Wrecks of Bermuda

Discovery and the Spanish treasure route

The islands are named after the Spanish captain Juan de Bermúdez, who sighted them in the early 1500s; "La Bermuda" appears on a printed map by 1511. Spain never settled here, but its fleets sailed past every year carrying silver and gold from the Americas, and some did not make it. The San Pedro, lost in the 1590s, gave up one of Bermuda's most famous finds in 1955: an emerald-set gold cross recovered by the Bermudian diver Teddy Tucker. Shipwrecked sailors of several nations were stranded on the islands during this century, and some left their mark: a rock on the south shore carries an inscription dated 1543.

The Sea Venture and the birth of a colony

In July 1609 the Sea Venture, flagship of a fleet taking settlers and supplies to the young English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, was caught in a hurricane. Leaking badly, she was deliberately run onto the reefs off the east end of Bermuda by Admiral Sir George Somers. Everyone on board, around 150 people, got ashore safely. They lived on the island for ten months, built two new vessels, the Deliverance and the Patience, and sailed on to Jamestown in 1610.

