the bitter cold of the American continent during the winter months. It has been described not inaptly as a perfect paradise set in the Atlantic, and perhaps one of its greatest attractions to the New Yorker, who has become accustoned to the traffic of native city, is the fact that the local authorities will not permit motor cars on the island, the only ones being two or three which are used by the Navy. Altogether the move on the part of Furness Withy promises to give the an exceedingly good return for their enterprise, and it will be difficult to find anybody who would deny that they richly deserve it.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 26 May 1926

It is officially announced that 'Messrs. Workman, Clark & Co. Belfast, have secured an order from Messrs Furness, Withy & Co. (Ltd.), London, for a high-class passenger liner for the service between New York and Bermuda. This vessel, which will be 530 feet long, will have motor engines of the Sulzer type. The passengor accommodation will be of the most luxurious description. This is the largest vessel placed for a long time with Messrs. Workman, Clark & Co.

The Scotsman, 7 June 1926

...the United Fruit Company, of Boston and New York, which, by the way, flies the British flag on all their sixty odd steamers, had placed an order for three fruit-carrying steamers with Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., the Belfast shipyard. These boats will each be from four to five thousand tons register. The machinery is also to be constructed in Belfast, but the question of the exact type of drive is not, definitely settled. The new vessels are to be laid down immediately. Then on top of this came the equally welcome news that the same firm have secured an order from Messrs. Furness, Withy and Co., Ltd., I London, for a high-class passenger liner for the New York-Bermuda service. This vessel, which will be 530 ft. long, will have motor engines of the Sulzer type. The passenger accommodation will be of the most luxurious description, the run to Bermuda being very popular with wealthy Americans. This is the largest vessel placed for a lengthened period uith Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., the nearest approach being the Lamport and Holt liners Vandyck and Voltaire, built in 1922 and 1923 for the South American service. The importance of these orders to Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co. at this juncture cannot be overestimated.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 10 June 1926

On top of this order comes the intelligence that the same firm have also secured an order from Messrs. Furness, Withy and Co. for a high-class motor liner for the trade between New York and Bermuda. This vessel will be 530 ft. long, and will be equipped on the luxurious scale common to vessels engaged in what might be called the 'millionaire's pleasure cruise' from New York to the West Indies. The vessel will have quadruple screws, with machinery of the Sulzer type.

Syren and Shipping, 9 June 1926

On 6 June 1926 the Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Co. placed an order, estimated at £1.5 mn, with Messrs. Workman, Clark & Co., Ltd, Belfast, for a 530-ft. long liner with Sulzer diesels. Under the provisions of the Loans Guarantee Act of the Government of Northern Ireland of July 1922, the company received a loan guarantee of £650,000. Indeed the provisions of the Act in this instance was a lifeline to a shipyard in dire straits, having posted a £239,987 loss the previous year and with but three ships on the stocks at the time of the order. This was, in fact, the largest ship to be built by the firm since Lamport & Holt's 13,233-grt Vandyck (1921) and Voltaire (1923).

If America's "Roaring Twenties" occasioned the construction of the new Furness liner amid booming prosperity, in Britain it was generally a dismal decade of high unemployment, labour unrest, diminished world trade caused by foreign competition, a shipping industry depressed by low cargo rates and U.S. immigration restrictions and shipyards starved of orders amid the shipping slump and naval disarmament. Overall British unemployment was 12.5 per cent in 1926 (compared to 7.5% in the United States) but almost 10 per cent higher in the engineering and shipbuilding trades, topping 27% in Northern Ireland. Most British lines way overbuilt immediately after the Great War and by 1924, orders dried up. Of those placed for big liners, most like Carnarvon Castle (1926), Asturias (1926), Alcantara (1927) and Laurentic (1927) went to Harland & Wolff thanks to the Loans Guarantee Act. The Furness order was just about the only for a large liner to a British yard of the period save for CPR's four Duchesses.

Credit: Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 4 March 1926

If Harland and Wolff dominated Ulster shipbuilding after 1860, another Belfast firm, Workman Clark and Company, made a much greater contribution than they are usually given credit for.

An Economic History of Ulster, 1920-1939

Known as "Wee Yard," on account of their literally being in the shadow of the all dominant Harland & Wolff in Belfast, Workman Clark was founded in 1879 by Frank Workman who indeed started his apprenceship in shipbuilding with H&W, and was joined the next year in the enterprise by George Clark, a Scot of means and ability and in 1891 by Charles Allan, a son of a partner in the line of the same name, who started the engine department. The firm expanded to two yards on either side of the Lagan, the North Yard and the South Yard (Queen's Island) with a total of ten slipways.

Frank Workman, 1855-1927. Credit: Northern Whig, 15 November 1927.

Workman Clark soon earned an enviable reputation for innovation and quality, establishing enduring relationships with such lines as Alfred Holt, Houlders, Allan, City Line and Royal Mail and specialising in "banana boats" for Elders Fyffes and United Fruit Co. and frozen meat carriers for Shaw Savill. Big passenger liners were comparatively few but exceptional: Victorian (Allan, 1904), the world's first turbine-powered liner; Orient's pacesetting Otranto and Orvieto of 1909; Alfred Holt's big 14,000-grt Nestor and Ulysses of 1912, then the largest on the Australian run; and Lamport & Holt's Vandyck (1911), Vauban (1912) and Vestris (1912), the later becoming notorious for her foundering off the U.S. East Coast in 1928.

In 1918, Workman Clark were acquired by Northumberland Shipbuilding Company. Dating to 1883, Northumberland were bought by Rowland Hodge in 1898 and attracted substantial Furness Withy interest both as a customer and shareholder. Flush with wartime profits, Northumberland became a public company and embarked on an ambitious acquistion scheme that included William Doxford & Sons, Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Workman, Clark and Company, Blythswood Shipbuilding Company, Monmouth Shipbuilding Company and the Lancashire Iron and Steel Company to form the the largest shipbuilding combine in Britain and just in time for the mid 1920s shipbuilding slump. Northumberland went into receivership in 1926 whilst their component firms including Workman Clark had to extricate themselves all in the middle of serious downturn in business.

Northumberland took out a large loan in the name of Workman Clark at the time of the takeover which was used to repay its own debts rather than improve the shipyard and in 1927 the directors of the yard were prosecuted for issuing a false prospectus at the time of the takeover. In January 1928 Workman Clark, without any orders after completing Bermuda, declared bankruptcy and closed. Bought out by William Strachan, the Secretary of the old firm, it was re-opened as Workman Clark (1928) Ltd.

The new Furness liner would be the last passenger ship built by Workman Clark, a vessel whose speed of construction broke records for the period and whose quality and advanced design reflected great credit on the yard and Belfast shipbuilding in general. She would figure, too, rather more unfortunately, in the fate of their successor, Workman Clark (1928) Ltd.

Whilst the name Mid-Ocean had originally been considered, on 31 July 1926 it was announced that the new ship would be named Bermuda.

The first rendering of the new Bermuda to appear in the press. Credit: Belfast Telegraph, 12 September 1926.

The originally proposed machinery for the new liner-- quadruple-screw, double-acting Sulzer diesels (emulating the pioneering installation of Union Steamship's Aorangi of 1925)-- was changed early on. By the time of the 35th Annual General Meeting Furness Withy and Company Ltd. held on 28 July 1926 in London, presided over by Sir Frederick W. Lewis, it was announced: "The passenger services from New York continued to develop satisfactorily, and, in particular, the expansion the Bermuda trade had justified the placing a contract for a new vessel, which it was hoped would be ready the end of next year. This vessel would be constructed by Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., Belfast, with motor engines Messrs. Doxford and Co., and she will have accommodation for about 600 first-class passengers, and a speed of 17 knots." In September the machinery was further specified as Doxford four-cylinder opposed piston engines developing 13,500 bhp and driving four screws at 123 rpm. This would be the first time Doxfords would be used in a quadruple-screw vessel and also introduced a novel arrangement that reduced the stroke of the upper piston whilst increasing that of the lower one which would reduce the headroom of the machinery space in favour of that of the passenger accommodation.

These experts are here now for the express purpose of ascertaining the extent of the wharfage plans. We understand that they have already met the Corporation and doubtless plans will be made with a view to accommodating iu afitting manner what has been described truthfully as 'the latest word in marine architecture', and 'the finest ship sailing from New York.'

Congratulations to all concerned!

Royal Gazette, 21 September 1926

A wonderful depiction by Fred A. Hoertz of Bermuda as originally envisioned in black hull. Credit: Bermuda Maritime Museum, courtesy Stephen J. Card.

Meticulous as ever in their planning, on both sides of the Atlantic, Furness management and principals of the builders and naval architects arrived en masse at Bermuda aboard Fort St. George on 17 September 1926 for a comprehensive planning visit, inspection of the harbour facilities and meetings with local authorities. The party included H.C. Blackiston, Furness American Manager, Mr. E.W. Harvey, Chief Superintendent of Furness Withy & Co., London; Mr. James Esplen of Esplen, Son & Swainston, co-designers with Mr. E.W. Harvey; and Mr. W. Stachen, director of Messrs. Workman and Clark,shipbuilders of Belfast and Mr. H.B. Holmes, Comptroller of the Furness Withy Co. On the agenda was improvage the wharfage in Hamilton with a new seawall from no. 1 to no. 4 berth.

Upon arrival, Mr. Harvey told the Royal Gazette that "The new ship is undoubtedly the latest word in modern design and construction. It is being built specially for the New York-Bermuda trade, and will combine all the features experience has taught us are necessary to the service." Complete specifications, too, were released calling for a length of 545 ft., beam of 73' 9", accommodation for 600 First and 82 Second Class passengers as well as details on her truly luxurious public rooms.

Never one to waste money, Furness' stationary showing Bermuda in her originally intended black hull and the Hotel Bermudiana was in use late into 1929.

With so few orders in hand, Workman Clark lost little time in beginning construction, although initially hampered by the ongoing coal strike and consequent shortage of steel. Intended to have been accomplished by late August 1926, the keel of Yard No. 490 was laid on 13 October in the North Yard as soon as the consignment of steel finally was delivered. The contract called for delivery on 1 December 1927, which was very fast going indeed, especially when compared to turnaround times immediately after the war when the Cunard-Anchor intermediates often took the best part of three years to complete.

The Furness, Withy liner now building by Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., Limited, promises to be one of the most attractive additions to the already large fleet of fast motor passenger vessels. She will be used in the New York-Bermuda service, and will be luxuriously fitted out to cope with the fastidious tastes of the best class of American travellers. The vessel will have quadruple screws and the Doxford motors will give her a speed of about 17 knots. Each engine will develop about 4,000 b.h.p., so that the total for the four screws will be approximately 16,000 b.h.p. There will be four auxiliary engines of 450 b.h.p. each driving 300 kw. generators of G.E.C. manufacture. As regards both main and auxiliary engines special efforts are being made to eliminate all vibration and its secondary effects. It is well known that all reciprocating machinery having connecting rods of finite length sets up tremors, and if the ship itself is in the least sympathetic unpleasant vibration is experienced, particularly if the engine seatings are not as stiff as they ought to be.

Syren and Shipping, 6 October 1926

This rendering of Bermuda appeared in September 1927 passenger list for Fort St. George. Credit: eBay auction photo.

The need for Bermuda was emphasised by a report in the Liverpool Journal of Commerce of 26 October 1926 on the outlook for New York-Bermuda tourist traffic for 1927, quoting Furness Bermuda's Capt. Charles Armstrong, Passenger Traffic Manager, who forecast a record season for which Fort Victoria and Fort St. George had been renovated and would offer two sailings a week whilst Royal Mail was adding Avon to the run to augment Araguaya on the route, to also maintain twice-weekly service.

By December 1926, the ship's keel and double bottom were finished and framing commenced at the beginning of February 1927. By 23 June it was reported her hull was almost entirely plated. and "every effort is being put forward to have the vessel in th water on July 28, the date fixed for the launch." (Shipbuilder & Shipping Record). Determined to have Bermuda ready for launching by the end of the month, despite the delay in her laying down, Workman Clark curtailed the summer holiday for workers to run 9-15 July.

Credit: Marine Engineer and Motorship Builder September 1927

Without fuss or ceremony the quadruple screw motor passengers liner Bermuda, a vessel of 20,000 tons displacement, was launched yesterday from Messrs. Workman, Clark & Co.'s North Yard, Belfast… She took the water gracefully in the presence of W. Boyd (managing director), Mr. H. Grass (general manager) and officials of the builders which has to make delivery in December." Officials of Furness Withy were attending the annual meetiing in London under Sir Frederick Lewis and unable to be present.

Belfast Telegraph, 29 July 1927

Shortly before high water yesterday, Messrs. Workman Clark & Co., Ltd. successfully launched from their North yard the fine quadruple screw motor-driven passenger liner Bermuda, built to the order of the Bermuda and West Indies Steamship Company, Ltd., which is associated with the Messrs. Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd, for service between New York and Bermuda; also, world cruising. The arrangements for the launch had been planned with the utmost care, and everything worked with smoothness and precision.

Belfast News-Letter, 29 July 1927

Safely afloat in the River Lagan, Bermuda is taken in charge by tugs. Credit: Northern Whig, 29 July 1927.

Bermuda was launched at 11:15 a.m. 28 July 1927 at Workman Clark's North Yard in the customary Belfast shipyard "just shove them in" unceremonial fashion with no godmother and no christening: "She took the water gracefully on the presence of Mr. W. Boyd (managing director), Mr. H.M. Glass (general manager) and other officials of the builders' firm." (Larne Times, 6 August 1927). Not even Sir Frederick Lewis was able to attend as was presiding over the annual meeting in London. But, of course, made reference to the new ship to shareholders:

In referring to our shipbuilding programme, I mentioned briefly the new motor vessel Bermuda. As her name implies, this vessel is intended primarily for the New York/Bermuda trade, but she is also being adapted for cruising, a form of travel which has become increasingly popular in recent years. The Bermuda, 20,000 gross tonnage, quadruple screw and 18 knots speed, will have luxurious accommodation for 600 first-class passengers, with every comfort for ocean travel that can be devised, and she will be a fitting complement to the Bermudiana Hotel and Mid-Ocean Club which form part of the organisation for pleasure travel to that beauty spot called Bermuda…

Credit: Marine Engineer and Motorship Builder September 1927

At launching, Bermuda's hull presented a welcome return the livery briefly worn by Fort Hamilton in 1919-20 of warm French Gray with bottle green boot topping which suited her sub tropical holiday oriented route and complimented the distinctive deep red and black Furness funnel colours beautifully. The livery would be adopted by Fort Victoria, Fort St. George and the tender Bermudiana and all of the line's ships going forward.

Bermuda fitting out at Workman Clark. Credit: Harland & Wolff Collection, National Museums NI.

Despite the elaborate character of the ship's accommodation and decor, fitting out of Bermuda was still accomplished in the same impressively efficient and expeditious fashion as the construction of her hull. No less impressive was the turn around for her engines. The contract was placed with Doxford on 26 August 1926 with delivery stipulated by 31 August 1927, but the engines were designed, built, tested and completed by 3 August.

The fitting-out was marred by tragedy when fitter, William Kerr, aged 51, died as the result of injuries sustained on 17 August 1927 when he was installing Bermuda's engines alongside Alexandra Dock in the Workman Clark yard. Whilst fitting a connecting rod, weighing about a ton, to the crankshaft, the crank suddenly turned around and crushed him. He was taken to Royal Victoria Hospital, but died later than day of his injuries.

Credit: The Province, 11 December 1927.

Bermuda leaves Belfast on her trials. Credit: Larne Daily Telegraph, 24 December 1927.

On 30 November 1927 it was announced that Bermuda would depart for her trials the following week but it was not until 14 December that she sailed from Belfast for Scotland. On the Skelmorlie measured mile, Bermuda gratified her builders and designers by topping 19 knots with her Doxfords producing 14,500 bhp and averaging 18.25 knots on her 24-hour endurance run. She returned to Belfast on the 19th after what were termed "highly successful trials."

On progressive measured miles trials on the Clyde, the quadruple-screw motor liner Bermuda… attained a speed of 19 knots with a total of 14,500 bhp. At the conclusion of the speed trials the vessel proceeded down channel on a 24-hours' run at the service power of 11,250 bhp, and a subsequent 12 hours at 13,500 bhp. All of these trials were carried out successfully and to the entire satisfaction of the owners and their representatives.

Glasgow Herald, 22 December 1927

Official portrait of Bermuda on her trials.

1928

Messrs. Workman, Clark & Company have accommplished a very smart performance in handing the ship over to her owners, Messrs. Furness, Withy & Co., to-day inasmuch as the keel was only laid in the middle of October 1926. The fact that the contract was only placed late in August 1926, allowed a total building period of sixteen months (compared with a normal building time of 25-27 months for a vessel of this size and class, itself pay a great, yet well-earned, compliment to the resources of the builders, shipyards and engine works, and no doubt constitutes a record time for construction for such a type of ship, especially when the coal strike continuing from the contract date until November-December 1926 seriously delayed the production and delivery of materials and the progress of construction in the early stages.

Belfast Telegraph, 2 January 1928

Bermuda was in every way a credit to Belfast shipbuilding and in particular to Workman Clark who turned out a absolutely first rate ship, and one most elaborately furnished and fitted out, in the astonishing time of 14 months from the laying of the first keel plates to completion of trials-- "a really remarkable feat," (J.H. Isherwood).

It was all the more unfortunate that Bermuda's completion would be shortly be followed by the closure of the Workman Clark yard after handing over the tanker Chesapeake on 16 January 1928. On 18 February the last of its workers were laid off.

Credit: Ballymena Weekly Telegraph.

The finest ship built by Workman Clark, Bermuda leaves Belfast for New York on 2 January 1928. Credit: Ballymena Weekly Telegraph.

Bermuda left Belfast for New York at dawn on 2 January 1928, running final trials that afternoon in the Lough and then heading westwards. She sailed across without passsengers and "the voyage across will be leisurely," said line officials. On the 3rd, it was announced that her maiden voyage on the 14th was sold-out and "many prominent New Yorkers and well-known people from other cities have booked passages and the occasion of the ship's arrival will be one for celebration in Bermuda." (Gazette).

Credit: Atlantic Monthly, December 1927.

Credit: The Pittsburgh Press, 8 January 1928.

Every ship has its personality.

Watch the Mauretania go down the bay and you are impressed with her lean, racing lines. She represents speed. The Leviathan, Berengaria or Aquitania give the impression of tremendous size, power and luxury.

But stand at the window some morning as the motorship Bermuda crack flier of the Furness Bermuda Line, slips past the Battery on her way to southern waters and you are immediately struck by a new personality. She is not exceptionally large-- only half the size of the Mauretania, in fact-- and her low cruiser stern is not unlike that on other Diesel-driven vessels. You sense it best, perhaps, in her colour scheme, and if the bay is filled with ice the picture is more striking.

Her hull is gray. Not the gray of a battleship, but a cheerier colour. The lettering on her bow is gold, there is a white band at the waterline and below this is a summery green. In the bleak air winter she is strangely out of place, but against the colourful background of Hamilton harbour with her anchor chain clearly visible down through the matchless green of the water the Bermuda is at home. In short, she is a ship of the tropics.

The Lamp, via Royal Gazette, 4 June 1929

In the new motorship Bermuda we feel we are offering the traveler a degree of luxury that is unsurpassed anywhere. In her construction no expense has been spared to provide every conceivable comfort of modern ocean travel. We believe that there is a real demand for a service of the highest caliber to Bermuda, and on the new ship the exacting traveler will find regal suites, rooms with bath, etc., that are second to none on the high seas.

H.C. Blackiston, Director, Furness-Withy, December 1927

When the vessel is in service, she will not only be the last word in naval architecture, but the last word in comfort for sea travel.

Royal Gazette, 21 September 1926

From forward, Bermuda looked as solid as an English bulldog with her short forecastle and high freeboard.

One of the outstanding British liners of the 1920s, Bermuda is sadly one of the most forgotten. Like the colonial British India liners, she was designed to spend her entire career outside Britain but hardly intended to languish in obscurity in some backwater, indeed her single handed creation of the aura of the "Millionaires' Run" made her instantly famous during a career that was as meteoric as that of any vessel. No British liner was as popular or profitable in her tragically short three years. In many ways, Bermuda along with Malolo and Ile de France were the perfect icons of the Roaring 'Twenties, the "It Ships" of an era of prosperity and progress never equalled since. Bermuda, as it proved, was as fleeting as the good times which make her allure all the more undiminished and enduring.

Like all well proportioned ships, Bermuda's most flattering angle was a three-quarter view as here on departure from Hamilton.

... or sailing from New York. Credit: Qu1ckn1ck, shipsnostalia.com

An immaculate Bermuda coming into New York showing all but two of her starboard boats repainted mahogany and the last two still in original white. Credit: Mariners' Museum.

"Externally the Bermuda was a very fine sturdy and robust looking ship with pleasing lines," wrote J.H. Isherwood and she was indeed a splendid looking vessel, gratifyingly melding the classic proportions of a steamship with the modern low profile of a motor vessel. Indeed, she managed to disguise her purposeful beamy quality. The shape, height and rake of her twin funnels was just right and her superstructure was perfectly blended to her compact appearing but rugged hull with its shortened forecastle and high freeboard. She also had just the right number of wonderful traditional cowled ventilators clustered round her funnels. In reviving the livery original worn by Fort Hamilton, ex-Bermudian, of warm French grey hull, bottle green boot topping with a neat white lines, funnels in the lucious deep red and black bands of Furness and masts in brown, Bermuda was all the more handsome. Originally she had white-painted lifeboats but within her first year, these were repainted mahogany to match her beautfully varnished wood bridge and she now looked simply splendid.

Seeing Double: Ward Line's Morro Castle and Oriente (above) of 1930 were as close to Bermuda in appearance, layout and purpose as their designer Theodore E. Ferris would possibly never be willing to admit. Credit: www.navsource.org/

Bermuda was designed by Messrs. William Esplen, Son & Swainston Ltd. of London, who for years were Furness' "house" naval architectural firm. Responsible for Bermuda were James Esplen, R.R.G. Chisholm and, in particular by David Boyd, who designed Aorangi. Her machinery installation was designed by E.W. Harvey (1880-1933), Chief Superintendent of Furness Withy, who had supervised the construction of the first Doxford engined ships for Furness, Pacific Grove and Pacific President in 1922.

A creation of her age, Bermuda was also shaped by her route and purpose. That her namesake island was first settled, unintentionally, by the survivors of a ship wreck off her shores, speaks of the coral reefs, shallows and tricky approaches to Bermuda's principal port, Hamilton. That as much as the devlopment of the tourist trade and export cargoes, limited the size and qualities of the ships serving it. So that the ambitions of Furness to build a ship of speed, size and splendour were constrained by the necessity to bring the vessel alongside Front Street instead of anchoring in Grassy Bay as most of the big liners were obliged to. Finances and practical engineering, too, precluded deepening the channel into Hamilton beyond 27 ft. so that the new ship would have to have a loaded draught no greater than 26.5 ft. and not exceed 550 ft. in overall length to be able to turn in the confines of Hamilton Harbour and the Paget shoreline, with its own reefs and obstructions, opposite.

Yet, the new ship was not designed solely with the Bermuda run in mind. Ever the pessimist, Sir Frederick Lewis was initially not convinced traffic would warrent the new ship on the route year-round especially in summer so The Motor Ship of January 1928 noted: "for the remainder of the year the new liner is to engage on world cruises, which have lately become so popular, especially the Americans, and no doubt threse will be based on New York as the home port. Thus it is obvious that the requirements of the Bermuda are somewhat different from those of the average passenger liner."

So it was that Bermuda... measuring 19,086 gross tons with an overall length of 547 ft. (525 ft b.p.) and with a beam of 73.9 ft.... was deliberately built light and beamy both to minimise her displacement, and to provide the expansive luxury associated with far larger vessels. Technically, her load draught was 26 ft. 9 in. but in operational practice, she drew no more than 24 ft. where counted: coming in and out of Hamilton. Yet she also had the requisite bunker capacity for longer voyages as required and the type of accommodation ideal for luxury cruising which was envisioned as being under charter to one of the many big agencies specialising in cruising rather then being operated by Furness themselves.

The efforts to reduced her draught went well beyond the dimensions of her hull. In consideration of the draft constraints coming in and out of Hamilton and to preserve an even keel, the bunker oil tanks were groups forward and aft of the engine rooms each with the capability of transferring oil from forward to aft or from port to starboard of vice versa.

The Bermuda is the Rolls-Royce of the seas. She steals swiftly through the swells with an even, silent power seldom found on ships of that size and speed. Down deep in her hull is the answer. Four glistening motors, working with all the quiet smoothness of a straight eight, spin out the miles behind her quadruple screws.

The great engines, operating on the same principle as an automobile motor except that the oil is ignited by the heat of highly compressed air instead of a spark, develop a maximum total of 13,500 horsepower at 120 revolutions a minute. Yet you can stand in the vicinity of the control station, for example, and the outstanding noise is the hum of a few pump motors-- in fact, it is only by close attention or by looking at the instruments on the gauge board that an observer can tell whether the main engines are working at all!

This is all the more striking when you think of the noise made by even the latest four-cylinder automobile motors, where the compression pressure is only 72 lbs. to the square inch. In the Bermuda's great cylinder the compression pressure runs as high as 300 lbs.

Beautiful as the vessel is to the eye, it is quiet-running efficiency of her motors that is delight of Chief Engineer W.R. Allan and the never-ending wonderful of her passengers.

Of course, our big saving in engine room space and is the absence of boilers and condensers and the fact that we need to carry much less fuel, Allan said. Roughly speaking, a motorship burns only one-third as much oil as the ordinary steam job and only half as much as some of the later high-pressure turbines. There are just 43 in our engine room crew. A 20,000 ton steam driven vessel might required a force of from 56 to 75 or 80. And that includes 30 firemen. A motorship carried no firemen at all.

The Lamp, via Royal Gazette, 4 June 1929

Credit: Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 4 July 1929.

Draught and handling also influenced to decision to give Bermuda one of her most heralded features: her then unique quadruple-screw Doxford diesel machinery. Four smaller screws of smaller diameter and the relative lower overhead of four diesels would lessen weight and give her more manueverability than twin-screw turbines or diesels. Bermuda was unique among the elite group of quadruple-screw motorships in that her installation was neither especially powerful (reflecting her light displacement) nor particularly fast with a sea speed of 17 knots produced from 11,200 bhp. She was also unique at the time for employing diesels on a very intensive, short turn around "ferry" like service when such machinery, requiring regular between voyage maintenance, was considered unsuited or at least unproven in such a role. And, as noted by A.C. Hardy, in the Liverpool Journal of Commerce, "… she was the first motor liner in the world to be constructed purely for de luxe passenger carrying, thus anticipating the Victoria by some 3½ years."

A comparison of the engine room layouts of the principal quadruple-screw motorliners. Credit: Journal of Commerce, 28 June 1933.

As such, Bermuda was true icon of The Motor Ship Age then at its zenith. Compared to 32,936 grt of motor ships delivered by British yards in 1919, 427,916 grt were completed in 1928, accounting for 42.25 per cent of the total built that year.

Although initially stated to be fitted with Sulzer diesels along the lines of Aorangi, the decision was made early on to instead install Doxford's famous opposed piston diesels. Like the choice of Bermuda's naval architects and shipbuilders, it was a choice that was, afterall, in the "Furness Family" with Doxford one of Lord Furness' better acquisitions in 1919. For Doxford, Bermuda was both an engineering challenge and a groundbreaking installation, inspiring both an novel innovation of their exisiting design and being the first time their machinery had be fitted in a passenger liner as well as one with quaduple screws.

One of Bermuda's magnificent Doxford diesels. Credit: The Motor Ship, January 1928.

Each of Bermuda's screws was driven by a four-cylinder Doxford diesel, situated in the aft engine room measuring 77 ft. length and only two decks high. These presented a new "balanced" design that was meant to reduce the height of the installation and achieve smooth running as described in The Motor Ship: "In the Bermuda, where necessity arose for the provision of shallow draught, the adoption of four engines has a special advantage and, naturally, their height is lower than would have been the case had two units been fitted. The propelling motors are arranged also with the upper pistons to have a shorted stroke than the lower, this reducing the engine height and at the same time permitting the balance of vertical forces, since the piston strokes are inversely proportional to the reciprocating weights."

Longitundinal elevation of one of the main Doxford diesels. Credit: Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 27 December 1927.

Bermuda's Machinery

Engine Power, normal output 11,200 bhp
Corresponding speed 110 rpm
Output when overloaded 13,600 bhp
Corresponding speed 120 rpm
No. of cylinders per engine 4
Cylinder diameter 600 mm (23 5/8th ins.)
Stroke of lower piston 1,040 mm (41 ins.)
Stroke of upper piston 760 mm (30 ins.)
Total stroke 1,800 mm (71 ins.)

The quietness and absence of vibration of the installation was a revelation, The Motor Ship reporter aboard for Bermuda's trials noting that "The silence and complete absence of vibration with the Doxford machinery single out the Bermuda's installation as a noteworthy example of modern practice in motor liner constructions. In the vicinity of the control station, to take a case in point, the him of a few pump motors is the outstanding noise-- if, indeed, it can be called by a such a term... We paid careful attention to the subject of vibration throughout the ship. From stem to stern it is difficult to discern any trace of movement due to the machinery, and in practically the whole of the accommodation vibration is totally absent."

Bermuda's engines burned at full load .34 lbs of diesel oil per indicated horsepower per hour, each engine consuming about 8 gallons of oil a mile when making 18 knots or about 56 ton a day.

Cross-section showing Bermuda's divided engine uptakes. Credit: The Motor Ship, Janury 1928.

In spite of the fact that the four main engines are of opposed piston type, it cannot be said that they are greedy in the vertical space that they take up. As a matter of fact., as low down in the ship as " D " deck there is a large clear dining saloon with but two square trunkways, which are comparatively little more than ventilation trunks as far as the eye of the diner can tell, but are actually the exhaust trunks for the auxiliary diesel engines. Similarly, the exhaust from the four main engines is taken up through two slightly larger square trunkways, which do not in any way impair the layout of the galley.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 23 July 1931

Not only were the engine novel in their design, but the exhaust trunking for both the maiden diesels (vented through the second funnel) and that of the auxiliaries (through the forward stack) were divided to relatively unobstrusive squares permitting an unobstructed central passage through the dining saloon and main lounge (forward funnel) and the smoking room (aft funnel).

In service, Bermuda's machinery proved extremely reliable, efficient and economical and wholly proved up to the rigours of a quick turnaround "ferry service":

This ship, which has a total brake horse-power with her four Doxford opposed piston diesels of 11,250 bhp, has been now in continuous service on the New York-Bermuda run since January, 1928, and during this entire time she has maintained a rigid weekly schedule. It is estimated, in fact, that. in the hundred round trips which the vessel has made since she came on service, she has "motored" a total of 142,000 miles. The distance, from pier to pier, New York to Hamilton, Bermuda, and return, is about 1,420 (pilot to pilot one way it is about (166 miles), and to this total must be added the 3,000-odd miles which the Bermuda covered on her crossing from Workman, Clark's yard, at Belfast, to New York, when she first came in service. We may say, therefore, that she has covered a grand total of some 145,000 miles since commissioning. A recent Lloyd's survey of the machinery revealed that in spite of the strenuous operation to which the ship had been subjected, everything was in perfect condition. The maximum wear on any one bearing of the four main engines was found to be only 0.010 of an inch, and not one bearing has been re-metalled since the ship left 'the builders' yard. Similarly, a record of the wear on the sixteen cylinder liners on the four main engines showed the maximum wear on the diameter of any one liner to be 0.052 of an inch. It is stated that there has never been a moment's delay in the Bermuda's operation due to mechanical difficulties of any kind.

During the survey a thorough examination was made of the engine, and this examination included an inspection of the main bearings, crank bearings, crosshead bearings, guides, journals, crank pins, crosshead pins, cylinders and pistons. The Bermuda is, of course, a direct refutation of the criticism which has been so often levelled against diesel engine vessels that, they are unsuited to short, fast runs with quick turn-arounds. The Bermuda has a service speed of about 17 knots, and logs between 360 and 370 miles per day on her trips. She spends in port at each end only sufficient time to allow of a comfortable turn-around. She is stated to make her service speed of 17 knots on an all-in consumption of about 56.5 tons of oil per 24 hours.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 10 April 1930

Credit: Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 22 December 1927.

In keeping with the prevailing contemporary "all-electric" ship, Bermuda's considerable electric equipment was described in the Liverpool Journal of Commerce:

Carrying considerably less than 1,000 passengers, she has no less than 3,500 separate electric light fittings, and as many as 6,500 individual lamps. The total electrical output is some 1,200 kw., and as a further idea of the way in which one firm may participate in the powering of a large modern ship, it may be mentioned that the General Electric Company, which was the principal contractor 'in this ease, supplied in addition, a 23-panel main switchboard with a total length of 15 ft., and a batch of electric motors to the total of 150 with a total capacity of 2,500 horse-power. In addition to this quite substantial contract there were supplied also a total of 500 fan motors for ventilation purpoees in public rooms and in state. rooms.. Electric heating of the staterooms took some 300 electric heaters, while internal telephony on the ship, exclusive of the wiring and other details, required the use of some 100 instruments, and here alone, perhaps, we have an indication of what can be expected in the future when ship-shore telephony is developed, for fast Transatlantic liners along the lines upon which it seems to be going at present.

One of Bermuda's FIAT diesel generators being tested. Credit: Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 22 December 1927.

Generating all of this electricity were four Fiat two-cycle, three-cylinder diesel engines developing a total of 1,800 bhp running four 300 K/w General Electric generators. On 24 November 1928 the Liverpool Journal of Commerce reported that "owning to the fact that the demand for electric current for general ship purposes is very much greater than was at first contemplated," a fifth auxiliary diesel was being fitted, identical to the original four but made by British Fiat Auxiliaries, Govan.

Of critical importance navigating the twisting, challenging approach into Hamilton was her steering gear and rudder which consisted of two independent electro-hydraulic units and a large semi-balanced rudder.

Bermuda was primarily a passenger liner, but her cargo space was not inconsiderable, totalling 80,000 cu. ft. bale and 64,000 cu. ft. chilled or refrigerated, the later with Bermuda's export vegetable trade in mind, with four holds, two forward and two aft (with flush hatches), holds 1 and 4 for general cargo and no.s 2 and 3 insulated for meat, vegetable, fruit and dairy products. Two unique Bermuda requirements also figured: the provision to carry 2,500 tons of fresh water for the Furness hotels (the island having no regular water supply other than rain water) and horse stalls forward on "C" Deck in the no. 2 hold 'tween decks for an island that prohibited private motor cars and relied on horse drawn carriages and wagons.

Aorangi introduced the gravity davit to passenger liners in 1925 and Bermuda followed suit, taking full advantage of the considerable extra open promenade and deck space from having the boats a full 7 ft. above the deck in Welin-Maclachlan davits and introducing the placement of the boat lowering winch machinery on the deck above, further clearing the Sun Deck of obstructions. Eleven 30-ft 10-in. lifeboats each accommodating 86, a 32-ft. motor launch with a 40 hp Gleniffer engine and two 26-ft. emergency boats with a capacity of 46 persons were carried.

Midship section. Credit: Shipbuilding & Shipping Record.

Q.S.M.V. BERMUDA

General Arrangement Plans & Side Cutaway

(from The Motor Ship, January 1928)

(LEFT CLICK on image to view full size scan)

Profile and Rigging Plan.

House tops.

Boat Deck.

Sun Deck.

"A' Deck.

"B" Deck.

"C" Deck.

"D" Deck.

"E" Deck.

"F" Deck.

Hold.

The New Motor Ship Bermuda (1927), illustrated by Fred Hoertz

One of the great pieces of steamship promotional literature of the inter-war heyday of the ocean liner was that for Bermuda published by the Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Co. Ltd. in 1927 and featuring the artwork of marine artist Fred Hoertz (1889-1978). This superb brochure captures both the stature of Bermuda upon introduction and her singular and enduring qualities of luxury and superb décor which capture the long lost era of Ocean Travel in the Grand Manner.

Credit: Michael Wolfson Collection, The Wolfsonian Museum, courtesy of Dr. Laurence Miller.

Passengers may easily imagine themselves in one of the great hotels of London, Paris, or New York. Credit for its perfection of comfort and taste is due to Messrs. Hamptons and Sons, Ltd., of Pall Mall East, the well-known London furnishing firm who, under supervision of the architect, Mr. A. Mclnnes Gardner F.L.A., executed all the interior work, panelling, decoration, and furnishing of the first-class public rooms, gymnasium, and cabins luxe.

Illustrated London News, 21 January 1928

The last word in luxurious ocean travel would seem to have been reached in 'The Bermuda.' which, although built for the passage between New York and Bermuda, has been decorated and furnished throughout by Messrs. Hamptons, of Pall-mall East, S.W.1-- and the manner of its decorating furnishing is in itself a liberal education.

Here one may see refined examples of the styles of nearly all periods. The dining-room, for instance, is furnished with dining tables and chairs of mahogany designed on the classic lines of the late eighteenth century, the decorative scheme of this saloon being a modern adaption of the Greek style, with a leaning in the ornaments to Pompeian models. Although the room is necessarily on the large scale, the effect of such a treatment in a house can be gathered by the disposition of tables for four and six persons with attendant dumb waiters, while the table-covers of blue cloth embroidered with gold, an the electric light standards, with peach-coloured shades, afford a suggestive and pleasing colour contrast.

...the first class smoking room harks back to the Tudor or Elizabethan period, as being more fitted, perhaps, to the heartier manners than are permissible in such an apartment. Refrectory tables of the bulbous leg type and solid oak chairs and wall-panelling combine with mullioned windows and stone chimney pieces with the correct Tudor arch to convey the atmosphere of the age.

The library and writing roo, on the contrary, is painted in a soft shade of Adam green with the mouldings and enrichments delicately picked out in a tone of old ivory clouded with a darker shade of beige. The furniture and the fabrics are all very tasteful, and the typical Adam design loose covers of soft cream and biscuit colour are particularly pleasing.

The foyer brings us a little forward to the 'Empire' style; and even the beautifully-furnished cabins, with their loggias, indicate how delightfully these sun porches can be furnished. If Messrs. Hamptons are fortunate in the opportunity of demonstrating with a lavish hand in this manner, how the various periods, with all their dignity and charm, can be reproduced in modern conditions, the passenger is no less fortunate in the opportunity that the decoration and furnishing of the Bermuda presents of studying those examples at first hand as things to be lived.

Daily Telegraph, 28 January 1928.

The interior design of Bermuda was entrusted to A. McInnes Gardner of Glasgow (consulting decorative architect) and the decorations, furnishing and fitting was carried out by Hampton & Sons, Ltd., London. Hamptons were among the top interior designers and outfittings of the inter-war era, and would also handle the complete interior fit of Furness's new Castle Harbour Hotel (1931) as well as the later Monarch of Bermuda (1931) and Queen of Bermuda (1933).

Designed for the "Millionaires' Run," Bermuda's interiors reflected the prevailing decor of the top Atlantic liners, hotels and resorts of the day which formed the playground for the newly minted doyens of Roaring Twenties society. As such, it was more indulgent than innovative, but in the best commercial taste with superb craftsmanship evident in the furnishings, cabinetry and joiner work. The scale of the public rooms, in particular the epic three-deck height of the dining saloon and galleried main lounge, belied their comparative size, keeping in mind Bermuda's own dimensions and tonnage being about the same as Scythia but a good 100 ft. shorter. She looked "bigger and swankier" inside than any ship her size and equal to many three times as large and that was the point.

More than any British liner of her day, Bermuda's interiors were widely featured in photo spreads in The Tatler, The Graphic, The Bystander, The Sphere, Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, Illustrated London News and the other magazines of British society increasingly infatuated with anything American or designed for Americans. It was one of Hamptons' true prestige commissions of the period and accomplished in considerable style and to considerable acclaim.

Credit: The Daily Record, 8 March 1928.

No ship of comparable size nor indeed far larger, had more extensive public rooms, facilities and deck space than Bermuda. The public rooms comprised an observation lounge, social lounge and gallery, smoking room, veranda café, foyer, dining saloon, writing room and library, gymnasium and a large dancing space enclosed aft of the café.

In view of the intended services of the vessel, special attention has been paid to the provision of spacious promenade and spaces for deck games. The boat deck and the deck below are extended beyond the beam of the ship by as much as 2 ft. 6 in. each side. On the boat deck there is an area of about 70 ft long by the extended beam for deck sports and dancing, while on the promenade deck below a similar space is provided extending right to the stern of the vessel. A portion of this space has been enclosed, the screen being fitted with large vertical sliding windows, and this space virtually forms a public room. Forward of the spaces mentioned there is a large deck area between the deckhouse and the ship's side for deck chairs and promenading. The fore end of A Deck, and round the side for the considerable extent the promenade deck is screened in, similar to the dancing space, except that the after end remains open.

Built for a short, fair weather route, Bermuda for her size offered incomparable open, covered and enclosed deck space for promenading, deck sports and dancing. The Sun Deck having a length of 346 ft. and a width of 74 ft. and could accommodate 400 couples for outdoor dances while the Promenade ("A") Deck measured 425 ft. in length and had an overhead height of 11 ½ ft. with enclosed dancing space for 220 couples.

Bermuda's forward Sun Deck superstructure house tops and funnels with double-chime steam whistles on the forward stack. Credit: GEC photograph.

In all, Bermuda had eight decks: Boat Deck, Sun Deck, "A" (Promenade) Deck, "B" Deck, "C" Deck, "D" Deck, "E" Deck and "F" Deck with four decks being full length, starting with "B."

Bermuda, born during the Radio Age, had the most up-to-date wireless equipment as well as pioneering public address and recorded music system.

Boat Deck had the bridge, wheelhouse,officers accommodation and radio room in the forward deckhouse.

On the Sun Deck forward, under the Bridge, was the observation lounge with large windows overlooking the bows and on the sides: " A charming apartment on the boat-deck, from whose ample windows all the delights of ocean travel can be enjoyed in comfort without subjection to the possible inclemency of the elements." This was served by its own pantry.

This apartment is laid out on lines similar to those of the Spanish terrace cafe, with chairs and tables, where it will be possible for passenger to have light refreshments served from a convenient adjacent pantry. Three sides are treated with closely space clear plate-glass windows of large area, so as to give, as the name implies, an uninterrupted view of everything that is visible from the ship, and should be exceedingly popular when approaching harbour, or when passing through ship canals on ocean tours.

The decoration adopted throughout has been inspired by the modern French style.

The treatment of of the woodwork is an example of scumbling tone upon tone, the dominant colour tone being that of old ivory. The three-quarters columns at the sides of the windows are in red lacquer and all the ornament is in gold lacquer. The ceiling is modelled in plaster and the while is lit with concealed light behind amber silk shades.

Four mirrored niches are a very decorative feature of the casings round the constructional parts.

The floor is covered with Ruboleum, laid out in a symetrical plan with dark chocolate colour border and golden brown centre held in squares. Loud-speakers have been in installed in this as in all the other apartments.

The Motor Ship, January 1928

Aft of the observation lounge was the upper gallery of the grand lounge which was furnished in two groups of three sitting alcoves over looking the central dance floor of the lounge below. Aft was the amidships foyer with its glass dome.

Two de luxe suites, with bed, sitting and bath rooms, were amidships on Sun Deck and aft of these was the gymnasium.

Posing rather than exercising... in Bermuda's gymnasium.

A gymnasium is provided conveniently situated on the sun deck accessible by a corridor from the midships entrance hall, with its staircase and lifts to all decks.

This room, decorated in keeping with the simple tastes of the sportsman, is neatly panelled in polished teak.

The gymnastic apparatus include a horse-riding machine, camel riding machine, rowing machine, golf machine, cycle racing machine and various others.

The Motor Ship, January 1928

Bermuda's epic aft open deck space on Sun Deck could be used for dancing, deck chair lounging, deck sports and.... fencing.

Aft of the deck house was an impressive expanse of unobstructed open deck space that was intended as a dancing space, capable of accommodating 400 couples and provided with awning supports to cover if necessary. It was also used for deck sports and deck chairs at sea.

The principal public rooms were on "A" Deck, starting with the library and writing room forward.

On A Deck forward there is a library and writing room decorated and furnished in Adams style. Recessed bookcases are formed in between the windows, writing tables, easy chairs, reading chairs, divans and small tables for the comfort of passengers are also fitted. These will be covered alternately with lose covers according to the zone of travel.

A scheme of decoration in the style of the Brothers Adam has been adopted for this room. It is painted in a soft shade of Adam green with the mouldings and entichments delicately picked out in a tone of old ivory scumbled witha darker shade of beige. There is a mantlepiece having a appropriate period grate with a Sienna marble surround and marble hearth. The chimneypiece is surmounted with an ornamental mirror. Adjoining this are two well-designed ornamental Adam motifs in the lunette spaces. The entrance glazed doors have also specially modelled over doors with the ground work picked out in different shades of colour, thus emphasizing the decorative motif as was usual in the best work of the Brothers Adams.

The wall treatment, with panelled pilasters having decorative wreaths, is characteristic of the period. The plain-panelled freize with a delicately modelled and enriched cornice and the ceiling overhead having the appropriate typical enrichments are well balanced and disposed, and a refined and artistic effect is obtained.

The room is well-lighted, the windows being grouped in paris with fine damask curtains and pelmets of a soft yellow colour. At the windows in the forward end of the room and at the sides the writing tables are arranged. Bookcases form part of the scheme of decoration of the room.

The floor is covered with a capret of beige colour with a soft rose border all round and at the ornamental pillars in the central place, this giving a plain panelled effect to the floor. The furniture is of mahogany, reproductions of good XVIIIth century models having been adopted.

A special table behind the settee in the front of the fireplace gives a central and stylish note to the room. The typical Adam-design loose covers for the furniture of soft green and biscuit colour are particularly pleasing. The Adam gilt mirrors on the side walls between the windows are effective and well-placed assets to the decoration. The lighting fittings are ormulu gilt and are good models from typical examples of the period.

The Motor Ship, January 1928.

First Class social hall looking forward towards stage.

First Class social hall centre portion showing the large side windows overlooking the promenade deck and the upper level terrace.

First Class social hall inglenook.

First Class social hall looking aft.

First Class social hall plan showing the divided auxiliary engine funnel casings (forward funnel).

The social hall or lounge with its great domed ceiling and galleries recalling the architecture of the dining saloon, measured 93 ft. in length and 48 ft. wide with a 25-ft. dome. Extending through three decks, including its large central, the lounge mezzanine was on Boat Deck with six-seat recesses on either side to create cosy alcoves with large windows facing out to the deck.

The style adopted for this room is Georgian, and the general layout and orderly arrangement of planning lends itself particularly well to the decorartive treament which is peculiar to this period.

The proportions of the room are excellent, and the relationship of the parts and features to the while are so well handled that the result is a dignified room of conspicous architectural quality.

The hall has two trunked casings projecting into it at the ship's sides, but these are masked by the architectural treatment. They are linked up in an axial manner with the columns and pilasters which support the balcony lounge above. A symmetrical arrangement is obtained by means of a large bay window. These form balancing united of the design on each side of the projecting casings, which this, instead of being obstructions, are an architectural asset to the room.

The fluted pillars, with fins, carved volute capitals and the other enriched mouldings and features, give the impression of the 'Grand Manner of the Georgian Period' at its best.

At the after end-end of the hall, beneath the cinema room, is an ingle-nook with a fine carved mantlepiece and a grate of the period with surround and hearth.

Over the mantlepiece, inset in a carved surround, is a painting by Chas. Dixon, 'Sea Venture.' which was commanded by Sir George Somers and wrecked off the Bermuda in 1609. The floor of the nook is raised one step, and, with its settee and pouffes, this recess proves a most attractive feature of the room.

At the other and extreme foroward end of this hall is the stage, with a large proscenium-arched opening running to the full height. This arched feature is reparted to its full height at the ingle-nook end, and the cinema aperatures are contrived in the tympanium space behind a sliding-window treatment.

The stage is fully fitted up with three drop scenes, footlights, electric light battens and all the lighting effects of a stage in miniature.

Silk curtains in tone of amber add to the dignity of this fine hall. A loudspeaker is provided over the stage, and a piano and musicians are provided for on the stage, and on the stage when the central portion of the lounge (which is civered with parrquet flooring, is used for dancing.

The balcony lounge above is a valuable adjunct, having six-seat recesses on each side, with furniture appropriate for its purpose for teas, etc. A wrought-iron decorative railing between the pllars is carried all round it.

Ornamental wright-iron and glazed domes with a flat laylight of similar character, axially placed in the richly moulded and panelled-plaster ceiling, surmount the central portion of the hall.

The electric light fittings are in silver finish, and there is indirect lighting for the domes. Mahogany is used for the furniture.

In this room are provided Persian rugs, but the whole of the central part is covered with three larhe beige coloured carpets with borders, suitable for removal when the parquet floor is required for dancing.

The Motor Ship, January 1928.

First Class smoking room.

First Class smoking room showing the fireplace.

First Class smoking room plan.

The first class smoking room on the main deck is on the lines of an old English manor-house hall of the Tudor period, with rogh-hewn oak timbers supporting the beamed ceiling and linen-fold panelling set off by stone mullion windows with leaded lights. There is also a large recessed firepalce with hewn stone forming the heath, back and sides. Although electric heating is to be employed throughout the ship, resemblence of wood fire is maintain in a large wrought Sussex iron grate, with irons and implements.

This room adjoins the cafe and dancing deck at the after-end of the "A" or promenade deck. Access to it is obtained at the after-end from the oak-panelled after entrance hall, with its siarcase, electric lift, and vestibule porches to the promenade deck, and at the forward end fron the oak-panneled corridors which link up with the midships entrance hall leading by siarcases and an eletric lift to the grand social hall. The feeling on entering this fine room is that of recalling some past incarnation in the good old days of 'Merrie England.'

Solid heavily moulded Tudor arches on each side divide up the room in the centre. Two large, deeply recessed shaped bays in the centere, with adjoining square-formed bays, give the impression of solid thick walls and priels of the fine old English halls of the Tudor period. These stone mullioned windows are glazed with leaded glass enriched with charming little Tudor heraldic devices in colour, the arms of Drake and other famous adventurers of the sea being used. The walls are pannelled in oak treated to resemble the antique, and the details is of an early character. The craved oak panel rail at eye level all round the woom will repay the interest of the traveller, for there he will find the most delightful motifs, excellent examples of the skill of the carver handled after the manner of the old craftsmen in oak. Every one of these panels is different in design with fanciful conventionalized flowers, foliage, etc.

One's attention is arrested by the stone-fireplace ingle-nook feature at the after end. The occupies the whole end of the central portion of the room. The lower part is of yellow freestone with the back and raised hearth of bricks laid irregularily, with wide joints. Immediately over the sonte mantlepiece and recessed back is richly pannelled oakwork having three startingly original carvings representing baboons playing on the pipes of Pan, with small monkeys intertwining at the feet of the larger apes.

The mantlepiece is adorned with a set of old Scotch pewter, consisting of two large goblets, four cups, two plates and a reproduction Cromwellian clock. Although throughout the public rooms indirect forms of heating are employed, resemblence of a wood fire is here retained, and the wrought-iron Sussex grate with its andirons and implements satisfactorily completes the mantlepiece scheme.

The ceiling beams are massive and very ship-like, and the half timber effect in the freize over the solid-oak panelling is also reminiscent of the 'Hearts of Oak' days.

The floor is laid in Ruboleum representing wide-jointed stone slabs of irregular sizes. Two large refrectory tables of the bulbous-leg type, deep-seated lounge chairs and settees covered with hide, together with oak settees and elbow chairs with real needlework inset centres, and all the other tables, satisfy the eye for variety of design. Persian rugs are laid on the floor.

Other notes of interest in this room are provided in the halberds, swords, shields and other arms of the period, suitable trophies of the chase, reproductions of the world of the Old masters of the XVIth century, etc. applied to positions best aiding the decorative effect. All the arms are genuine antiques, with some good examples of Jacobite slaymores and Scotch halberds. The antique wrought-iron lanteen lights between the oak beams of the ceiling and the half lanterns on oak posts are of the original design and produce an agteeable lighting effect.

Plan of First Class Spanish Veranda Cafe and Enclosed Dancing Space.

The aftermost public room, the veranda café, was accessed from the aft foyer and smoking room, was intended to "resemble as nearly as possible, an open air loggia or terrace garden.

The verandah cafe, approached through the after entrance hall from the smoke room, is to resemble nearly as possible open air loggia or terrace garden. Trelliage of old stone walls with columns around which will be climbing roses, herbacious borders with grass margins to a stone-paved courtyard. The seats, wicker furniture and bird bath, will complete the general scheme.

Aft of this room is Spanish Courtyard, a replica of the old weather-worn and sun-browned walls, within which one might dream of dark-eyed girls and the pleasant tinkle of the guitars. A fountain throws a jet of water into the air from the centre of this courtyard, lending an air of reality to the enclosure. The warm walls are decorated with suggestions of well-filled baskets-- fruits and flowers, in bas-relief-timbered roofs also impress the beholder with beauty of old Spain.

From this room one goes directly on to the enclosed dance deck, a space which will hold a vast multitude of couples. An orchestra stand occupied the centre of this space, and there is a minimum of supports to interfere with the movements of the dancers. Still aft of this is the open deck, which to the novice seems as big a battleship. A large and gay crowd availed itself of the dance on the voyage, and a specially engaged orchestra was on hand to furnish the music. These were under the direction of Monroe Goodman, who has been popular in social dance circles, having played at some of the more elite clubs in New York. The music was splendid, the rhythm being all that could be demanded.

Royal Gazette

Immediately abaft the first-class smoke-room and approached by a short rising fight of steps on each side of the ship from the after entrance hall, with its staircase and lifts, we enter the appropriately named Spanish Terrace Cafe.

The walls are of plaster stue treatment with round arched windows having stone voussoir effect out and inband surrounds, and some inset brick coloured parts. Flatly modelled vases having serafitto decoration carrying flowers which are coloured to represent the effect of a terrace wall are place suitable intervals over the dado stone bands. Detached pillars with pillasters behind support the heavily moulded oak beams into which cross oak beams with moulded corbels interest, thus giving the necessary constract to the painted decoative treatment carried out on the walls. The plaster is of rough texture and the accentuation and grading of colour values produce a novel effect. A featture is the playing fountain in the centre of the room reminiscent of the old fountains in Spanish courtyards. The lighting fittings are of the lantern type, keeping up the consistency of the idead underlying the design throughout. The floor is laid out with an appropriate design of flag-stone effcet with a path-like suggestion between the doors.

The cane furniture, partly coloured black and red, with the tables having black glass tops with red lines, gives a lively 'cafe' feeling.

It is rather an interesting piece of design to raise the floor of this cafe about 2 ft. 6 ins. above the deck level, and the short flights of steps up to it from the aft entrance hall and those out and down to the dancing deck space abaft it give the correct feeling of a veranda or terrace.

The Motor Ship, January 1928

The enclosed dancing deck aft on "A" deck.

Apart from the polished dance floor in the centre of the Grand Social Hall for indoor dancing in cold climates, a permanent dancing deck, available even inclement weather, is provided on "A" deck, accesible by short short flights from the Spanish Cafe, enclosed at each end by glazed teak screens and at the side by large Beclawat windows. This area is capable of accomodating no fewer than 220 couples, and measures 70 ft. by 35 ft., with two wing extensions, each enclosing a further 420 square feet.

A raised platform to accommodate the orchestra and a special deck piano are provided at the after end. The walls of this encloed dancing deck are treated in a simple coloured trelliage scheme, whilst the ceiling has a fine arrangement of multi-coloured lights in star-like shapes in trelliage design carried out in bold forms.

In fine weather with the screen doors open, a still further extension area is available to the stern of the ship.

Consideration has also been given to dancing on open deck on ocean cruises in tropical climates, for a further extensive area accommodating some 400 couples above on the sun deck, where passengers may dance in the cool of the evening.

The Motor Ship, January 1928

First Class foyer on "C" Deck plan.

Typical of the spacious and rationally laid out public and circulating spaces, the foyer on "C" Deck contained the purser's and chief stewards' offices and cloak room for the dining saloon on the deck below. Forward was the main staircase and passenger lift. Bermuda had another staircase and lift, forward of the dining saloon, which accessed the observation lounge on Boat Deck and the swimming bath on "F" Deck. A final stairtower and lift was situated aft from the smoking room to "E" Deck.

This apartment is place on "C" Deck level, suitable for embarkation purposes and acting as a foyer for the dining saloon. It is designed in the Empire style, with polish mahogany framing having gilden enrichments and mirrors, producing quite a gay effect. It is 70 ft. by 35 ft. with a projecting bureau at the aft-end. Double-swing doors give access to the midships staircase abutting at the forward end. Two vestibule embarkation porches at side of the ship, and between these porches there is a long window recess fitted with an upholstered seat.

The bureau has an elaborate grille of Empire design, and also has the purser's office and the chief steward's office.

Mahogany pillars with Empite gilt enrichments are axially planned with window recess features, and carry main beams which divide off into sections the panelled and decorated ceiling.

This reception hall is furnished with settees, tables and chairs, and is meant to dine at the sides a small number of extra passenger (served from an adjacent pantry) is found necessary on world-cruising tours.

The floor is panelled out in a Ruboleum design The electric-light fittings are good examples based on Empire models, particularly interesting being those in the curved niches at windows recesses, ship side, and at recesses adjoining the fireplace; they are all ormolu gift.

First Class dining saloon plan showing the divided uptakes for the auxiliary engine room in the midde of the room.

The dining saloon is situated on D deck, and one fails at first to realise the extent of its dimensions. It is 110 ft. long by 72 ft. in breadth. Its architectural lines are simple and restful, and the general effect is very striking, dignified, and imposing. The two engine casings coming through at central outboard positions necessitate the divisional composition adopted, but great advantage has been taken of these by linking them across on the deck above and forming an open orchestral' gallery central to the saloon this is enriched by a handsome gilt railing. The saloon runs through two decks, and in the central portion beneath the domes it is three decks in height.

The Tatler, 18 January 1928

Measuring 110 ft. long and 71 ft. width (the full width of the ship), the dining saloon had a 26 ft.-high dome and extended upwards through three decks, surrounded by a open gallery and the musicians galley unique situated in the middle. There were seats for 400 diners at a variety of table sizes.

The two trunked casing coming through at central outboard positions necessitate the division composition adopted, but the great advantage has been taken of these by linking them across on the deck above and forming an open orchestral gallery central to the saloon.

In the central position beneath the domes the saloon is three decks in height. Large square-headed openings with ornamental gilt balcony rails continue round the whole saloon well from end to end, linking up with the orchestral gallery. The coffered domes are particularly effective, the coffer panels being in blue, while the large sun-ray features at the aspidal ends of the domes are gilded. The concealed lighting arrangement at rhe base of the domes illuminated them and enhances the effect of the coluring scheme. The eight large piers forming the supports at these domes feature are carried the entire height from the saloon floor to the ceiling, and have niches in which are bronze electric-light braziers fitted with shaped bowls.

The pannelling of the walls and of the decorative woodwork is constructed of mahogany and paiinted in tomes of beige and old ivory, with enrichments and bands in gold.

The scheme of decoration adopted through this saloon is a modern adaptation of the Greek classic style, the motifs of the ornaments being based on Pompeian models.

Sideboards with cold buffets below the glazed screen at the after-end add to the fine appearance of the saloon.

The dining tables and chairs are of mahogany designed on the classical lines of the late XVIIIth century English furniture. The chair coverings are in opal blue and gold. This note of colour is also adopted in the curtains at the windows.

The entire floor is covered in Ruboleum in a bold patterned treatment, blue with red and gold borders.

The tables are for two, four and six persons, and the seating provides for 406 passengers. Dumb waiters with hot plates are distributed all over the saloon, ensuring the maximum efficiency of servce, one being provided for each steward serving two tables, while cold buffets for the display of cold dished are situated at each end of the room adjancent to the passenger entrances.

The Motor Ship, January 1928

The indoor swimming pool measuring 29 ft. and 16 ft.was situated forward on "F" Deck and unique on a vessel of Bermuda's size.

The swimming pool, reminiscent of the baths of the Roman emperors, at one a fountain of marble and mosaic, at the sides dressing rooms and tiled showers with hot and cold fresh water.

She is a notable vessel, particularly in the type of passenger accommodation provided. She has been designed with the view of providing the American people with all that modern science can produce in the way of ocean transport. The number of special suites, with sitting room, bedroom, bathroom and verandah attached, has never been exceeded in any vessel afloat, and she is specially built for people who desire all the comforts of a first-class hotel in associations with pleasures of travel… Originally, the number proposed for this vessel were in excess of those actually provided, and the scheme of public rooms even more than that now incorporated in the design. Consideration of initial cost, however, caused an attempt to be made to bring about a reasonable balance between cost and expected revenue.

Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 25 August 1927

The bedroom of Suite "R". Credit: Byron Co. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Bedroom of suite Q. Byron Co. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Sitting room of suite Q. Byron Co. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Beyond her appearance, machinery, public rooms and facilities, Bermuda's passenger accommodation put her at the forefront of passenger liners of the period and indeed was without equal among ships of her size and comparable to the largest and most luxurious trans-Atlantic liners. As the press releases noted quite accurately, "The accommodation has been specially considered not only from point view of the conditions obtaining on the New York-Bermuda service, which is luxury and pleasure trip, but also with view to use on world cruises from three to six months in duration."

A total of 616 First Class passengers were accommodated in 250 cabins:

Sun Deck

Two suites deluxe

"A" Deck

Four outside rooms with bath

Two inside rooms with bath

"B" Deck

Four Regal Suites

30 outside two-beds with bath

25 outside one-bed and sofa with bath

Four outside one-bed and sofa with bath, sold as singles

Seven inside two-beds with bath

Eight outside two-beds

Six outside three-bed (1 portable upper)

Four inside three-bed (1 portable upper)

"C" Deck

Six outside two-bed

67 outside two-bed and one portable upped

"D" Deck

Nine outside two-bed and 1 portable upper

Six outside two-bed

"E" Deck

64 outside two-bed and 1 portable upper

four outside two-bed

Eight inside one-bed and one sofa berth

Two inside one-bed and sofa, single

14 inside two-bed and 1 portable upper

Six de luxe suites, with a sitting room, bedroom, bathroom and private veranda, were furnished in various styles, mostly mid 18th century. Two additional large suites were amidships on Sun Deck. Most of the standard cabins were on the Bibby pattern. All had wardrobes, dressing tables, and cot beds as well as folding card table in each, two-speed electric fans, clothes-presses, bookshelf and one or more cane chairs with down cushions . In view of the short voyage, many passengers on the Bermuda run travelled with modern "wardrobe" trunks which did not require unpacking and the cabin doors were made extra wide to accommodate these and the larger chest of drawers were portable and could be removed to a furniture store aboard should wardrobe trunks be used instead. The firm of Rowan & Boden was responsible for soft furnishings and carpets in the accommodation.

"B" Deck accommodation: private verandah suites, outside cabins with bath and inside cabins with private bath.

"Each stateroom is fitted with mahogany bedsteads, good wardrobe accommodation, dressing table, chests of drawers, open type wash basin with running water supply, and full length mirror. The walls are panelled and coloured in various shades, whilst the floors are in designs of ruboleum tiling overlaid with carpet rugs. Each berth is fitted with a reading lamp, which can be full on or dimmed by means of a special switch. The rooms are individually heated and ventilated by a mechanical system, through directional louvres, from which the flow of air can be regulated as desired." A considerable advance on prevailing custom, all plumbing piping and electrical conduits were concealed. A separate circuit enabled the use of electric irons or hair curling irons.

Large communal baths, shower and toilet facilities were situated near every accommodation block. In keeping with her mostly American clientele, Bermuda had an "iced water" system with drinking fountains located in each of the three stairway halls on each deck, the entrance hall of Second Class and various locations in the crew accommodation.

Typical standard cabins on "C" Deck.

Standard cabins were available as single-berth and two-berth with private bath, single-berth, two-berth and some three-berth (the later offered as doubles in the off season) with removable upper berth. Most of the two-berth and some of the single-berth cabins had a full length settee.

Bermuda had a small Second Class, accommodating 75 passengers in 30 with 2-,3-, 4-berths, both outside and inside and with wardrobes and hot and cold running basins aft on "D" and "E" Decks. Two public rooms comprised a lounge aft on "C" Deck and a dining saloon aft on "D" Deck. Photographs of this accommodation are elusive but at least from the descriptions, it was pleasant and attractive for those (mainly residents of Bermuda) using the ship as basic transportion.

Second Class dining saloon and cabins aft on "D" Deck.

The Second Class dining saloon is situated on "D" Deck, and is entered on each side of the vessel from the second reception hall and foyer.

The decoration and furnishings here have been carried out by Waring and Gillow, Ltd., and are modern in character.

The alls are framed in mahogany with almond wood quartered panels, polished to a bleached colour, with the stiles and rails in a darker tone.

The furniture, in lightly polish brown mahogany, comprises seating accommodation for a total of 84 persons, with dining chairs of a modern Sheraton type, tables to seat from two to eight persons, a handsome sideboard and numerous dumb waiters.

The general colour tones of this room are soft brown, relieved by warm reds and orange in the curtains, this soft effect being enhanced by the amber tinted glass in the windows.

The Motor Ship, January 1928

Second Class lounge aft on "C" Deck.

Second Class lounge: this apartment, intended as combined kounge and smoke-room, is situated on C" Deck aft, with access from the entrance and its staircase on this deck.

The decoration and furnishing of this room, carried out by Messrs. Waring and Gillow, is a modern rendering of the 'Colonial Adam' period, a style greatly in vogue in North America during the late XVIIth and early XVIII centuries.

Panelled walls painted in soft tones of buff and ivory are suitably relieved by polished mahogany door frames.

A cosy feature is provided by forming an inglenook to the fireplace with fixed upholstered seats. The fireplace itself is in mellow red bricks with a curb of Portland stone, and contains a bright steel dog grate with an electric fire similar to those in First Class public rooms. Above the fireplace is a handsome decorative mirror.

The Motor Ship, January 1928

Crew accommodation was of a good standard for the era and described by the press release as:

Accommodation for senior engineers is arranged on "D" deck, a special suite of rooms being provided for thw chief engineer, and the remaining seniors provided with single-berth cabins. Separate messrooms for junior and senior engineer., a common engineers' amokeroom and pantry, and senior engineers' lavatory accommodation are else provided on "D" deck, while the junior engineers are accommodated mostly in two-berth cabins on "E" deck, with their own lavatory accommodation. A separate section of accommodation is provided on "E" deck under the first class dining saloon to accommodate the seniors of the domestic staff, including a considerable number of single-berth rooms with their lavatory accommodation, and an officials' smokeroom adjacent. The junior stewards' accommodation is arranged forward of "D" deck and "E" deck, comprising rooms of four, six, eight, 10, and 12, conveniently furnished, and fitted adjacent to their own messroom and lavatory accommodation. The greasers and other engine-room ratings are accommodated also on "E" deck in two-berth, four-berth and six-berth rooms, with their own messroom and lavatory accommodation adjacent. Accommodation for seamen is provided in rooms of three, four, and six the forecastle on "C" deck, while a large house on "C" deck around the forward mast provides accommodation in two-berth rooms for the deck petty officers, including deck electrician, a deck mechanic and two plumbers, with a petty officers' messroom and pantry and their lavatory.

Bermuda was as fine a ship as ever Belfast-built and of a quality and character unsurpassed on the Atlantic seaboard. Now, it was time for her to go to work as a unique luxury "ferry" to the demi paradise of her namesake island.

Bermuda is proud that such a liner should have been put on this route.

She marks an epoch in our development. She will, according to present plans, be on the route all the year round, and that can only mean a tremendous advance both in quality and number of our visitors.

We congratulate everyone concerned. The Company has evinced an optimism of our future that should stimulate us.

The builders and designed have produced a masterpiece, the Captain, officers and crew have proved highly efficient, and it now remains for us to keep pace.

Royal Gazette, 17 January 1928

Few ships made their maiden voyages amid more happy and prosperous times than did Bermuda in January 1928 (although Panama Pacific's California did as well) at the apogee of America's Roaring Twenties amid the peace and plenty of the Coolidge and incoming Hoover Administrations and when Charles Lindbergh, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Mary Pickford were the most celebrated people on the planet. That Bermuda would be, almost uniquely, devoted to the leisure, luxe and high living of the Flapper Age, made her even more an icon of an age and, just as symbolically, shortlived. Today, Tomorrow and Forever was one of 1928's top hits, but alas proved to be just the name of a song.

Looking impressive and festive indeed, despite her fresh gray paint weathered off revealing the original black underneath, Bermuda comes into New York for the first time on 10 January 1928. Credit: Palladium.

Motion picture men and a party of invited guests went down the Bay yesterday to greet the arrival of the Furness Bermuda Line's palatial new motor liner Bermuda arriving from Belfast on her maiden trip. The new 20,000 quadruple screw vessel made the voyage without passengers.

Five hundred and fifty feet long, with accommodation for 600 First Class passengers, the Bermuda has more than eighty cabins with private baths. This feature, the owners say, is the result of the American demand for comfort in ocean travel.

The Evening Journal, 12 January 1928.

"to the tune of sirens, whistles, and flaunting of gayly-coloured bunting." (Royal Gazette), Bermuda arrived at New York on 10 January 1928. Encounting her share of "WNA" (Winter North Atlantic) en route, large patches of her fresh French Gray paint had been wave worn off her hull, revealing the original black underneath, but dressed overall, Bermuda presented a proud and festive appearance nonetheless coming up the North River and docking at Pier 95. She came in on the same tide as Paris, Colombo, Cristobal Colon, Devonian, Vandyck and Jefferson.

Arriving from the Belfast shipyards where she was built, on Wednesday last, the Bermuda made an enviable impression upon those who visited her. Her brief stay in port was marked by a series of functions, starting with an official reception by Furness Bermuda Line executives at the pier and buffet luncheons and inspection by the company's agents, representatives of the press and a number of invited guests.

Buffalo Times, 15 January 1928

The ship hosted an inspection, reception and buffet luncheon on 11 January 1928 for steamship agents, officials and invited guests from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. "The immense dining saloon was used for this occasion. Even at mid-day this truly beautiful room glowed like some soft cream flower under myriads of concealed lights. Over 200 guests at down to almost everything possible in the way of cold viands, while radios brought in luncheon music, which was at times almost drowned out by the gay chatter of business men on a holiday. There was an air of joy of rampant from the stairway to the dock clear into the dining saloon, a spirit caught by the very guards at the entrances, all of whom wore a smile of welcome. Guests took plenty of time to lunch there was no hurry-- and to glimpse the wonders of their surroundings." (Royal Gazette).

The new motor liner Bermuda of the Furness Bermuda Line sailed for Bermuda yesterday afternoon on her maiden voyage with 564 passengers aboard, exceeding by more than 100 persons the previous record for passengers carried by a vessel plying between New York and Bermuda.

Shortly before 11 o'clock the vessel was officially turned over to Capt. H. Jeffries Davis by Capt. W.T. Barlow, operating manager, and Capt. N.M. McDougall, general marine superindendent.

One minute before 11, George M. Whelan, president of the United Cigar Stores Company, hurried up the gangplank. He will occupy one of the regal suites.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 15 January 1928

With every cabin occupied and with many of the elite American winter tourists on her passenger list, the Furness Bermuda Line's new luxury ship Bermuda left New York on her initial trip to Bermuda.

The Gazette, 16 January 1928

Among those aboard were Mr. H.C. Blackiston and a party of 15 invited guests, Mrs. Eugene O'Neill, wife of the noted playwright; Mr. Franklin Coe, editor of Town and Country; and Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Tompkins, Mr. Tompkins being referred to as "the Bermuda commuter having made more than 80 trips between his Bermuda home and New York." Also aboard were Dr. M. Seratti of Lloyd Sabaudo, Capt. A. Rustini of NGI Pierre De Malglaive of French Line and, of course, several bridal couples on what had already been established as one of the East Coast's favourite honeymoon voyages.

Capt. Jeffries-Davis.Credit: Brooklyn Eagle

Captain H. Jeffries-Davis (1879-1963) commanded Bermuda through her career. Born in Stratford-on-Avon, it was said that "as a youth he contracted a dislike for land through having repeatedly to show visiting relatives Shakespearean landmarks." At 15, he became a cadet on the training ship Worcester and in 1897 joined the sailing ship Blythswood in which he served for three years, rising to Third Officer, and rounded Cape Horn twice. In 1901 he made his first North Atlantic voyage as second mate of the sailing ship Windsor, taking 96 days from Cardiff to New York. In 1905 Jeffries-Davis joined Prince Lines. In 1910, whilst serving aboard Syrian Prince in the Mediterranean, he rescued a seaman who had fallen overboard and could not swim, earning him a personal letter of commendation from the Prince of Wales. In command of French Prince, en route from Argentina to Cherbourg in 1917, Jeffries-Davis and his crew were taken prisoners when the German raider Moewe shelled and sank his ship, spending the rest of the war as a POW. In 1920 in joined Furness Bermuda, commanding Fort St. George. Known as "The Captain Courteous" whom the Bermudian magazine in 1930 described as "no one else so well equipped to a write a treatise on 'Habits of Honeymooners " and possessing "a genial smile, kindly eye-twinkle and thoughtful patience."

Bermuda's deck boys. Credit: Belfast Telegraph, 20 January 1928.

Just beginning their careers at sea were four lucky Belfast lads-- Cadets T. Reilly, T. Lyttle, H. Hatton and S. Black-- who signed on as deck boys, part a unit of Sea Cadets sponsored by the British Sailors' Society. At the conclusion of Bermuda's delivery voyage, Captain Jeffries-Davis reported "he was very pleased with the appearance and smartness of the boys."

Principal officers for the maiden voyage were Staff Captain Capt. William A. Charlton, Chief Officer Leslie F. Banyard, Chief Engineer W.R. Allan, Staff Chief Engineer W.G. Milroy, Purser E.G. Miller, Chief Steward James Edgar and Surgeon J.M. Davis.

The story of the maiden voyage of the new Q.S.M.S. Bermuda would truly be a fairy sail to fairy land, or a flight to paradise, landing as the great ship did, in a restful tropical atmosphere; furthermore, it would require the pen of a combined architect, a poet, a painter, and an artist in every department of the ship to present properly an account of her comforts, her homelike surroundings, her beauty of construction, her gentility, the extreme courtesy of her executive officers, the good-nature of her stewards, who, although in absolute strange territory, yet made the best of things and attended to the many desires of the passengers with splendid service. Indeed, all the complement of crew which comes into active contact with the travellers deserve first place in a hymn of praise and congratulation for their excellent behaviour on this, the first New York-Bermuda voyage of the Bermuda.

Her whistles boomed a warning to passing craft, good-byes were shouted, hats, coats, anything portable were waved-- their last messages were wireless in pantomine, and she was in the stream. She was kept busy answering shore salutes, her siren was going almost continually as big liners greeted her with 'Good Luck' on her way down the Hudson. All official and semi-official eyes were upon the big gray mass as she begin to pick up speed and nose toward the Narrows. And then everybody turned to look about them. And right here was one of the most delightful sensations of the beginning of the voyage. The ship was new to everybody-- and both crew and passengers were equally excited and enthusiastic.

The bigness of the Bermuda caused a lot of fun. Friends made strict engagements for meeting at certain corners of the ship, on pain of being separated for the entire trip; whole flocks of girls trying to find their way about asking any questions of the stewards——simply trying to solve the puzzle of the vast decks, smoking room, lounge and foyers on their own. This attitude made the whole crowd feel at home, and even on sueh a large ship there was air of friendliness among the whole passenger list, five hours after leaving New York

The day was rather drab as to sky, but crisp as to air. The lounging deck, with its quota of deck-chairswas soon the resting-place of the majority. Every chair had its robe, blue and crimson, with the Line's insignia woven on the blue side. But the shade of red made the whole deck send out a cordial invitation to weary walkers—it was a happy thought, this colour scheme for the robes. The land faded away, and the afternoon approached, and the first luncheon at sea.

The great dining saloon is capable of caring for the entire ships capacity in two sittings. The tables are arranged with taste and with the new equipment, everything glistened throughout the room. But it remained for the dinner hour to bring forth the subtle wonder of this room. It was a brilliant scene—soft colours from the lighting on soft gowns of charming women—gay parties surrounding large tables, cozily appointed table, for two, and above in the music balcony, music.

One should not forget that, just previous to dinner, many had found their way to the swimming pool—a room which will prove a surprise to all who see lt. Here is a beautiful tiled pool in a Roman setting, red and gold, with five hundredhigh-powered lights giving an indirect radiance to the scene. The picture of graceful girls plunging into the warmed water was one of the pleasanest features of the voyage. Fun with floating alligators, horses and swan, all life-like, and blown up in rubber, added to the hilarity—and many a fair form flashed into the air in an unsuccessful effort to keep upright on the toys. Bathing booths, dressing-rooms, shower-baths, surround the pool, and classic benches offer seats for visitors. Baching suits may be had and In fact, everything for complete swimming and diving enjoyment. A plunge in the pool, a shower and a brisk rubdown, and then dinner!

Royal Gazette, 17 January 1928

Front page headline in the Royal Gazette, Hamilton, 17 January 1928.

Hamilton, Bermuda, Jan 16 At 11 o'clock this morning the new motorship Bermuda docked at Hamilton, Bermuda, having completed her first trip on the New York-Bermuda service. She brought down some 600 passengers and entered Hamilton harbour bedecked with flags, and was greeted by a gaily decorated city and large crowd of people. She is the last word in ship building and everything possible for the comfort and pleasure of passengers has been embodied.

Daily Gleaner, 18 January 1928

Coming into St. George's, Bermuda, on the morning of 16 January 1928, piloted by George H. Minors, Bermuda anchored in Murray's Anchorage. After practique was granted by Dr. P.W. G. Shelly, some passengers, mails and light freight was transferred to the tender Bermudiana (Capt. Harris) and landed at Market Wharf. Bermuda's new Governor Sir Louis Bois, embarked for the short trip to Hamiliton where Pilot Minors brought her in under difficult conditions with a dead low tide and a northeast wind, and had her alongside No. 1 shed at Hamilton "as snug as a small craft."

Old Front Street, Hamilton's waterfront thoroughfare, was thronged with people when the Bermuda came into port. All the business houses had the Union Jack flying and there was a din of welcome from the small water-craft which accompanied the new ship into the harbor. The Mayors of Hamilton and St. George's, W.A. Black and W.J. Boyle, were on hand to welcome it on behalf on the two corporations and in the welcoming party were also many notable Bermudians."

Democrat & Chronicle, 5 February 1928

Unlike the Forts, Bermuda was registered in Hamilton, Bermuda, so what was truly a homecoming was accomplished amid some of the greatest celebrations witnessed in the port for some time. Nothing like her had been seen in the Colony and she was was very much Bermuda's own. Indeed, no British possession could boast of so fine and regular service as she would henceforth maintain.

Bermuda "home" for the first time, alongside Berth No. 1, Hamilton. Credit: thad, shipsnostalgia.com

The Mayor Hamilton, A.W. Bluck, Esq., sent a cable to Sir Frederick Lewis, chairman of Messrs. Furness, Withy & Co., London,

Congratulations on splendid ship successfully docked yesterday. Just sailed. Bermuda greatly appreciated the Bermuda.

Bluck, Mayor

Sir Frederick replied

Thanks for your cable. Bermuda's appreciation of the "Bermuda" is very gratifying to us. Hope ship will be as popular as the island is.

Frederick Lewis

The chairman also cabled congratulating Capt. Davis, Chief Engineer W.R. Allan and other responsible for the success of the maiden voyage of the new ship.

Local Hamilton merchants welcomed the maiden arrival of Bermuda including the redoutable Trimingham Bros. department store (which sadly closed in 2005 after 163 years trading) and Wadson's whose Victor record service was enhanced by the new ship's regular deliveries from New York. Credit: Royal Gazette, 16 January 1928.

Bermuda was opened to public inspection for a fee of 1/- which netted a sum of £178 12 s. 6 d. which was donated to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, indicating upwards of 4,000 availed themselves of the opportunity. "In the afternoon, crowds of people went over the ship, but just as many found it impossible to get aboard, so great was the crowd… Everybody privileged to inspect her was amazed at her beauty and completeness. A short visit is insufficient to appraise her at her full value, but both in England and New York eminent experts have pronounced her 'the finest ship afloat." (Royal Gazette).

Picture Perfect (so much so it was later used as a popular postcard): Bermuda at her Front Street, Hamilton, berth on her maiden call as photographed from the Paget shore opposite. Credit: Stephen J. Card.

Bermuda sailed on her maiden northbound crossing on 17 January 1928, arriving at New York on the 19th.

Sailing list showing the final voyages of Fort St. George and the introducton of Bermuda which, partnered with Fort Victoria, would maintain the twice-weekly service from New York... a true ocean ferry operation. Credit: Royal Gazette, 16 January 1928.

Replaced by the new flagship, Fort St. George made her final voyage to Hamilton for some time on 7 January 1928, turning around at Hamilton 9-10th and returning to New York on the 12th. She was reassigned to the line's West Indies run. Fort Victoria would be Bermuda's running mate, holding down the midweek Wednesday sailings from New York.

So Bermuda began her career, one of the most exacting and ardurous of any short sea vessel for whilst the voyage was short (668 nautical miles each way), the operational pattern was probably the most intense of any liner service in the world and more akin to that of a ferry in its regularity and frequency. She would leave New York on Saturday, arrive Hamilton Mondays, leave Tuesday and arrive back at New York on Thursday, every week save one three-week annual overhaul in summer and another shorter drydocking just before the busy winter season. In a given year, Bermuda would complete some 45 round voyages, totalling 64,000 miles.

Bermuda, in fact, served two ports on the island, calling first southbound at St. George's where she anchored in Murray's Anchorage to discharge first class mail, some light cargo and passengers (usually numbering 60-100) onto the Furness tender Bermudiana, most of whom were destined for the Furness-owned St. George Hotel, before proceeding to Hamilton, passing though the famous Two Rock Passage and taking her preferred priority berth at no. 1 pier. Forty hours after departing New York, her passengers disembarked literally in the heart of the island's capital, Front Street, and the Bermudiana Hotel was but a short carriage ride away.

Bermuda at her preferred berth right in the heart of Hamilton along Front Street. The Bermudiana Hotel is at the extreme upper right. Credit: https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/

Here, it should be noted that Bermuda was indeed a liner, not a cruise ship in her deployment, and no passengers were accommodated aboard whilst in port in Bermuda except during the 1928 summer season as an experiment. Indeed, to encourage their hotel trade (as much or more a part of the corporate income as the ships) Furness prevailed on the Bermuda Assembly to prohibit overnight calls by cruise ships, something which remained in effect until 1953. Further, only Furness and Royal Mail (and later Canadian National) had the privilaged Front Street berth whereas cruise ships were obliged to anchor in Grassy Bay attended by tenders.

At a time when liners on most routes had turnarounds in ports of up to a week or even more, Bermuda's were measured in 24 hours in Bermuda and 48 in New York. This took on added burden given she was the first motorliner engaged on such a short turnaround service, something seriously doubted at the time when high-speed diesels required routine and extensive maintenance between voyages, piston ring changes etc. As such, she proved the doubters wrong and was a remarkably reliable ship and a triumph of the new Doxford diesel although owing as much to the hard and diligent work of her engineers.

A working ship and lifeline to the island colony of Bermuda, Bermuda's weekly comings and goings always featured in Royal Gazette, especially in regards to closing dates and times for mails and parcels from St. George's and Hamilton for the U.S. and, via transhippment in New York, for Great Britain, Canada and Newfoundland.

Bermuda was a true "working" liner, carrying Royal Mail and the U.S. Mails under contract and proudly flying a Royal Mail Pennant as an "R.M.S." or, more appropriately, an "R.M.M.V." although Furness oddly demurred from using either prefixes, possibly out of deference to Royal Mail Line, which had long maintained services to Bermuda, or indeed to avoid confusion with it. With same day transhippment at New York to express Atlantic liner for Southampton, she offered the fastest mail service to Britain from Bermuda, faster even than the direct RMSP service to England.

The ship carried cargo, too, and southbound, her holds were packed with goods of the great American consumer age from phonograph records to toasters although as a British colony, tariffs and import fees favoured British goods as did the tourists who bought woolens etc. during their visit. Much of her cargo were the high class foodstuffs and provisions for Furness' luxury hotels right down to 2,500 tons of drinking water carried in special tanks to an island frequently short on this essential. Northbound, it was mostly Bermuda produce although by 1928 the heyday of the redoubtable Bermuda onion was all but passed after World War One caused Texan and California to produce their own version. Bermuda's main product became the raison d'etre of Bermuda: American tourism and no highly valued or pricey commodity existed and it became the mainstay of the island's economy.

Another "cargo," which, like her passenger trade, was spurred by Prohibition, was illegal smuggling of liquor from "wet" Bermuda to "dry" America and "bootlegging" by members of her crew was a neverending problem although ruthlessly rooted out by the ship's officers and customs agents for whom the ship and crew were a regular object of special searches on arrival.

Bermuda was unusual as a point-to-point liner catering almost entirely to First Class passengers, something shared at the time only with her contemporary Malolo on the California-Hawaii run. The quality of the cuisine, accommodation, furnishings and above all, service, was "tops" and designed, like the hotels, to cater to the upper echelons of American society and tastes of the period. This entailed exacting service and standards by her large (255) catering staff and stewards and Furness saw to it that not even the most famous Atlantic liners of the day could better them. The work was demanding, but with the habit of Americans to tip everyone for everything, it was reckoned that to be a Furness Bermuda steward and especially an eager bellboy, was the best paid job in the merchant service when just opening the door to the dining saloon or to the lift, was rewarded with a quarter or more.

In my experienced in world travel, I would unhesitatingly say that the new motor ship Bermuda was the finest vessel of her size that I have ever seen, and probably the premier ship of the world in her new style power equipment. This ship is not only a marvel of steadiness in a sea, but her new method of driving her propellers has almost entirely eliminated mechanical vibrations. One realises that a revolution in ocean travel has actually occurred, and that the passing of the steam vessel is but a question of time. The ventilation system on the Bermuda is also a marvel of efficiency. It absolutely eliminated all ship odours.

Mr. Arthur F. Clark, passenger aboard Bermuda

Royal Gazette, 21 January 1928

On her third arrival at Hamilton on 30 January 1928 with 561 passengers, Bermuda hosted a reception for hundreds of guests who "enjoyed the hospitality of Messrs. Furness, Withy & Company and highly appreciated the opportunity to inspect the huge and luxurious new ship." (Royal Gazette, 1 February 1928).

Bermuda sailed on 4 February 1928 with 550 passengers including a number of professional golfers playing in the Bermuda Open Championship at the Mid Ocean Club on the 7-11th. The new ship continued to carry capacity loads and had 570 aboard when she arrived at Hamilton on 13th and 593 on the 19th.

A low lying white fog blanketed New York Harbor on 23 February 1928, so thick that customs officials could not leave port to meet that morning's incoming vessels off Quarantine which included Colombo, Adriatic, President Harrison, Yarmouth and Bermuda. They did not leave Quarantine until noon.

On 17 March 1928, Bermuda sailed from New York with Sir Frederick W. Lewis, Chairman of the Board of Furness, Withy and Co. Ltd.; Sir Osborn Helmden, KBE, Director and Mr. H.C. Blackiston, Director on an inspection tour of Bermuda. On the eve of his departure from the Colony on the 27th, Sir Frederick entertained the Governor and members of the Legislature aboard Bermuda "The guests were received at the ship by Sir Frederick Lewis, Mr. H.C. Blackiston, and Sir Osborn Holden, also of the company, and assembled in the smoking room until the bugles played 'The Roast Beef of Old England' and announced the serving of dinner. This took place in the magnificent dining room, and a very excellent menu was ably served." (Royal Gazette, 28 March 1928).

As an experiment, Furness announced on 13 April 1928 that for Bermuda, beginning in June for the summer season, "occupants of certain de luxe accommodations may retain their rooms throughout the enire round trip of five, thus obviating the necessity of hotel reservations and the transfer of baggage, etc. for this one night spent at the islands. It was further added that "her orchestra has been augmented to nine pieces and officials of the line state that dancing will be continued in the special glass enclosed Dancing Deck accommodation 200 couples into the small hours of the night, with the veranda café opened through that time.

Such was the demand for space that Fort St. George was seconded for a special roundtrip to Bermuda to handle the overflow bookings. With 900 passengers between them, she and Bermuda departed New York on 25 April 1928, the largest number of travellers to sail from the port to Bermuda in a single day.

It was announced that the ship would remain in service that summer despite "very attractive offers have been made to charter this ship on time basis for cruising purposes" and additionally, the Hamilton Hotel would remain open in summer.

A fine study of Bermuda heading down the North River.

On 3 May 1928 it was announced that the Bermuda Government had renewed its mail contract with Furness Withy, paying £20,000 per annum over a period of four and half years beginning 1 July. If a second ship of same specification as Bermuda were put on the route, the subsidy would increase to £25,000 per annum.

A combination of smoke and fog conspired to delay ships arriving and departing from New York on 21 May 1928 including Bermuda, Leviathan, Albert Ballin, American Banker, Suffren, Ponce and Coamo. Shippers estimated the weather which persisted over the weekend cost them $3 mn.

Bermuda would be off the run upon arrival at New York on 10 May 1928 until 1 June for her first drydocking in New York and Fort Victoria would maintain a weekly service singlehandly during this period.

Advertisement for Furness' expanded summer Bermuda programme including Bermuda's five-day "stay aboard" roundtrips utilising only her private facility cabins during the summer season. Credit: Morning Call, 9 June 1928.

The return of the motorship Bermuda to the New York route, after an absence of four weeks, and the opening of the Hamilton Hotel for the summer season within a few weeks, are indications of Bermuda's expectations of the largest summer season which the colony has yet enjoyed.

A few years ago it would have been considered incredible that a ship the size of the 20,000-ton Bermuda could be operated profitably between New York and the mid ocean islands during the summer season, but lately more visitors have come to Bermuda in summer than during winter, this being party due to the fact that the summer months season is more prolonged than that of the colder months.

Democrat and Chronicle, 3 June 1928

During the Annual Meeting of the Company in London on 25 July 1928, Sir Frederick W. Lewis told stockholders: "Since I last addressed you the quadruple screw motorship Bermuda has been put into commission, and I am glad to say she has already proved herself an unqualified success… On several occasions during the height ot the season-- which is a comparatively short one-- she has sailed with a full passenger list, and although when she was designed we had in mind utilising the vessel for cruises during the summer months, the question of retaining her in the Bermuda trade all the year round, coupled with the renewal of the expiring subsidy contract, was raised on my recent visit to the island… we are now trying out the experiment of running the Bermuda during the summer months on a regular weekly schedule from New York."

Capt. C.M. Armstrong, Passenger Traffic Manager for Furness Bermuda Line, announced on 4 August 1928 that bookings "continue to run far ahead of previous years. "The public is realising more and more that Bermuda is not merely a winter resort, but is delightful year round. I believe that accounts for the increasing popularity of the islands this summer." On the 9th, Royal Mail announced that Avon would enter New York-Bermuda run in December to compete with Bermuda and Fort Victoria.

Just before embarking passengers at St. George's for Bermuda outbound for New York on 7 August 1928, fire broke out aboard the tender Bermudian. This was duly extinguished by her crew without the Corporation fire engine needed, but Bermudian was excused duty until the damage was assessed and made good. A steam launch was employed to take the baggage out to Bermuda whilst the "good old Gladisfen, with her colours flying" (Royal Gazette) came alongside to embark the passengers and Bermuda was off on her way by noon. Bermudian was back in service for Bermuda's next arrival.

Unintended passengers, "socially prominent young men" John A. Brothers, George V. Brothers and Charles A Banfield returned to New York aboard Bermuda on 30 August 1928 along with their 32-ft. motorboat Banfield. The three had set off on 16 August for Spain but abandoned the voyage upon arrival at Bermuda owing to bad weather all the way and their water supply going bad, and "they finished the trip drinking tomato juice with their meals." It was reported that Mrs. Banfield, "who wept bitterly when her husband set sail from the Columbia Yacht Club, welcome him home today with smiles."

On 1 September 1928 Bermuda left New York with a valuable cargo of 60 English-America White Leghorn pullets from Chester Country, Pennsylvania, destined for the Agriculture Station in Paget East, Bermuda, for breeding purposes.

When Bermuda left New York on 29 September 1928, every one of her cabins was occupied. The busy ship went off the run upon arrival at New York on 1 November for drydocking and resumed service on the 17th. She held down the service singlehanded from the 26th to 19 December to allow Fort Victoria to undergo her own annual refit.

Credit: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 9 December 1928.

During her first year in service, Bermuda completed 45 round voyages totalling 63,500 nautical miles.

1929

During Bermuda's call at Hamilton on 12 February 1929 news came of the death of Capt. Jeffries-Davis' youngest son, Philip, at school at Steyning, England of septicaemia. Well known in Bermuda where he spent much of his boyhood, the Gazette reported that "on receipt of the news, flags were flown at half-mast throughout the Colony and every expression of sincere sympathy with Captain Jeffries-Davis was shown." (Royal Gazette).

Passengers returning from sub tropical Bermuda came home to a blinding snowstorm as Bermuda approached New York on 21 February 1929 and joined the inbound Lapland and Leviathan in lingering in the vicinity of Ambrose Light waiting for the snow to clear before proceeding into the harbor. She finally docked some three hours late.

Credit: Daily News, 24 February 1929.

Sailing for Bermuda on 24 February 1929 were two one-time nominees for President of the United States, Charles Evans Hughes (who ran against Woodrow Wilson in 1916) and John W. Davis (who ran against Calvin Coolidge in 1924), and their families but travelling separately, "each family holding its own show, Hughes told reporters. Also aboard was Paul Revere, great-great-grandson of the revolutionary hero.

Credit: Buffalo Times, 20 February 1929.

One of the worst fogs of the season blanketed New York on 14 March 1929, reducing visibility to 15 feet. In addition to proving ideal weather from rum runners (against whom the Customs Dept. dispatched 100 guards in "eight fast power boats," to stop from landing under cover of the fog, the conditions delayed the incoming American transport Cambrai and Bermuda when customs boats could not meet them off Quarantine for some hours.

The American Yachting Team and their four racing sloops left New York aboard Bermuda on 30 March 1929 destined to compete against the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club 4-8 April. More than 100 yachting enthusiasts and supporters were also aboard. She and Fort St. George arrived together at St. George's on 1 April, both worked at Murray's Bay by Bermudian before proceeding to Hamilton. To cope with another overbooked Easter season, Fort St. George was diverted to the Bermuda for two weeks.

Credit: Adventure, April 1929

In a report given before the Bermuda Assembly on 3 May 1929, a marked increased in visitors to Bermuda was noted, "the chief factor in the increase is indoubtedly the operation of the fine motor ship Bermuda. The preference shown for travel by larger and speedier boat had the effect of lessening the business of the small boats, except during the peak of the season, and it is obvious that if the steamship companies and others are to reap the full benefit of potential trade, new boats will have to be on the route and a balance adjusted."

The Evening Journal (Wilmington) of 16 August 1929 picked up the New York Times' article on Bermuda's "Midget Bellhops."

Credit: Gazette, 23 August 1929

Responding to a story in the New York Times in August 1929 which referred to Bermuda's bellboys as "midget bell hops" and "little fellows" who because of their size, "received many and large tips," the three bellboys-- H. MacRonald (14), Irwin Harris (15) and George Taggart (15)-- objected to the article and the reference that they "resented passengers wanting to read bedtime stories to them and pat them on the head." Although Mr. MacRonald told a reporter "If anybody comes down to the ship to try and pat us on the head, it would end up with them getting patted on the head, but with a nice big brick." In the end, the New York Times printed a retraction but the controversy caused resulted in the sack for all three of the lads.

I should not conclude my summary of the activities of our associated companies without making reference to the M.s. Bermuda. In consequence of its having been her first full year's trading, she carried a record number of passengers between New York and Bermuda, and her popularity has been in every way enhanced.

Sir Frederick W. Lewis, statement at the 38th annual General Meeting in London, 14 August 1929

It made the news when the normally "set your watch by her" Bermuda arrived late at Hamilton after 10:00 a.m. on 16 September 1929 with over 600 passengers after encountering fog for 100 miles after departing New York. She blotted her copy book on the next voyage as well after battling an easterly gale for much of the voyage causing her to arrive at Hamilton on the 25th several hours later than usual.

Bermuda underwent drydocking at New York from 31 October and resumed service on 16 November 1929.

Mr. H.C. Blackiston, managing director of Furness Withy North America, arrived at Hamilton aboard Bermuda on 25 November 1929 with other officials of the line. Included in his inspection trip to Bermuda was the official inauguration of the new tender Mid-Ocean. Built by Blythswood Shipbuilding Co., Ltd, Glasgow, the handsome 176 ft. x 33 ft. twin-screw tender was designed for general duties based out of Hamilton. After trials in early October, the vessel made the trans-Atlantic crossing to Bermuda where she was registered on 12 November.

The handsome Furness tender Mid-Ocean, introduced in November 1929, and renamed Castle Harbour in 1930. Credit: Alamy.

With a large party of invited guests including Capt. Mackenzie, Capt. Charlton, Capt. McDongall and the H.W. Watlington, Furness agent, and his son Hereward who was operating managing of the new vessel, Mid-Ocean was officially inaugurated with a voyage to St. George's via the South Shore and Tucker's Town to see the site of the new Castle Harbour hotel development. Luncheon was served aboard attended by the Governor, Chief Justice and Speaker before Mid-Ocean returned to Hamilton.

One of Mid-Ocean's first duties was to transport labourers from Suriname to Bermuda engaged to construct the new Castle Harbour Hotel in Tucker's Town as Furness continued to expand their booming Bermuda tourist business.

Furness Bermuda suffered the first of a remarkable series of mishaps when on 18 December 1929, after departing New York for Bermuda, Fort Victoria, with 171 passengers, was rammed by the outbound Clyde-Mallory liner Algonquin, outbound for Galveston, in dense fog off the entrance to Ambrose Channel. Impaled on her portside, Fort Victoria was mortally wounded and after all her people were safely evacuated in lifeboats and quickly rescued by an armada of small craft, she sank at 7:30 p.m. Capt. A.R. Francis and his crew were widely praised for their coolness and seamanship in the accident, but Furness faced a major blow to their operations.

Wasting little time and advancing plans already well in hand for a companion to the hugely successful Bermuda, invited tenders for a new, larger turbo-electric version of the vessel on 25 January 1930 whilst placing Fort St. George back on the Bermuda run. The choice of turbo-electric machinery was dictated more by the advances in that propulsion and cheaper fuel than diesel rather than any disappointment with Bermuda's diesel machinery.

In 1929, Bermuda completed 48 voyages, totalling 68,100 miles.

1930

Ordered in February 1930 from Vickers-Armstrong, the new ship, to be named Empire State, was designed by same team as Bermuda and due to enter service in June 1931. Meanwhile, as annnounced on 6 March 1930 Furness chartered the Holland America liner Veendam (1923/15,450 grt) to partner with Bermuda until the new ship came on line with Fort St. George reassigned back to the Red Cross line.

Founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell, and Lady Baden-Powell arrived at New York aboard Bermuda 6 March 1930.

When Bermuda arrived at Hamilton on 11 March 1930, "yachtsmen were afoot" to see three six-metre racing yachts she was carrying, built in Norway to the designs of Bjarne Ass, for delivery to Bermuda owners. "As the good ship drew alongside, the three boats were seen on the foredeck, and from first sight they made a very favourable impression. They were soon lifted from their cradles and lowered into the water, and eager hand stepped the masts and set up the standing rigging, and by 4 o'clock the three craft were moored at their home port." (Royal Gazette, 12 March 1930). They were named Achilles, Sea Venture and Viking.

Bermuda carried a record 663 passengers on her 29 March sailing from New York to Hamilton, arriving 31st.

Mayor James J. Walker passed the Statue of Liberty today in pajamas, lying comfortably in his bed in the lyric suite of the liner Bermuda, his vacation on the semi-tropical isle ended.

Times Union, 16 May 1930

New York Mayor James "Jimmie" Walker arrived in Hamilton on 3 May 1930 aboard the RMSP Arcadian, met by the Mayor of Hamilton. He was to have returned in Bermuda on the 7th but extended his stay for a week and sailed on the 14th, arriving back at New York on the 16th where the ship was met by hordes of reporters and newsreel men. The Mayor telling that while he enjoyed his rest in Bermuda and playing golf, his score reminded him of the city's budget.

On 4 June 1930, Capt. Jeffries-Davis was a rare passenger for a change, sailiing from Boston in the Furness liner Nova Scotia, accompanied by his wife and daughter, bound for Liverpool. He was going over primarily to consult and supervise aspects of the construction of the new Empire State on Tyneside.

After filling-in for the lost Fort Victoria for six months, Fort St. George left New York on 14 June 1930 on her last voyage to Hamilton, turning around there 16-17th and returning on the 19th. She would spend the summer on the Furness Red Cross line in Canada. The chartered Veendam made her first trip under charter to Furness to Bermuda from New York on 2 July, arriving there on 4th and henceforth held down the Wednesday sailing. Accomodating some 650 passengers in her combined First and Second Class accommodation, she was far more luxurious than the old Forts and with far greater capacity and would do yeoman work until the arrival of the new ship.

On 28 June 1930 Furness announced that was to called Empire State will now be named Mid-Ocean and the tender of the same name to be renamed Castle Harbour.

Bermuda and Veendam carried more passengers in July 1930 than any similar period in the company's history.

Bermuda and Canadian National's Lady Drake were held up in Bermuda for 24 hours on 26 August 1930 by a gale that was greeted almost by relief in Bermuda which just missed a hurricane threatening the island. Instead of sailing as scheduled, "the Lady Drake and the M.S. Bermuda lay snugly harboured, rocking in the wind, but afraid to venture into the hurricane raging at sea. They should be able to put out today, unless the tempest returns." (Royal Gazette, 27 August 1930). She sailed at 9:00 a.m., 23 hours but was able to keep to her original departure from New York.

In 1930, Bermuda completed 46 round voyages, totalling 65,320 nautical miles.

1931

On New Years Day, the beginning of the winter season and opening of the Hamilton, Princess and Bemudiana hotels, Capt. C.M. Armstrong, Passenger Traffic Manager of Furness Bermuda, pointed out that the bookings to Bermuda were the heaviest in history. Between 20-31 December 1929, the line carried 1,258 passengers whereas for the same period in 1930, the total was exceeded 2,400.

Monday, Bermuda's traditional "Boat Day," became "Ships Day" with the arrival of the CPR liner Duchess of York on 9 February 1931 at Hamilton to inaugurate a new regular competing service from New York.

Credit: The Gazette, 10 February 1931.

When Mrs. Samuel Riker, Jr., Tucker's Town, received a cable from New York on 18 February 1931 that her daughter was seriously ill, it was too late to embark on Bermuda which had already sailed. Through the line's local agents Messrs. Watlington and Conyers, the ship was radioed at 1:30 p.m. and put back towards Hamilton. It was arranged to have Mrs. Riker embark on Castle Harbour which took her out to near Murray's Anchorage to rendezvous with Bermuda at 2:00 p.m. which then proceeded to New York by 3:00 p.m.

In what the Royal Gazette (3 February 1931) described as "probably a day unparalleled in Bermuda's shipping history," five ships had passed through Two Rock passage and entered Hamilton Harbour on 2 February 1931. Of these, four were liners including CPR's Duchess of York, on her maiden call and ranking as the largest ship yet to enter the harbour, the CNS's Prince Rupert, the CN Lady Somers from the south and Bermuda as well as the freighter Alkleaf from London. This armada overtaxed the port facilities and whilst Bermuda had her usual berth at No. 1 Shed and the big CPR liner tied at No. 6, Prince Rupert had to anchor in harbour and land her passengers by tender. "Bermuda sure can lay claim to be the busiest port for its size in the world." (Royal Gazette).

Bermuda at Hamilton in March 1931. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com

What had been first to be called Empire State, then Mid Ocean, was christened Monarch of Bermuda by Lady Lewis at Tyneside on 17 March 1931.

Bermuda has been witnessing the greatest influx of visitors ever here at one time. Eight liners from New York poured out 4,250 passengers to spend Easter week on British soil. That number falls only 2,000 short of the what has heretofore constituted a record arrival for the entire month.

The influx begin Friday, when the Furness liner Veendam arrived with 470 passengers. On Easter Sunday six liners arrived and not only taxed harbor facilities to the limit, but also filled Grassy Bay Anchorage with ships. In the line-up were the Munson liner Pan American and Evangeline with 273 and 350 passengers respectively; Cunard liners Cameronia and Transylvania, chartered by National Tours with 743 and 740 passengers respectively; Furness liner Fort St. George, with 239, and the Canadian Pacific liner Duchess of York with 750.

On Monday the Furness liner Bermuda arrived with 685 with the result that the cities of Hamilton and St. George are swarming with people, and the hotels and boarding houses are at a loss to know where to put their guests until departures make room for the newcomers.

Philadelphia Inquirer 12 April 1931

Such was Easter Season demand for travel to Bermuda, burgeoned by a large number of American students and teachers, that a record 2,000 travellers would sail in three Furness ships between 28 March and 4 April 1931 with Fort St. George seconded from her West Indies run to help carry the overflow. Bermuda sailed from New York on 28 March with 680 passengers, largely made up of students and teachers from schools and colleges in New England and Pennsylvania. They would arrive in Bermuda on the 30th and sail for home in Veendam, arriving on 6 April. Fort St. George would sail from New York on Good Friday with 300 aboard followed the next day by Veendam with 600.

Stephen J. Card's wonderful painting of the one and only encounter of Britain's two Atlantic quadruple-screw motorliners-- Reina del Pacifico and Bermuda-- in Grassy Bay, Bermuda, on 20 April 1931. The Pacific Steam Nav. flagship was outbound on her maiden voyage. Credit: Stephen J. Card via shipsnostalgia.com

Bermuda would have the distinction of being a regular port of call for two of Britain's three quadruple-screw motorliners when Pacific Steam Navigation's flyer Reina del Pacifico called there on 20 April 1931 on her outbound maiden voyage from Liverpool to Valparaiso. Anchored in Grassy Bay, she disembarked 209 passengers including the new Governor General of Bermuda Sir T.A. Cubitt, KCB. Rather wonderfully, Bermuda arrived the same day from New York and passed her "Q.S.M.V." cousin en route to her Hamilton berth. It would prove to be only time they met.

On 16 May 1931 Furness Bermuda released figures showing a record winter season with 16,186 southbound passengers carried to date in 1931 or an increase of 1,687 over previous years. Anticipated that nearly 35,000 will be carried total from 1 December 1930-30 May 1931.

It was announced on 18 May 1931 that with effect 3 June Bermuda would arrive at Hamilton Monday and sail Wednesday instead of Tuesdays and this could continue through the summer season. Fort St. George relieved Bermuda for three voyages 6-25 May to enable her to be drydocked.

On her 21st voyage that year, Bermuda docked at Hamilton on 15 June 1931.

Bermuda being turned around prior to coming alongside at Hamilton, her gangway doors already opened. Credit: Steamship Historical Society of America.

To the naval forces it was another fire, but to us it was our ship, and, as you know, she was a source of joy and pride not only to me but to all of us.

Capt. Jeffries-Davis, report on fire aboard Bermuda, June 1931

'It was sight to make angels weep.' said a spectator of the ruins of the once beautiful Bermuda.

Larne Times, 28 November 1931

In the early morning of 17 June 1931, Bermuda lay alongside Berth 1, Hamilton, and scheduled to sail that afternoon for New York. With no passengers, save one, aboard, her duty crew comprised Cadet William Henry Hannaford, four night stewards and Messrs. Wood and Blue, Deck Night Watchmen and in the Engine Room, the 7th Engineer and an oiler.

Around 2:30 a.m. Watchman Herbert Wood smelled smoke and investigated, leading him forward on E Deck to cabin 405 where he found a fire in the bedding and surrounding woodwork which he extinguished with two extinguishers. On his way to report, he found smoke coming from aft on C Deck and heard four stewardesses screaming for help. He helped them off the ship and then ran to the bridge to give the alarm.

Meanwhile, the other watchman, Sherwood Blue, was hailed by a shoreside watchman around 2:45 a.m. who said there was a fire aft. He ran aft on the starboardside of Sun Deck and down to the Promenade Deck where he saw flames coming from the Second Class scuttle hatch and soon enveloped in smoke from the portside. Running forward, he broke two fire alarms en route and aroused the crew and ran into the 7th Engineer who had also smelled smoke and was, also, running towards to the bridge.

Chief Engineer Joseph Hardy was called at 2:25 a.m. by the Chief Staff Engineer and ordered the pumps started and the forced draught ventilation system turned off.

Capt. Jeffries-Davis was awakened in his quarters behind the bridge by Third Officer Carter at 2:50 a.m. and ordered the general alarm and ordered the engine room to put the water pumps on. In a bathrobe and slippers, Jeffries-Davis was on Sun Deck within two minutes and saw dense smoke coming out of the midships entrances and the same on A Deck, at which he returned to the bridge for a gas mask. The bridge quickly became untenable with the observation lounge just below fully ablaze and the captain was barely able to escape, five minutes before the wood companion way from the bridge collapsed in flames.

As reported in the Royal Gazette (20 June 1931), one of first to discover the fire were Mr. Louis Selley and Mr. Alfred Frith who were cycling home early in the morning of 17 June when, approaching Bermuda along Front Street, they saw smoke coming from Sun Deck just aft of the second funnel at about 2:15 a.m. Coming on two policemen, they told them of the smoke and the four walked to the stern of the ship, shouting to arouse anyone aboard. They then rushed aboard, coming into the lobby and advising the bellboy on duty of the smoke who raised the alarm aboard. The four then went to the scene of the fire, on "B" Deck aft of the staircase, and Mr. Selley told the Gazette: "I saw no flames but the smoke was very thick. We grabbed extinguishers and played on the partition and immediately a mass of flames broke out. Several of the crew had rushed along the corridors and seeing the danger, went for the fire gang. Flame drove the policemen on the other side of the stairway back, but I was protect on my side. Frith and I remained till others came and then we went off to help. We met Captain Davis and asked what we could do, 'Help the stewardesses off,' he said, 'This we did with some difficulty as many wished to go back to look for friends, especially one older lady who actually had to be forced away.

Crew members told the Royal Gazette that shortly before 3 a.m. smoke was seen in the Second Class cabin quarters and a general alarm was sounded, some believing it was a fire drill. They were told to "get out and save their belongings." One crew member said 'We could see no flames but the smoke was very denses and we had great difficulty in finding our way out.'

The Chief Steward and a considerable number of men got hoses into action at the midships staircase on C Deck and began to play water on the sides of the elevator shaft and dining saloon bulkheads to prevent the fire, already raging out of control on A and B Decks from spreading down. By then, the whole of the amidships superstructure was ablaze and electrical power cut to prevent further spread below. Capt. Davies then went ashore to ascertain the situation of the whole vessel, then impossible aboard, when he saw "the flames had already reached the bridge, that with the ship in flames from the end of the dancing deck to the forward side of the bridge, all hopes of saving the top three decks had disappeared."

Another resident of Paget West told the Gazette said his small dog had become quite frantic and woke him from a sound sleep. 'I arrived on the scene at three o'clock, just after the second siren had been sounded and found a small group of people assembled at the corner of Queen and Front Streets. The flames were then coming the observation room under the bridge and rapidly licking upwards to the bridge window frames. The forward starboard lifeboats were also afire and smoke pouring out of all the forward deck houses. "

The only passenger on board, Mrs. Shipley Dickson from Tucker's Town, had a narrow escape. She was visiting friends in Hamilton that evening at a dinner where Capt. Davis was also a guest. Booked to sail the following day and to save a long carriage ride home at night, Davis arranged for her occupy her cabin booked for that evening. This was located on "B" Deck, just where the fire had started in earnest and although only a few feet from a staircase and safety, the already encroaching flames and smoke trapped her in the cabin. Instead, she climbed up the porthole, crawled through it and hung suspended hoping for help to no avail. Fortunately she was on seaboardside and dropped into the water and swam ashore where she was taken care of.

Moored just astern of Bermuda, the schooner Alvena, just arrived from Miami with a cargo of lumber, was quickly moved to the Yacht Club steps and out of danger.

Efforts to fight the fire were very quicky taken aboard and ashore, but were quickly overtaken by both the ferocity of the blaze, the amount of smoke and in addition to the fires situated forward under the bridge and aft, a major one developed amidships on A Deck which spread down via the lift shafts and staircase.

Aboard, the Chief Steward and a considerable number of men got hoses into action at the midships staircase on C Deck and began to play water on the sides of the elevator shaft and dining saloon bulkheads to prevent the fire, already raging out of control on A and B Decks from spreading down. By then, the whole of the amidships superstructure was ablaze and electrical power cut to prevent further spread below. Capt. Jeffries-Davies then went ashore to ascertain the situation of the whole vessel, then impossible aboard with the amount of smoke, when he saw "the flames had already reached the bridge, that with the ship in flames from the end of the dancing deck to the forward side of the bridge, all hopes of saving the top three decks had disappeared."

Ashore, the Corporation fire alarm was sounded a few minutes before three, "but it has again to be recorded that the fire-fighting apparatus is totally inadequate for a fire of such dimensions.' (Royal Gazette). The first appliances, three engines, arrived around 3:15 a.m. "the Hamilton Fire Brigade were then already playing hoses on the flames, and the ship's pumps were going. Forward, however, the flames had such a hold that the small hoses of the Brigade had little effect, and gradually the fire spread back, seeming to eat down into the ship as it did so, though in the after part the fire seemed to come from below. For an hour or two the fire raged with little variation, steadily creeping along the superstructure, demolishing some of the lifeboard and warping the metal rails of the upper decks." (Royal Gazette).

H.M.S. Dauntless at the Royal Navy Dockyard, Bermuda, c. 1930. She and sister cruisers Danae and Delhi and their crews as well as navy tugs played a critical role in the Bermuda fire. Credit: Wikimediacommons.

What saved the ship were the efforts of the Royal Navy Dockyard, naval personnel and those of Bermuda's engineers.

With the Hamilton Fire Brigade quite overwhelmed by a fire of this magnitude, Acting Chief of Police W.N.T. Williams rang the Naval Dockyard for immediate assistance with men and appliances. Capt. Frederick Newton Atwood, commander of H.M.S. Delhi, received news of the fire between 3:20-3:30 a.m. and issued instructions that three officers and 75 ratings from the cruisers H.M.S. Delhi, Danae and Dauntless should proceed to Hamilton immediately under command of Lt. Cmdr. Garrett of Delhi as well sending fire engines to the scene. The first of these was on the scene within 33 minutes.

The big Furness tender Castle Harbour (Capt. Watson) was alongside by 3:45 a.m. playing her hoses on the starboardside. She would remain "on station" until Friday morning.

"At four o'clock a heavy explosion send the crowd scuttling for shelter, and speeded up the work of removing barrels of oil from the dock, near the bow of the Bermuda. The fire by this time was raging fiercing interally, and flames were flung high against a black and white billowing mass of smoke. The Brigade and crew worked desperately, but the fire was relentless." (Royal Gazette). The explosion was believed caused by the fire setting off emergency rockets and flares stored near the bridge which completely engulfed in flames.

Around 4:15 a.m. the naval paddle tug Sandboy W48 (1913/690grt) and the tug Creole were dispatched to Hamilton and Marines were sent over as well. Captain George Williams-Bodell, Chief Engineer of the Dockyard, went over in Creole and coordinated a plan with Bermuda's officers and engineers to prevent the fire from spreading to the oil tanks.

"It was from five o'clock when men from the ships at the Dockyard stepped from Naval launched and climbed on the Bermuda, to attack the flames with vigour and a set plan, that the fire was held back. With complete equipment, including asbestos suits and face masks, the men of the Navy worked heroicially on the ship, penetrating smoke-filled passages, returning half-choked and semi-blind into the fresh air, finally wrestling the flames from victory which at one time seemed certain." (Royal Gazette).

Sandboy arrived alongside Bermuda at 4:40 a.m. with Lt. Sandys and the party from H.M.S. Dauntless, joining the Delhi squad working in the forward part of the ship whilst the group from H.M.S. Danae, under Lt. Cmdr. Fogg-Elliot tackled the stern area. There were several cases of asphyxiation owing to the considerable smoke but the fire on "B" Deck had been considerably checked by 5:20 a.m. by which time Creole was also alongside. She had very efficient firefighting capabilities and helped keep the fire from spread below "B" deck.

The naval party once aboard Bermuda began to cut away woodwork on "B" Deck and use the ship's fire mains to attack the fire and concentrate on preventing it from spreading downwards. Castle Harbour was ordered to direct her hoses between "B" and "C" Decks as everything above that was essentially already lost to the blaze. Essential to combating the fire from the shoreside was a fire engine from the Naval Dockyard.

Creole and Sandboy joined the big Furness tender Castle Harbour along the portside, playing a total of thirty hoses on the gutted superstructure and attacking new external outbreaks. The tender Bermudian (1915/200 grt), Capt. Lovatt, was dispatched from St. George's and arrived at 7:30 a.m. and remained until 3:00 p.m. the following day when she was obliged to return to St. George's to tender for the arriving Veendam the next morning.

By the time it was light enough for photographs to be taken, Bermuda's upper decks had already been gutted by the fire. The earliest in a dramatic series of initial photos shows the last remains of the bridge alight and the no. 2 lifeboat one-third burnt out as the Furness tender Castle Harbour plays her hose on the burning boat deck. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com

A dramatic photograph of Bermuda still blazing with her no. 2 lifeboat half burned out, the bridge completely gone and fire just getting underway aft on the enclosed dancing space. The tug Creole is forward and the Furness tender Castle Habour amidships. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com

Taken from the opposite shore a bit later in the morning, showing the intentional list induced to keep her against the pier and the after enclosed dancing space now completely burnt out. Credit: Bermuda Museum.

By the time dawn broke over Hamilton at 5:13 a.m., Bermuda was completely gutted from A Deck and above and the fire whilst progressively devouring the deluxe accommodation on B Deck had been checked from extending any further down in the ship. By the time it was light enough for the first photos to be taken or aboat three hours after it broke out, the fire had done its worse.

With the splendid help of the Staff Captain, the Chief Engineers and skilled staff, we worked at balancing the ship at every tide-- every six hours-- and endeavouring to prevent the fire from reaching the vital spots. At the wharf the water is shallowier than a few yards in the harbour and, as the vessel lay at the bottom against the wharf but was clear a few yards to port, the danger of capsizing was always imminent. To prevent this, tanks were filled and emptied on either side as the state of the tide demanded, and this was always accompanied by the danger of spreading fire and the necessity for removal of oil.

Statement from Capt. Jeffries-Davis as published in Royal Gazette, 20 June 1931

With the fire steaming eating progressively down inside the ship and with "A" and "B" Decks now all but gutted, the Navy personnel wisely concentrated on preventing the fire from entering the engine spaces and igniting the fuel tanks. As a precaution, the Chief Engineer and Staff Engineer opened the valves of the reserve fuel tanks nearest the engine room to let the oil run into the bilges. Royal Marine, assisted by the Colonial and Dockyard Police forces, cleared Front Street of crowds for fear of an explosion. As it was, several premises on the street front suffered smoke damage.

Another in the earliest sequence of photos of the fire with the fire now fully engulfing the aft enclosed dancing space whilst the naval tug Creole forward has run up three of her hoses to the fore deck. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com

The superstructure was then a mass of flame, and "A" and "B" decks were gone, whilst the extent of the fire inside the ship could not be determined. That it was making headway down towards the engine room, under which was stored the fuel-- crude oil-- was evident, and the sea-cocks were opened, the Bermuda gradually tilting over until she lay against the dock, her keel on the harbour bottom.

Royal Gazette, 18 June 1931

With a considerable amount of water now shipped aboard, Bermuda assumed an increasing starboardside list towards the quay which was intentional. As the berth was shallowier than the water around her, the risk of capsizing towards the deeper water on the portside was becoming acute and Capt. Jeffries-Davis ordered her double bottom tanks flooded to let her settle in the mud shelf listing against the pier in a somewhat stable condition until the fire was out and she could be pumped out and righted. It was also necessary to transfer oil in the bunkers from side to side to account for the rise and fall of the tide and this was done every six hours. There would be no Normandie in Hamilton Harbour and Capt. Jeffries-Davis and his engineers and those of the Navy did everything right to ensure it.

That serious damage to Hamilton itself, and that more serious damage to the Bermuda, was not done is due to the efforts of the Navy men, who were ably assisted by the Hamilton Fire Brigade and members of the crew of the Bermuda.

Capt. Jeffries-Davis stood on his ship until assured the fight had been won, and the gallantry of the engine room staff of the ship was one of the outstanding features of the fire.

Royal Gazette, 18 June 1931

Two-way traffic: Capt. Jeffries-Davis and other officers returning to Bermuda, still ablaze, whilst some crew members, laden with personal effects, rush off the vessel. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com.

Less laudable was the conduct of an estimated 100 of Bermuda's 225 stewards and catering staff who upon being roused by the fire, hastened off the ship with as many of their belongings as they could carry. "The crew of the ship, hurriedly aroused from sleep, tumbled down the gangway with apparel over their arms, flinging them into the shop of Messrs. Atwood, and returning to the ship to rescue other belongings. Family portraits were scrambled out with socks and trousers and coats, and still the fire ate back and down." (Royal Gazette). An eyewitness to the earliest moments of the fire told the Gazette, "In taking a hose up the forward gangway the local firemen appeared to be greatly hampered by the gangs of men coming down with clothes and suitcases." Any that attempted to reboard the ship were largely prevented by police and Marines who had now established around the pier.

By 6:00 a.m. the flames were somewhat being controlled or largely burnt out, with the whole of the superstructure from "B" Deck up, gutted.

A Royal Navy rating carrying off a crew member overcome with smoke. Credit: Bermuda Archives.

Around 7:00 a.m. Sandboy brought over another 200 naval ratings from the Dockyard to augment the initial working parties aboard. Naval personnel with respirators brought up scores of injured men, either from falls, burns or smoke inhalation. When Bermuda still had no private motor cars, these were transported to the hospital in motor lorries of the Railway Co., the Public Works Dept and the Corporation whilst military ambulances took a number to the Military Hospital. In all, eight naval ratings and one member of the crew were admitted to the King Edward VII Hospital and "a large number of casualties in the Military Hospital."

With her superstructure burnt out, Bermuda lies slumped against her pier. Her engineers deliberately induced the list to keep her from rolling over into the deeper water away from the berth. Credit: bernews.com

Photographed from the Paget shore opposite, the tenders Bermudian (left) and Castle Harbour (centre) play their hoses on the still burning superstructure. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com

By 11:00 a.m. the fire was under control and the ship, although listing over to port by some 25 degs., was resting on the bottom and stable. The most stubborn remaining hotspot was aft around the no. 3 hold and hatchway as well as vertical ventilation and lift shafts.

Shortly after noon, a charred body was taken from the ship, identified as Percy Hulme, aged 38, from Britain, who was the assistant barber and found on the remains of an incinerated settee, indicating he been asleep when overcome with smoke.

A rare stern view from the Hamilton waterfront showing Bermuda with the fire largely out.

When it was observed that the pumps were not making progress clearing the vessel of accumulated water, it was ascertained that some of the portholes on the starboardside of "E" Deck were open. A rating, believed to be from H.M.S. Delhi, volunteered to dive down to the deck, then underwater a few feet, and the surface covered with six inches of oil and debris, to close the ports in seven different cabins. With these sealed, the vessel began to right herself as the pumps took hold.

When the water, some of it almost scalding, from the hoses began to pour into the engine room and threaten the switchboard, all power was cut off from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and the pumps stopped. According to the latter official report, "by the courageous action of the whole of the 25 engineers and some of the oilers and wipers a disaster of colossal magnitude was averted" and the power was restored to the pumps.

Bermuda, showing her completely burnt out bridge and Castle Harbour alongside. Credit: bernews.com

An unusual perspective of Bermuda smouldering and listing against Pier 1. Credit: Royal Gazette.

By 5:00 p.m. the main naval firefighting parties were withdrawn with 100 men left to tackle the area around no. 3 hold. Shortly before 6:30 p.m. another fire alarm was sounded when fresh smoke was seen issuing from the stern of the ship with fire apparatus ashore and Creole ready to play her hoses on it, but it was quickly put out.

"Lying securely berthed at 2 a.m. trim and smart, at 7:30 p.m. Bermuda was lying awry over the dock, her upper decks a charred twisted skeleton of their former symmetry, her inside a black chaos." (Royal Gazette). That night, 20 naval ratings remained aboard on fire watch.

The morning after the fire, Bermuda still healed well over but the fire out with Bermudian (forward) and Castle Harbour and Sandboy astern. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com

Another "morning after" photo showing Bermudian, Castle Harbour, Sandboy and barely visible far aft, the tug Creole alongside. Despite the devastating damage around them, four of the lifeboats are untouched with even the canvas covers intact.

On 18 June 1931 fire again broked out in no. 3 hold around 1:00 p.m., but was largely extinguished by 3:00 p.m. The last trace of fire in way of no. 3 hold was extinguished by 9:00 p.m. Thoughout the 18th, Castle Harbour and Sandboy stood by Bermuda which by midday was practically back on even keel and as the water was emptied by pumps was upright by the afternoon. Provisions and bedding from undamaged areas of the ship were landed all day with bedding going to the overtaxed hospitals on the island.

Captain Davis and his workers put in twenty-one hours continuously at work at great personal danger, but, it is almost humorous to mention, that he was rarely recognised save by his crew since he was deprived of fire of uniform, and exertions had robbed him of his usual spick and span appearance and he resembled more a begrimmed stoker than a model skipper.

Royal Gazette, 20 June 1931

Credit: Daily News, 21 June 1931.

Working all day in 'be-grimed kit' were Captain Jeffries-Davis and Staff Captain Charlton, and engine room officers, too. Staff Engineer Gibb had been removed from the ship in an exhausted state the evening of the 17th and taken to hospital. The Chief Engineer did not leave his post until the morning of the 18th.

BERMUDA, motor vessel. Cable from Captain Davis at 2 p.m. Consider fire completely extinguished. Superstructure above and including 'B " deck completely destroyed; extensive damage to interior, mostly water below "B" deck; three hold flooded to 'tween deck level. Do not anticipate verb extensive damage to machinery. Shall start to free vessel of water immediately unless further outbreaks develop. Timed 5 p.m. Wallington cables: Main auxiliary and docking machinery and steering gear show minor damage; electric parts with water only. Telegraph and telemotor beyond repair, also steering coeneetions from bridge to steering-house aft. Bermuda, 18th. Motor vessel Bermuda flooded three holds; fire extinguished. Ship now being pumped out. (New York, June 18.)

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 20 June 1931

Then there was the considerable issue surrounding the fate of Bermuda's cat:

Four lady passengers who had intended travelling yesterday by the Bermuda paid an early call at the office at the office of Messrs. Watlington and Conyers. The principals were frantically busy but nothing could satisfy the ladies except a personal interview.

In due course this was granted and one can imagine the astonishment of the busy officials when the ladies explained their mission.

'We have come to ask,' said the spokeswoman, 'if you have saved the ship's cat. We took a fancy to that cat and we want you to save it.'

As a matter of fact the cat had been safely brought ashore by a thoughtful steward and was at that time purring over a saucer of milk in the office.

Royal Gazette, 18 June 1931

As for Bermuda's intending passengers, 150 were accommodated aboard Munson's Pan American sailing on 18 June 1931 or Veendam. The Bermuda's crew were put up in the Hamilton Hotel and most sailed to New York in Veendam and having lost their ship and home, were repatriated to Britain. Throughout the 18th, Bermuda gradually righted herself. On the 19th Mr. Copus, the superintendent marine engineer of Furness Withy and Mr. Wappept, the asst. superindendent marine engineer, arrived aboard Veendam to complete a survey of the vessel.

The utter devastation of the boat deck. Credit: Daily News, 21 June 1931.

On the 19th, a reporter of the Royal Gazette went aboard Bermuda and gave an account of the state of the vessel inside:

The destruction of the sun deck and "A" and "B" decks is absolute. Nothing but twisted steelwork and metalwork is left. There is not a particle of woodwork or furnishing intact on these three decks, which are covered with a carpet, inches thick, of charred wood which dropped from the floors and walls. "C" Deck presents a comparatively undamaged appearance, and here the water poured on the boat has done more damage than the flames.

Many of the staterooms on "C" deck are untouched and fit for passengers. Others are awash with water in which is debris of all kinds. The captain's bridge, from which it seemed, externally at least (through inside inspection of the ship reveals otherwise) the fire was worst, is twisted down into the one time observation lounge. The controls hang, a useless festoon of wires, from below the steelwork of the bridge. Immediately behind the bridge are the quarters of Capt. Davis, now a warped steel shell bearing slight resemblance to rooms. The companionway down from these quarters and the bridge has vanished, only a single handrail, cut short some feet from the sun deck, remaining. The companionway was destroyed five minutes after Capt. Davis left the bridge.

The freaks of the fire are evident on the sun deck, where some lifeboats remain without a blister on their paint, their canvas good as ever it was. Others have gone, leaving a metal reinforcing strip hanging from the davits.

The gutted and twisted promenade deck. Credit: Daily News, 21 June 1931.

A glance through the window frames into the observation lounge shows nothing but reddish coloured iron-work. There is no resemblance to a room. Down below, on "A" Deck, the wonderful lounge forward presents the same chaotic picture. Stripped of the furnishings which made it one of the prettiest lounges aboard any ship, it is now a black scar, around which run steel walls whose condition shows the tremendous heat of the fire. The dance floor on "A" Deck is now a mass of charcoal, and forward of it the Spanish café, the smoking room, and the staterooms have vanished. Of the stateroom left remaining are the baths and a few blackened stumps denoting the layout of the companionways. The suites on "B" Deck are distinguishable only by the baths, and an occasional remnant of a wall, through on the starboard side one or two remain with precarious walls and furniture partly destroyed. Right aft, on "A" Deck, the floor boards have warped up, leaving the deck a series of hillocks.

The barber's shop, where the charred body believed to be that of the assistant barber was found, is destroyed with same completeness as the rest of the upper decks. The metal bases of the two chairs stand, and on the floor is the framework of the settee on which it is supposed the deceased must have been overcome.

The dining room on "D" is not damaged extensively, but the two handsome domes extending up to "A" Deck, have fallen in, their edges black stumps pointing up forlornly. From "C" Deck down the only damage is that done by water, except in one peculiar instance. The three elevator shafts, fore, amidships, and aft, show the heat which was drawn through them, and the ventilator shafts tell the same story of white-hot heat.

The terrible havoc wrought by the fire on the three upper decks is incomprehensible, and the change from the smartness and comfort which was characteristic of the Bermuda to that of steel walls containing only a mass of debris is awe-inspiring. The quarters of the crew forward are not damaged.

Credit: Philadelphia Inquirer, 4 July 1931.

Wasting little time, Furness Withy chartered on 19 June 1931, at considerable cost, Cunard's Franconia (1922/20,175-grt) to fill-in for Bermuda. As possibly the best known of world cruise ships at the time, she was certainly a worthy temporary replacement. Nearly 100 ft. longer than Bermuda, Franconia required Hamilton authorities to remove part of the White's Island shoal as to facilitate berthing and turning opposite the Hamilton pier to accommodate her. She was to make her first voyage from New York to Hamilton as early as 11 July. It was also announced that Monarch of Bermuda would make her maiden voyage from New York on 28 November.

On 22 June 1931 the Bermuda Government convened its first meeting of its inquiry board as to the fire, the Board consisting of Chief Justice Sir Rowan Hamilton, Major R.W. Appelby, Lt. Cmdr. Neish, R.N., Mr. J.P. Pearson and Commander Landman. The insurance surveyors arrived that day, too, to began their examination of Bermuda.

The inquiry opened on a contentious note with evidence from two naval officers, led by Lt. Cmdr. Garrett, in charge of the naval party, that fought the fire. Whilst lauding Bermuda's Capt. David and other officers as well as the engine room crew, they asserted most of the crew "did not take much interest in the fire" and most were quick to abandon the ship. There was also criticism that there was very little pressure in the ship's own fire main.

On the 24th experts from the Naval Dockyard ruled out an electrical fire. The Acting Chief of Police testified that he "saw a continual stream of men coming down the fore gangway, carrying trunks, grips and parcels of clothing, which were placed in Messrs. T.J. Wadson's shop. They were members of the crew and estimated to be about 100. Very few returned to the ship."

Capt. Jeffries-Davies then took the stand and addressed the issue of desertions of some of the crew, testifying that of the 230 stewards, about 100 left. He went on to praise the engineers (although stating that of the 25 wipers and oilers, 15 defaulted and left the ship): "With the exception of the Chief Engineer, who left the room for consultations, the engine room officers were in the engine room for 40 hours without a break. They never failed with one exception, when water begin to encroach the switchboard and suspended pumping for about two hours. They deserve every commendation. Nothing too good can be said of them. They were in the most dangerous part of the ship. They had not a chance in the world if the ship went over. They worked under the most difficult conditions, but not one of them failed."

Capt. Jeffries-Davis testified that "he had seen many fires of different kinds at sea, but he had never seen a fire spread with the rapidity with this particular fire spread. Weather conditions were really favourable for the fire-fighters as there was practically no wind."

On the 26 June 1931 the Board of Inquiry heard from Chief Engineer Joseph Hardy who testified that when the pumps were turned on for the fire hoses, they produced a total of 360 tons of water an hour at a pressure of 120 psi and "the pressure he saw personally delivered" but after an hour and a half, this dropped to 85 psi as the pipes joints were perished in the growing fire. He stated, too, that the main fire line that served the fore and aft ends of the ship ran from the engine room to "A" Deck where the fire was the worse and the pipe joints failed in the heat of the inferno, there was no way to get adequate pressure on the hoses in those areas. Conversely, "D", "E", and "C" Decks had branches off the main line near the pumps and had satisfactory pressure throughout. Chief Engineer Hardy also testified that he also inspected cabin 405 on "E" Deck where the first fire was detected and found "absolutely no defect" in the wiring or switches.

The Court of Inquiry heard its final testimony on 29 June 1931. Among those giving evidence was Herbert Joseph Wood, nightwatchman, who discovered the fire in cabin 40, finding the door ajar and lights on. The fire was seated at the head of the bed and head of the settee and the surrounding workwork had caught light. He testified he smelled no gasoline or chemicals.

Chief Officer Stanley Burns testified as to the fire in the amidships staircase, attacked by two hoses, and another aft above C Deck around the elevator shaft, both were 250 ft. apart. He described the spread of the fire "astounding."

Meanwhile, it had been announced on 26 June 1931 that Furness had awarded the repair contract to Workman Clark, the work anticipated to "take a year," employing 2,000-3,000 men and costing £250,000.

On 29 June 1931 Bermuda, which had lain at No. 1 Berth for two days "of which she was in the immaculate condition which has made her known all over the United States and Canada, and the remainder of which she was helpless, her superstructure laid bare and blackened by the devastating fire of June 17," (Royal Gazette, 30 June 1931) was towed away from the dock in the afternoon and anchored in the harbour opposite the Princess Hotel, awaiting the repair of her steering gear. On the wooden temporary bridge constructed below the gutted skeleton of the original was Capt. Jeffries-Davis, "capless and without uniform." She was tended to by Castle Harbour and a tug on the bow lines and the naval tug Sandboy and tender Bermudian at the stern. On 1 July it was reported that repairs to Bermuda "are proceeding satisfactorily" and "it is anticipated she will proceed to Belfast under own power for permanent repairs." It later announced she would leave for Belfast under her own power on 9 July.

Burnt and battered, but unbroken, the doughty Bermuda departs Hamilton under her own power on 6 July 1931 bound for her builders in Belfast, assisted by Sandboy (extreme left) and Bermudian aft. Note the dirty tide line on her lower hull showing the extent of her list and flooding during the fire. Credit: Stephen J. Card, shipsnostalgia.com

Instead, Bermuda left Hamilton on 6 July 1931. So quickly was the work to make her seaworthy accomplished that she was ready by the 4th but had to await the arrival of Fort St. George from New York on the 6th carrying Capt. McDougal of Furness, the naval architect of the ship, Mr. Boyd, who would make the voyage back to Belfast, along with representatives of Messrs. Workman and Clark.

Also on 6 July 1931 the Court of Inquiry reported its findings at the Supreme Court of Bermuda, the report being read by President Sir Sydney Rowan Hamilton, Chief Justice of Bermuda.

Although noting that "there is no question that the larger portion of the crew and stewards remained at their work and did all their could the ship," the court censured those who did not:

"Some of the stewards, however, thinking first at any rate of saving their possessions, got off as quickly as possible with their bags and trunks. It is think it is probable that the greater part of these intended to return when they had deposited their 'dives et penates' in a place of safely. Numbers of those were never allowed back, as a cordon of police and later of marines had been drawn up. But all are deserving of their breach of discipline, whatever their intention. Fortunately it was not a large proportion, and the evidence showed that rumour was once more the illegitimate child born of exaggeration."

The court paid tribute to Bermuda's officers, singling out the engineers for special praise: "Mr. Hardy and his staff acted as one expects from Britishers and the high traditions of the British Mercantile Marine, but they are none the less entitled to the highest commendation. Mr. Gibbs, the Staff Engineer, and Mr. Saul, the Second Engineer, remained below till carried off to hospital. " Also lauded were the officers of the Royal Navy, in particular Capt. Attwood, Lt. Cmdr. Garrett, Lt. Cmdr. Brock, Engineer Capt. Bodell and Lt. Rae Sands, "did all that was humanly possible to save her and to prevent the fire spreading, not only to her but the town; only through their united efforts this did not happen." The local fire briage under Mr. Charles Talbot was also praised.

Every precaution seems to have been taken in the building of the Bermuda to eliminate the possibility of fire, for it appears that her woodwork was specially treated so as to render it less inflammable, and it was stated in evidence that a small fire would only make it smoulder. Soap and water alone was used to clean it, and petrol or other inflammable agent.

"Looking at the matter as a whole, I regret that I can come to no conclusion as to how or by what means the fire was started. It appears to me from the evidence given by the experts that the fire had nothing to do with any fuse, installation or wiring system on board the Bermuda. Rather does the evidence tend to show that, breaking out in Cabin 405 and also a few minutes later in at least three different parts of the ship, it may be attributed to one of more evil-designing person or persons. Though the evidence tends towards this assumption, there is no direct evidence of it as a fact.

Not really addressed by the court nor part of its brief, was the nature of the fire(s) although many witnessed testified at its astonishing speed and ferocity, many stating they had never personally seen a shipboard fire of this intensity and acceleration: "he described the spread of the fire astounding," he had seen many fires of different kinds at sea, but he had never seen a fire spread with the rapidity with this particular fire spread," etc.

Bermuda would be but one of a number of similar liner conflagrations the decade-- City of Honolulu (May 1930), Georges Philippar (May 1931), Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (November 1932), L'Atlantique (January 1933), Morro Castle (September 1934), Ausonia (October 1935), Lafayette (May 1938), Reliance (August 1938) and Paris (April 1939-- similar in their ferocity and "total burn" more than their cause (many were suspected of being arson, indicative of a troubled decade torn by labour and political strife or, electrical). Most of these ships were of recent construction or newly refitted and employed quantities of plywoods in their interior fitting as well as false ceilings, vast open lobbies, staircases and "long galleries" etc. that defined the modern floating palace and also rendered them potential floating charnel houses.

In the wake of the Morro Castle tragedy (a ship remarkably similiar in so many respects to Bermuda), the Americans undertook the first systematic appraisal and study of shipboard fires with a view to prevent or mitigate them through use of fireproof materials and isolating sections of interiors through firedoors, etc. whilst the British led the development fire detection and fire fighting through sprinkler systems.

It was found that many plywoods and laminates used in ships were, through their bonding materials and glues, exposively combustable at specific temperatures, and that false ceilings acted as conduits to spread fires as well as open staircases. This accounts for eyewitnesses aboard Bermuda testifying as to ceilings "exploding into flames" and how the amidships fire was the one that did the most damage. In real time, Bermuda's top three decks were completely engulfed in flames within 45 minutes and totally gutted in two hours, a pattern repeated in many of the other shipboard fires of the period. Like so many, unlike George Philippar and Morro Castle, they at least occurred in port or in the case of L'Atlantique at sea with no passengers aboard.

Unique among the 1930 liner fires, Bermuda survived and would be rebuilt, although rather as "before" and before any advances in construction techniques or materials could be incorporated.

Bermuda, which left Hamilton on 8:00 p.m. on 6 July 1931 under Capt. Jeffries-Davis and a 100-man crew, averaged 15 knots across and dropped anchor at Blackhead Lighthouse at the entrance to Belfast Lough at midnight on the 13th. "Beyond a slight list and inevitable inconveniences occasioned by the ravages of the fire, the voyage was without incident." (Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 18 July 1931). She came into Belfast the following morning, docking at 9:15 a.m. under Capt. J. M'Intyre, Belfast Harbour Master, and Deputy Harbour Master Mr. G. Shannon, with the tugs Musgrave and Audacious in attendence. Bermuda was then drydocked in the Thompson Graving Dock.

Bermuda in Thompson Graving Dock, Belfast. Credit: Belfast News Letter, 15 july 1931.

Bermuda upon arrival at Belfast. Note the temporary bridge below the gutted original wheelhouse. Credit: harry t, shipsnostalgia.com

A close-up of her fire ravaged superstructure which would require complete replacement. Credit: harry t, shipsnostalgia.com

Striking photo showing the collapsed forward house top. Note the Elder Dempster liner Achimota at Harland & Wolff's yard. Credit: Alexander Rober Hogg photograph, National Museums NI.

The vessel, which was built by Messrs. Workman, Clark (1928), Ltd., has come Belfast under her own power for reconstruction and renovation bv her builders, and the extensive repairs needed make good the havoc caused the fire will provide work for a large number shipyard workers for several months. The superstructure of the Bermuda presented remarkable spectacle. The rails on the upper decks and of the navigating bridge were greatly twisted, while on the promenade deck the magnificent public rooms and passengers’ suites had been completely burned out. The crew of the vessel, numbering about 100, were paid off after the liner had been docked. None of them were to discuss the circumstances of the fire, but the information was volunteered that the journey from Bermuda to Belfast had been an uneventful one, the vessel accomplishing the trip in seven days.

Northern Whig, 15 July 1931.

The Bermuda has since been brought to this side, and is at present undergoing repair and redecoration, which, incidentally, is fully covered by insurance.She will again take her place in the service early next year. In the meantime, however, in order to provide for the regular continuity of the service, the Bermuda and West Indies Company have, at very heavy expense, chartered the Cunard cruise ship Franconia, and that vessel is now sailing regularly each Saturday from New York under the auspices of the Furness-Bermuda Line.

Sir Frederick W. Lewis, Chairman, statement of 40th annual general meeting 22 July 1931

Some of the devastation evidenced on Bermuda on arrival back at her birthplace: the housetops aft of the bridge. Note the new Elder Dempster motorliner Achimota at Harland & Wolff's yard. Credit: Northern Whig, 15 July 1931.

The fire-tortured forward superstructure and officers' quarters. Credit: Belfast News Letter, 15 July 1931.

All the remains of one of her lifeboats, the steel keel, on the fire-ravaged boat deck. Credit: Belfast News Letter, 15 July 1931.

The boat deck looking foward with the gutted observation lounge and the wooden bridge and wheelhouse have evaporated in the fire. Credit: Belfast News Letter, 15 July 1931.

The fire distorted aft sports deck. Credit: Belfast News Letter, 15 July 1931.

The dismantling operations on the burnt-out liner Bermuda are proceeding at high pressure at Belfast, where Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., Ltd., the original builders of the ship, are hourly engaged in tearing away those parts of the structure and fittings damaged either by fire or water.

Viewed yesterday by a representative of The Journal of Commerce, the scene beggared description. First, there is the pitiful sight of the torn and mangled ship. Then the great piles of debris already removed, piping, plates, timber, plaster, ashes, ventilating trunks as well as the funnels. One mast and 60 ft. in length of steel decks, complete with rails and ventilators, were lying on the dock side around the 120-tons crane, which is performing the removal operations. Added to this, gangs of men are busily employed with oxy-acetylene burners cutting away damaged plating and bars, while others are working over the side, on stages, removing rivets.

While sympathising with the owners at the temporary loss of such a fine ship as the Bermuda, one must admit that the work of reconditioning the ship, the biggest job of its kind ever to have entered the port of Belfast, according to Mr. Lovett, a director of Messrs. Workman Clark, will prove a godsend to many Belfast workmen who would otherwise be facing a period of unemployment.

In an interview, Mr. Lovett said that the time required for the complete overhaul and reconditioning of the ship had been variously estimated at from eight to 12 months, but his firm were trying to get the work done within six months.

"We hope to complete dismantling by the mid of week," he said. "The steel is ordered. and very shortly the work of re-erection will He paid a tribute to the men who, he said, were working herd at the job, while the overseers and foremen tackling their duties, wholeheartedly. They had had the "sights" on the ship and found that the actual hull was none the worse for the inferno which had raged within. This, he said, was a tribute to the original staunch construction of the vessel.

Of the machinery the auxiliary engines had suffered from water damage, and would probably have to be removed for overhaul. The main Doxford engines, Mr. Lovett thought, would be opened up and put right on board.

Except for a few comparatively minor details, which the exigencies of service had proved desirable, Mr. Lovett that the ship would be rebuilt to the original plans.

He added that his firm were to carry out all the joinery and decorative work, except for one or two items which had not yet been settled. This part of the work will represent a very large proportion of the cost of the whole operation, inasmuch as the Bermuda is luxury ship of the highest class.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 23 July 1931

Bermuda's fire-wracked superstructure being cut away. Credit: Ballymena Telegraph, 1 August 1931.

Workmen cutting away the boat deck. Credit: Ballymena Telegraph, 1 August 1931.

As the Bermuda's return to service is required for next spring big effort is being made by Messrs. Workman, Clark start the reconstruction of the vessel. A gang of men have been engaged night and day since her arrival, cutting away the damaged steelwork and removing pipes and other material. This work is now almost completed and the vessel will rebuilt to the original plans save for minor improvements found to be advantageous during her years service.

Belfast News Letter, 4 August 1931

Bermuda in September 1931 at Workman Clark with the rebuilding of her superstructure well in hand and A Deck now erected. Note that her mainmast had yet to be replaced.

By the first week of August 1931, work in stripping the damaged superstructure was completed and work began on rebuilding superstructure began. Details on the extent of changes to Bermuda and her interiors seem not to have been published in advance of completion. However, the opportunity was taken to rebuild the bridge and wheelhouse in steel rather than wood was taken and enclosed bridge cabs were fitted. Below, the observation lounge appears to have been replaced with accommodation, either for passengers or officers, with large single windows facing forward. The entire superstructure, comprising "A" Deck, Boat and Sun Decks, was entirely replaced along with new davits, lifeboats etc. The mainmast, too, was new. Another change was the entire promenade deck ("A") was glass-enclosed for its whole length. In addition, there would be six private veranda suites on "B" Deck rather than the original four.

Just about the only thing saved from Bermuda's superstructure were her twin funnels, shown left after removal (note the fire damaged paintwork on the far one) and right, being repainted prior to reinstallation. Credit: left: Northern Whig, 25 August 1931, right: Belfast News Letter, 15 September 1931.

One thing Bermuda would not retain when restored to service was her master for Capt. Jeffries-Davis was appointed to command the new Monarch of Bermuda in September. The new ship ran trials 5-7 November 1931 and it was anticipated Bermuda would join her in time for the winter season at the beginning of 1932 at which time the costly charters of Franconia and Veendam could be ended.

After fire broke out aboard Highland Hope on the ways at Harland & Wolff on 3 October 1931, Bermuda's shipyard supplied fire patrol was augmented by a fireman of the Belfast City Brigade.

By mid October, much of Bermuda's superstructure has been erected. Credit: Belfast Telegraph, 16 October 1931.

In early November 1931 Bermuda was shifted from Alexandra Wharf across the river to the North Yard dolphins under the big 120-ton crane.

Bermuda was scheduled to be delivered to Furness on 23 December 1931 and return to service by sailing for New York on the 27th. To accomplish this, workmen were engaged round the clock and once again do Workman Clark credit, completing what was expected to take up to a year in just five months time. By mid November all steel work had been completed and work well underway outfitting the interior with cabin and public room partitioning fitted.

A very rare photograph of Bermuda, almost complete, taken just days before her second fire. Note the now all glass-enclosed promenade deck and different spacing of windows aft, three rather than two veranda suites on B Deck and taller funnels. Credit: Belfast News Letter, 17 November 1931.

Then, the unimaginable happened.

The worst disaster that has ever occurred in a British harbour took place on Thursday night, 19th inst., when a disasterous fire broke out on the Furness Withy motor luxury liner Bermuda which was being renovated in Messrs. Workman, Clark's Yard, Belfast.

Ballymena Observer, 27 November 1931

The magnificent 20,000-ton passenger liner Bermuda was destroyed by fire in Belfast on Thursday. No greater tragedy has ever overtaken the shipbuilding industry on the Lagan. Four weeks hence the ship, resplendent in all the glory of her new creation, was to have left port for New York to resume her sailings to the West Indies. To-day she is a broken mass of twisted steel, and it is doubtful il she can ever rebuilt. Great as was the damage to the vessel in the outbreak at Hamilton last June that caused the vessel to come to Belfast for reconstruction, it fades into insignificance as compared with the effect of the new conflagration. On that occasion the machinery was saved and the ship came here under her own steam, now everything on hoard has been wiped out.

“It was sight to make angels weep.” said a spectator of the ruins of the once beautiful Bermuda.

Larne Times, 28 November 1931

Bermuda afire alongside Workman Clark's fitting-out berth at 2:30 a.m. 20 November 1931. Credit: Northern Whig, 23 November 1931.

On 19 November 1931 fire broke out aboard Bermuda at 9:30 p.m. lying at Workman Clark's North Yard, Victoria quay, Belfast. The ship had a fire patrol supplied by the shipyard and there was a duty fireman attached to the Belfast City Brigade. The blaze was first discovered when the night shift of some 250 workers, mostly joiners and electricians, went on duty. Smoke was seen issuing from "E" Deck and the fire quickly spread to the public rooms on "A" Deck.

The fire is believed to have started on the fifth or "E" deck in a passageway near the joiners’ shop. The night shift, about 250 in number, had just gone on board, and had been for a brief space when the fire patrol, which included nine or ten men employed by Messrs. Workman, Clark, in charge of a fireman from the headquarters’ staff the Belfast Fire Brigade, detected smoke in the passageway. The alarm was immediately given, and work men made for the gangways leading to the jetty. The fire patrol on board the vessel fought the flames with the yard’s fire appliances pending the arrival of the Fire Brigade, which made a very quick turnout. The firemen had to conduct operations from the (juay and were under a further handicap, was low tide and difficulty was experienced in getting sufficient water from the docks for the pumps, while the hydrants the jetty were few in number. Nevertheless the firemen stuck heroically to their task.

Northern Whig, 20 November 1931

All was going normally till 9-30 p.m. when the night shift had just started. Some of the men were actually going on board when the alarm was raised. What followed is best described in the words of Mr. Wm. M'Clure, 20 Harper Street, an electrician, who was working with Mr. Bert M'Coubrey, 118 Saunders Street, also an electrician.

'We were told to stay late to finish a job," said Mr. M'Clure, "and I heard a shout of fire. It had broken out in the engineers' quarters off the working passage on E deck (one of the lowest of seven decks). We rushed downstairs and opened the door of the room, which was in flames. My mate M'Coubrey rushed away and gave the alarm and I played an estinguisher on he room. There was a hose in the passage but we could not get water. When the firemen arrived they could not get at the seat of the fire owing to the smoke, which was terrible.

'The fire travelled from E deck aft,' proceeded Mr. M'Clure, 'and if the firemen had been able to get at it I believe they could have saved the ship, but it was impossible.

' saw a very brave act performed by the firemen. Two of them had been reported missing, and four firemen went right down into the smoke and dames on E deck, feeling their way along the hose. They could find no one, and came back in an exhausted condition. Their chief called on them to come back, as it looked as if they were going to death, but they went on. The firemen did not know their way about the ship. which handicapped them, and the fire spread rapidly till at eleven o'clock everyone had to go ashore.'

'We stayed in the yard till 12-30 a.m. and then we went home," concluded Mr. M'Clure, who, like the rest of his mates, deplored the loss of such a magnificent vessel. '

Belfast Telegraph, 20 November 1931

Soon after the alarm was sounded, the police patrol boat, the Harbour Commissioner's tug Musgrave, two scows and the tug Audacious were hurrying to the ship. The first alarm was received by the Belfast Fire Brigade headquarters at 9:30 p.m. and five appliances were alongside the ship within seven minutes. At the time there was little flame to be seen from the vessel but smoke pouring from her midships portholes. The firemen raced down to "E" Deck and hoses run out but the smoke was so intense that it drove them back on deck.

Chief Officer Smith, who recently joined the Belfast Brigade from Bootle, said to a reporter: "I took all the firemen on board immediately, but our search for the seat of the fire was quite hopeless in face of the terrific clouds of smoke.

I ordered all the men to don their smoke helmets, and we then scoured the ship and crossed through her, jumping on to barges that were lying on her port side. From this point we got hoses to play through the port holes, but the flames had already a tremendous hold.

We could not stay on board the vessel for more than an hour, for the flames made rapid progress.

We are handicapped by lack of water. We cannot get our engines to the water's edge, even if we could, the tide is out, and the Bermuda is lying in the only deep water there is.

'The two men who were trapped had a remarkable escape, for they were surrounded by flames, and we had the great difficulty in getting them out.'

Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 November 1931

By the time this photo was taken, the entire superstructure was engulfed in flames. Credit: Northern Whig, 20 November 1931.

The firemen found it impossible to get at the seat of the fire due to the dense volumes of smoke and flames. Firemen experienced difficulty in getting an adequate supply of water, but, with the help of hundreds of workmen, worked hard to cope with the outbreak. As it was low tide at the time and Bermuda was in the only deep water alongside the pier, several members of the Fire Brigade waded knee-deep in the mud to direct the hoses. Two hundred feet above the Victoria Channel the fames roared with an intensity that drove men back from the water's edge and singed ironwork on the jetty red-hot. The tide was out making water supply inadequate for the hoses and apart from spraying the jetties to prevent the spread of the fire to the shipyard the firemen were unable to tackle the blaze in any way. Three firemen were overcome by the fumes but recovered after treatment. It soon became apparent that fire was out of control and the order was given for all to abandon the ship just before a series of explosions. From the river side water was poured into the ship from Audacious and the scows, but it became obvious that it was futile and by midnight the raging flames were left to consume the ship.

Northern Whig, 20 November 1931

By 1:00 a.m., Bermuda had assumed the appearance of a giant funeral pyre, the fire visible for miles and her portholes glowing with flames including those amidships to the dining saloon. Credit: Illustrated London News, 28 November 1931.

Abandoned by 11:00 p.m., by midnight, "the vessel was ablaze from stem to stern. Belfast Lough was completely lit up, and the could be seen many miles around." (Aberdeen Press & Journal 20 November 1931). At 1:00 a.m., the fire worsened with a series of explosions from aceteylene drums bursting and could be heard through Belfast. Efforts to sink the ship were abandoned when it was impossible to reach the seacocks and attempts to tow her away from the wharf, too, failed when in the heat, tugs could not get their hawsers aboard.

With an explosion that shook the ship from stem to stern and set the huge gantry alongside trembling like a tree shaken in a storm, the doomed Bermuda roared into flames, and instead of smoke vivid tongues of fire licked through the portholes. The superstructure of the ship became silhouetted in a fierce glow, the white paintwork on the upper decks shone with a radiance almost of daylight, and the bridge was wrapped in fire from end to end.

Northern Whig, 20 November 1931

Dramatic photo of Bermuda ablaze. Credit: Belfast Telegraph photograph, National Museums NI.

Residents in parts of Belfast two miles from the Lagan felt the vibration of these explosions, and one householder in Somerton Road, Knock, telephoned to the Northern Whig to state that he was awakened from sleep by the shaking of his bed as the result of one particularly fierce explosion.

To the group of people standing I the vicinity of the vessel the scene was appalling. A curtain of fire rose from every part of the vessel; her portholes glowed with ghastly light; through openings in the side of the hull could be caught glimpses of a raging inferno of flame.

Like heavy artillery in action, the explosions were heralded by vivid flashes, making the gantry an cranes stand out with the clearness of an etching against a background of crackling fire.

Northern Whig, 20 November 1931

Fire engines had to be removed from the vicinity of the vessel on account of the fierceness of the blaze, and although rain commenced to fall between one and two o'clock fears were felt for the safety of property in the shipyard. Sparks flew from Bermuda and drifted in fiery clouds over the huge gantry, and occasionally masses of blazing debris would fall off the ship "and drop hissing in cascades of fire to the jetty and the water 80 feet below."

Credit: Belfast News Letter, 21 November 1931

The most dramatic moment night terror came about 1 o’clock. Standing within 30 yards the burning ship was monster crane, its arm swinging 175 feet above the ground in the flame area.

A cry was raised that the top cabin of the crane was on fire. Spurts of flame and sparks were seen coming from the roof; fused electric wire glowed with an intense green light.

Clouds of smoke occasionally enveloped the cabin, and the heat at the base the crane was intense. It became imperative that the structure should be removed to a point of safety, since there was real danger that if the Bermuda took a list port she would lift the jetty and send the crane hurling to the ground among the fire engines and the crowd in the shipyard.

William Clarke, foreman electrician, and Fireman G. Thompson, of the Ardoyne Station, volunteered to climb the 170 feet of slippery ladder the burning cabin. Fireman Andrews, the Headquarters detachment had previously ascended the crane and attacked the fire, but the blaze had broken out afresh.

Through a cloud of smoke and sparks the two men gradually fought their way upwards. Sometimes they were lost sight, at other moments they stood out clearly against the glare of the flames.

Scarcely had they reached the cabin when a shout echoed through the crowd, The crane’s coming down; get back everybody. There was a rush away from the vessel, but high up amid the hot, spark-laden fumes Clarke and Thompson worked their task.

While the firemen strove to extinguish the fire, Clarke managed to get the electric machinery in motion, and inch by in the crane was lacked out of the danger zone. It was amazing exhibition of fearlessness on the part of both men. and the crowd watched spellbound they descended the ladders and regained the ground.

Here and there among the onlookers were to be found men almost overcome with emotion. “It’s the worst shipping affair ever known in this or any country,” one said, “and to see a fine vessel like that going up in flames is enough to make a man cry.”

Ballymena Observer, 27 November 1931

Between two and three o'clock there were tremendous explosions in the interior of the vessel, and so complete was the havoc that at four o’clock there was nothing left in the ship capable of burning. Everything had beep consumed, but the flames still licked the girders as they shot from the bowels of the vessel, which in few short hours had been brought to destruction. “It was sight to make angels weep.” said a spectator of the ruins of the once beautiful Bermuda. The fire has thrown about seven hundred men out of work.

Larne Times, 28 November 1931

After two o'clock the only part of the ship untouched was the nose of the forecastle. All the rest was burning fiercely, and the ship all the while was slowly listing to port. Fire-fighters working from tugs and scows in the river had to beat a retreat lest the hull should topple over and send them to the bottom.

An explosion fiercer than the rest sent the remnant of the steel work of the bridge high in the air scattering the crowd in the yard. The ship by now was a glowing furnace. Red-hot plates and buckled steel testified to the ferocity of the flames. No one heeded the torrential downpour of rain, so fascinating was the spectacle of the burning liner, nearly 600 feet long. The crash of the leaded lights right along the promenade deck let loose a still greater volume of flame, and soon the hawsers began to go. The ship was already heeling to port, and had she gone right over, she would have uprooted part of the jetty, bringing the firemen to destruction. Fortunately, she remained afloat, although at a very dangerous angle.

Belfast Telegraph, 20 November 1931

Credit: Belfast News Letter, 21 November 1931

Firemen playing hoses on the smoulding hull of Bermuda the morning following the fire. Credit: Northern Whig, 23 November 1931.

Hours after the fire had gutted Bermuda, pockets remained astern and being attacked by the Belfast Fire Brigade. Credit: Northern Whig, 23 November 1931.

Saved from destruction during the worst of the fire, the big crane at Workman Clark's Victoria pier is put to use lowering a platform with firemen playing a hose on the tortured remains of Bermuda's upper structure. Credit: Northern Whig, 23 November 1931.

The once stately liner is now a pathetic sight. Her upper works are twisted and paintless, showing the terrific heat which prevailed when the fire was at its fiercest. What is left the bridge is heeled over towards the forward funnel, and from the siren hangs well out of its original position. From the deck iron work the paint has been burned completely off, while occasional bursts of heavy smoke from the forecastle show that the fire is still doing its fell work in the interior of the ship.

The stern is also smouldering, and two jets were playing almost continuously on this portion, while occasionally it was found necessary to pour thousands of gallons of water on other parts of the ship. The port side, which lies exposed to full view from the Victoria Wharf, has been stripped amidships right to the water’s edge its gray paint, the plates showing red and raw to the thousands spectators who made their way there to see the ill-fated vessel.

Alongside her were five engines of the Belfast Fire Brigade, the members of which put so gallant a fight against the fire, and while they were keeping a watchful eye against any recurrence of the outbreak on a large scale, they had to very careful, because all danger of explosions of gas could not he definitely said to be over.

Larne Times, 28 November 1931

By 5:00 a.m. the fire which continued to rage aft, had completely gutted Bermuda. By 11:00 a.m. it had burned out sufficiently to get her seacocks open and Bermuda settled into the mud on a more or less even keel whilst tons of water was still being poured onto the red hot twist plates of her mangled superstructure and paint-blistered hull.

The gutted Bermuda the morning after the fire. Credit: Harland & Wolff Collection, National Museum NI.

Noon on 20 November 1931 finds Bermuda a smouldering, gutted hulk. Note Georgic fitting out at Harland & Wolff on the other side of Victoria Basin. Credit: Northern Whig photograph.

The tortured and twisted remains of Bermuda's brand new superstructure and bridge (note the bridge wing cabs). Credit: Illustrated London News, 28 November 1931.

As Bermuda steamed and smouldered in Belfast, news of her torment reached her namesake island and at 11:00 a.m. local time on the 19th, Messrs. Watlington & Conyers in Hamilton received the following cable from New York:

Deeply regret to advise you that Bermuda is seriously on fire in Belfast and it is feared will be a total loss. We shall build a bigger and better ship and the service, of course, will be uninterrupted.

H. C. Blackiston.

His Excellency the Governor sent a cable to Sir Frederick Lewis in London and to Mr. Blackiston in New York

Horrified to learn of the unparalled tragedy of the Bermuda.

DIRECTORS STATEMENT

LONDON, Nov. 21.—A. Reuter's despatch dated 2 p.m. Saturday read:

A statement issued by the directors of Furness Withy Company expresses the keenest appreciation of the many kind messages of sympathy received from shareholders, friends, clients and public with regard to the destruction of the M.s. Bermuda. If the damage to the Bermuda should unfortunately prove beyond repair, the order for construction of a new ship will be placed immediately with a British Shipbuilding Yard which should give employment to a large number of men for the next eighteen months.

The following notice was posted at the Belfast shipyard yesterday:— The directors of Messrs. Workman, Clark (1928), Ltd., to place on record their sincere appreciation ot the loyalty of the staff, the foremen, and the men engaged during the last four months on the reconditioning of the quadruple screw motor ship Bermuda, and the magnificent work done them up till the time of the disastrous fire, which has prevented the owners from having this vessel in commission this season, and has also resulted in so many men being thrown out of employment.

Northern Whig 26 November 1931

It was almost immediately conceded that Bermuda was a complete loss and with Monarch of Bermuda now completed, Furness made what the Royal Gazette of 23 November 1931 "believed to be quickest decision in the history of shipbuilding was made yesterday" by placing an order for sistership which was anticipated to be completed by February 1933. It was said the new ship was ordered, by telephone, within two hours of ascertaining Bermuda would be a total loss, This was formally announced at the meeting of the company in London on 2 December by Sir Frederick Lewis who referring to the fires on the Bermuda, said "that such evidence as was available at present indicated that their origin was accidental and not deliberate."

It will be interesting to observe what the fates may have in store for the Bermuda; built only four years ago by Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., she was the last ship turned out by them before the firm reorganised. Her quadruple-screw Doxford opposed-piston oil engines were a novel feature of the ship, and the engineers went to considerable trouble to ensure the most complete elimination of vibration in the main engines, as was explained in these columns at the time. The Bermuda incorporated many interesting technical advances which caused the sceptics to wag their heads: they were wrong, for she turned, out to be a very successful ship. Her passenger space was often booked to capacity at high rates, and it is said that she quickly repaid the large investment of money that she represented. The passing of this fine 'ship will be deplored on all sides.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 3 December 1931

On 5 December 1931 it was reported that representatives of Messrs. Furness Withy and the Bermuda and West Indies Steamship Co., had lodged a claim of £2 million with the Belfast Corporation under the Malicious Damages Act to protect the right of the owners should foul play have been proved in connection with the fire.

On Christmas Eve 1931, Bermuda was raised, "the work was one of considerable difficulty, three tugs and several divers being employed in the operation" (Scotsman, 31 December 1931) and would be drydocked at Thompson Graving Dock on the 30th for an inspection by surveyors. An initial inspection, as reported by the Northern Whig (28 December 1931) was not encouraging:

The damage to the ship, in far as it has been ascertained, very extensive. All the bulkhead frames, for instance, on deck for a distance of 300 feet, are very badly buckled and bent, together with the deck beams, underdeck girders, hatch coamings, and pillars. Between "F" and "G" decks in the cargo spaces nearly half the ship’s side frames are buckled with the heat. At low water the starboard side it has been found that even more the shell plates than originally seen have been badly buckled, and the same state of affairs prevails on the port side. The damage to all the decks very severe, but the machinery is in rather better condition than was anticipated.

Bermuda entering Thompson Graving Dock, 30 December 1931 for inspection by surveyors engaged by the underwriters. Credit: eBay auction photo.

Bermuda in the Thompson Graving Dock with White Star's Georgic at the adjacent pier fitting out at Harland & Wolff. Credit: Belfast News Letter, 31 December 1931.

Surveyors contemplate probably the least damaged part of Bermuda: two of her four screws. Credit: Northern Whig, 1 January 1932.

1932

On 4 January 1932 Bermuda was undocked and towed across to Workman Clark's North Yard. That same day the surveyors reported that "the hull of the vessel is so badly damaged that it would not be worthwhile repairing it owing to the expense involved." The machinery was still salvagable and would removed and the hull scrapped.

At a conference yesterday in Belfast of representatives of the owners, builders, and underwriters it was decided not to rebuild the 20.000-ton motor-liner Bermuda, of the Furness-Withy Line. which was seriously damaged fire at the wharf at Belfast where she was being finished after partial reconstruction. The conclusion arrived at after an exhaustive survey was that it would cost more to rebuild the vessel than to construct a new ship An order has already been given the owners to a Barrow firm for a new ship.

Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 5 January 1932

It was reported on 13 January 1932 that underwriters would pay Furness Withy £840,000 on Bermuda as constructive total loss although the ship insured value is £675,000 based on the cost of the reconstruction to date and the insured value. The vessel would become the property of the underwriters when the claim was paid.

Meanwhile, the consequences of the fire to Belfast were just being felt. On 28 January 1932 the Belfast Telegraph noted that "The recent burning of the fine ship Bermuda while undergoing an overhaul at Belfast is to be greatly deplored as having thrown a large number of men out of work, and it is unfortunate that the replacement order in the matter has gone elsewhere." At least on 12 February, the claim for £2 mn. against the Belfast Corporation was dismissed with costs as the "claimants could not prove malice" amid rumours and speculation the fire had been set by a shipyard worker aiming to cause a nuisance fire that would extend the refit a few weeks and provide additional hours of work and clearly got more than he bargained for. Indeed, some 500 men were now reckoned to be out of work amid considerable concern rumours over the cause of the fire would injure the reputation of Belfast shipyards in general:

It was frankly stated in court that the reason for not proceed ing with the claim was that the claimants could not prove malice. In the interests of Belfast and the shipbuilding industry' it is desirable that this should widely known. Immediately after the fire rumours of incendiarism were circulated, and the public mind was greatly unsettled in consequence. Such rumours were calculated to great harm, not only to the firm in whose yard the Bermuda was undergoing repairs, but to the local shipbuilding industry generally. If investigation had shown that the fire had been maliciously caused, shipping companies who had orders to place might have been led to look to other shipbuilding centres in preference to Belfast, The proceedings in the Recorder’s Court should remove once for all any possibility of such discrimination against Belfast yards. At the present moment the lack of orders for new tonnage is causing depression and concern throughout the British shipbuilding industry, and Belfast is vitally concerned in securing its due shore of business when trade conditions take a turn for the better. On their merits Belfast-built ships can hold their own with any in the world.

Northern Whig, 13 February 1932

On 26 March 1932 it announced that the Board of Trade would not hold a public inquiry into the fire, citing that for the past three months inquiries had been by surveyors "who have satisfied themselves that all the relevant facts are now in their possession."

The Northern Whig on 14 April 1932 reported the Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Co., Ltd, intend on taking an action of nearly £1 mn against Messrs. Workman Clark (1928) Ltd. for damages for the injury to the vessel, on the grounds of alleged negligence and breach of duty.

Workman Clark purchased Bermuda on 2 May 1932 from the Salvage Association after extensive negotiations and with a view to salvage the vessel's still intact machinery and scrap the fire ravaged superstructure, thus providing badly needed employment in a shipyard bereft of orders as the Depression and shipping slump set in. Still in the North Yard, the ship was then gradually dismantled down to the hull and her main engines removed. It is not often the builders of a ship dismantle much of it, even more unusual that they would do so twice in less than an year.

Bermuda's superstructure was scrapped at Workman Clark's North Yard where she was built. Her upper works have been completely removed except for the funnels and divided uptakes and masts and her name letters are being painted over or removed in this photo. Credit: Mariners' Museum.

Bermuda's superstructure being scrapped in June 1932. Note the divided uptakes to the forward funnel. Credit: Daily Mirror, 22 June 1932.

One of the more remarkable sequels to Bermuda's second fire, possibly unique in the annals of modern liners, was the disposition of the virtual entire interior fit, furnishings, panelling, equipment and literally every item that goes into an ocean liner. For what was destroyed that November night was a completely empty vessel whose accommodation was only just framed up and partitioned and everything else was stored in warehouses in anticipation of installation.

Abandoned to the underwriters along with the ship for which it was destined, the Salvage Asociation contracted Messrs. W.P. Gray MacDowell to conduct one of the largest and protracted auctions of ship fittings ever, in some ten separate sales over four to six months and with an estimated worth of £60,000. The furnishings alone were estimated at £23,000.

The list of items was staggering in its quantity and variety: 585 single bedsteads, 322 wardrobes, 70 gallons of interior enamel, 6 cwt of green boot topping paint, 100 galvanised lockers, 60 mahogany doors, 150 mirrors, 3,000 sq. ft. of veined walnut, quartered oak and mahogany panelling, a Strominger piano, 472 bedside cabinets, 200 mahogany dining room chairs, 7,355 pieces of china, 2,271 pieces of cutlery, 22,000 pieces of table and bed linen, two teak dog kennels, 10 teak companion ladders, parquet flooring, two hospital wheel chairs, 106 oak and wicker serving trays and yes, 22 fire extinguishers. It was reckoned to be the largest such sale since the same firm disposed of the furnishings of the White Star liner Britannic after her sinking in the Great War.

SALE OF BERMUDA FURNITURE. The complete appointments for upwards state-rooms the Bermuda will be sold Messrs. W. P. Gray & M'Dowell. Belfast. The contract for the furniture was completed by a foremost Scottish firm, and none of the pieces were aboard the ship when the hull was destroyed by fire. The designs employed are Italian and Queen Anne delightfully quartered mahogany, oak, and inlaid figured dark walnut with wax antique finish. All woods used in the construction of ships' furniture of this quality are subjected to special selection seasoning in order that warp is eliminated. The lots for sale include wardrobes, ranging from 5 ft. to 1 ft 9 in.. fitted with tray drawers in the base, with hat racks over and totally enclosed by full length doors. Dressing chests 3 ft. 6 in. bow front, with triplex damp-proof bevelled plate glass mirrors, the side mirrors enclosing cabinets; bedsteads, bedside cabinets, writing bureaux. The sale affords opportunity never previously offered, and certainly most unlikely to be repeated, of procuring something much out of the ordinary, and with utility and stability to last generations. The auctioneers. Messrs. W. P. Gray & M'Dowell. Ltd., have decided that owing to the interest evinced in the previous auction sales, and having regard to the convenience of prospective buyers, that their spacious ground floor sale-room will stocked, mencing next week, with samples each of the items, which will offered for time private sale.

Northern Whig, 26 September 1932

One of the some ten auctions of the complete fittings and furnishings of Bermuda held in Belfast from August-November 1932. Credit: Northern Whig, 15 September 1932.

Remarkable interest was shown yesterday at the Belfast Auction Rooms, Montgomery Street, when further portion the fittings, originally intended for the ill-fated Bermuda was offered for sale by Messrs. W.P. Gray & MacDowell, Ltd. Over 300 were present when the sale commenced, and it was necessary to close the room notwithstanding tha great accommodation in the room. The bidding was brisk, and satisfactory prices were realised. We understand from the auctioneer that further sales will be advertised in due course, and that the most expensive of the furnishings, including magnificent panelling and the complete appolntments for 300 staterooms are still to be disposed of, the latter representing a separate contract for £25,000.

Northern Whig 3 August 1932

Men at Workman, Clark finish cutting up the last remnants of Bermuda's scrapped superstructure to clear a slipway for a much needed new order. Credit: Northern Whig, 15 October 1932.

1933

With her contents being dispersed and disposed of, Bermuda's lingering legal claims were settled on 17 January when the court case between Furness Withy and Workman Clark was rescinded "to suit the convenience of both parties."

Workmen removing Bermuda's screws and shafts in Thompson Graving Dock. Credit: Belfast Telegraph, 16 February 1933.

Now stripped to the hull and with her machinery removed, the hulk of Bermuda made one final visit in mid February 1933 to the Thompson Graving Dock in Belfast to have her shafts and quadruple screws removed. Curiously, surveys of the wreck done in the late 1980s make reference to one "12-ft. propeller being visible" so it is not sure how many screws and shafts were indeed removed prior to her departure from Belfast.

Bermuda's hull was sold to Metal Industries Ltd., Glasgow, on 26 February 1933 for £16,000 for breaking up.

Bidding a final farewell to her birthplace, Bermuda leaves Belfast under tow by the tug Seaman on 27 April 1933. Credit: Northern Whig, 28 April 1933.

Bermuda left Belfast under tow on 27 April 1933 by the Hull Towing Co. tugs Seaman and Superman. Bound for Rosyth for breaking up. The tow was making "slow but steady progress" until the 29th when in heavy weather, both hawsers parted and Bermuda began drifting towards Eddrachillis and eventually grounded on the Badcall Islands, 25 miles south of Cape Wrath. After some difficulty, both hawsers were reconnected the next day, but she again grounded hard on the rocks on the south side of the bay. It was impossible to board the vessel in the heavy weather and Bermuda was now stranded "in one of the most desolate spots on the coast of West Sutherlandshire." On 1 May the United Towing Co. sent a situation report: "Engine and boiler room leaking badly; all other compartments dry; lying quietly on rocks; getting towage connection fitted."

What an unlucky ship the motorship Bermuda is. Badly damaged by fire at Hamilton in June, 1981, gutted by fire when repairing at Belfast in the following November, the hull is now stranded in Eddrachilles Bay, Sutherland, whilst in tow for Rosyth to be broken up. She was sold for £16,000 not long ago, but the hulk is insured on a value of £5,500 for the tow.

Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 2 May 1933

Credit: The Sphere, 7 July 1933.

Message, dated yesterday, states that the hulk Bermuda lies in a critical position broadside to the shore across two rocky ridges under boiler room and No . 3 hold near cliff listed 15 degrees port, and exposed between N. and W. Water in all compartments except No . 3, also No . 4 and 5 holds containing dirt ballast. Vessel working and straining with slight swell. In view of the heavy leakage and the difficult exposed position salvage is impracticable.

The Scotsman, 4 May 1933

On 20 May 1933 Metal Industries Ltd, Rosyth, announced "their definite decision to leave the Bermuda to seek a watery grave off Cape Wrath." An official of the company added "We suffered no loss, we had the ship insured… all that is left of the Bermuda is slowly being reduced to scrap by the heavy seas at Bedcall, Sutherlandshire, where she ran aground."

The grounding cost the underwriters another £5,500 and it was estimated the total insurance losses for Bermuda exceeded £1 mn.

The final auction of Bermuda's fittings was conducted in Belfast from 20-21 June 1933, including remaining furniture including 152 wardrobes, 95 bow-front chest of drawers and 61 cabin doors and 10,000 pieces of hardware, coat hangers, curtain rails and 174 glass tumblers.

The wreck of Bermuda a year later. Credit: Evening Telegraph, 8 June 1934.

The hulk was soon progressively scrapped in situ by local wreckers and by the beginning of the war, had largely vanished save for the three large hunks of the stern.

The once pride of "The Millionaires' Run," Bermuda lies a forlorn wreck being slowly scrapped where she lays in 1935. Credit: Dundee Courier 3 July 1935.

The Board accepted with thanks from Mr. W. Strachan the bell of m.v. Bermuda as an addition to the interesting collection at the Harbour Office. Mr. Strachan stated that the vessel, built in 1927. was the last to be turned out by the old firm of Workman, Clark, & Co., Ltd., and was then probably the most luxurious ship afloat. Smugglers set fire to the ship while living at Bermuda in the early part 1931. The vessel was brought back to Belfast, and the work of reconstruction was within a month of completion on November 19, when fire was discovered in one of the passengers’ rooms. The boat was totally destroyed.

Northern Whig, 17 March 1937

Credit: Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 27 March 1937.

Bermuda's bell which was saved by Workman. Clark, was donated in March 1937 to the Belfast Harbour Board when the yard closed (the company going into receivership in 1935).

Two of Bermuda's (the last liner built by Workman Clark) Doxford diesels were installed in Incomati of 1934 above, the last liner built Workman Clark (1928) Ltd. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com

The final remnant of Bermuda and the most useful were her four mighty Doxford diesels which managed to survive both fires and were removed by Workman Clark. Of these, two were installed in the third of three handsome passenger-cargo liners, the last built by Workman Clark, for Bank Line's India-East Africa run. Whereas Isipingo (completed in February 1934) and Inchanga (April 1934) were fitted with new twin-screw Sulzer diesels, the 20-ft longer Incomati got a pair of the salvaged Doxfords. Laid down in August 1933, launched on 15 February 1934, the handsome pocket-sized liner made in excess of 16 knots on trials 18-23 April. Not surprisingly, no public mention was made of the origins of her engines and indeed, it might be said she inherited the "Bermuda Curse" in that of the three sisters, Incomati was the only one lost in the Second World War, sunk off the West African coast on 18 July 1943 by a German submarine.

And what of Bermuda's other pair of Doxfords? They were last mentioned in an article in the Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette, 27 April 1936, on the rebuilding and re-engining of the Silverlarch and Silverpine by Messrs. J.L. Thompson & Sons. Written by the director of the yard, R.C. Thompson, it stated: "Consideration now reverted to the machinery problem, and attention was given to a suggestion to purchase the Diesel engines from the motor-liner Bermuda, which was wrecked by a fire which, however, left the engines practically unharmed." Instead, new two-stroke, double-acting diesels were chosen for the project. So where they wound up, other than the scrap yard, remains a mystery.

BERMUDA, wreckage is visible ashore below the headland of Croc an Sean Eoin. The main part of the wreck is in 3 large pieces of which the stern is recogniseable, as is a 12' diameter propeller. It lies in depths of 12 metres on a bottom of sand, rock and kelp.

BSAC Wreck Register 1987.

It was a very sad end to quite an exceptional ship which had started her career only some three years earlier with such tremendous promise.

J.H. Isherwood.

So ended the career... from triumph to tragedy in short order like few others... of Bermuda. Her success led to the construction of Monarch of Bermuda and her loss prompted the building of Queen of Bermuda, thus she managed to nurture, in less than four years, a matchless era for the "Millionaires' Run," elevating it to one of the most celebrated and profitable of all of steamship services. Not bad for an "ill-fated" ship that remains one of the most outstanding liners of the inter-war era.

m.v. BERMUDA (1927 - 1931)

159 round voyages New York-Hamilton-New York 226,280 miles

1 one-way crossing New York-Hamilton 668 miles

1 trans-Atlantic crossing Belfast-New York 3,287 miles

1 trans-Atlantic crossing Hamilton-Belfast 3,436 miles

Total mileage 233,677

Leaving paradise behind, m.v. Bermuda, outbound for New York, sails past Clarence Cove, North Shore of Bermuda, with the jetty of Admiralty House in the foreground, c. 1930. Credit: Stephen J. Card.

Built by Workman, Clark & Co., Ltd. no. 490, Belfast

Gross tonnage 19,086

Length: (o.a.) 547 ft.

(b.p.) 525 ft.

Beam: 73.9 ft.

Machinery: four four-cylinder Doxford opposed piston diesel engines, 13,600 bhp,

quadruple screws.

Speed: 17 knots service

18.25 knots trials

Passengers 616 First Class

75 Second Class

Officers & Crew 330

An Economic History of Ulster, 1920-1939, Kennedy, Liam & Ollerenshaw, Philip

Around Manhattan Island and Other Maritime Tales of New York, Brian J. Cudahy, 1997

Furness Bermuda Line and two pairs of Sisters, Allen Soares

Furness Withy 1891-1991, David Burrell, 1992

Exporters' Review
Illustrated London News
Motorship & Diesel Boating
Sea Breezes
Shipbuilding and Shipping Record
Syren & Shipping
The Motor Ship
The Sphere
The Tatler

Ballymena Weekly Telegraph

Belfast News-Letter

Belfast Telegraph

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Buffalo Times

Daily Gleaner

Daily Mirror

Daily News

Daily Telegraph

Democrat and Chronicle

Evening Journal

Evening Telegraph

Gazette

Glasgow Herald

Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail

Larne Times

Liverpool Journal of Commerce

Morning Call

Northern Whig

Philadelphia Inquirer

Pittsburgh Press

Royal Gazette

The Scotsman

Staffordshire Sentinel

Times Union

https://www.thebelfastshipyard.org/

http://bernews.com/

https://collections.mcny.org/

http://furnessbermudaline.com/

https://artuk.org/visit/collection/hartlepool-museums-and-heritage-service-595

https://collections.nationalmuseumsni.org/

https://www.shipsnostalgia.com

http://www.sunderlandships.com/

http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Furness_Bermuda_Line

https://wolfsonian.org/

M.V. Bermuda (1927-1931) departing Hamilton, Bermuda, with the tender Bermudian astern. Painting by Stephen J. Card.

Additions/Corrections/Contributions welcomed

contact the author at posted_at_sea@hotmail.com

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

FATED FLAGSHIP: M/V BERMUDA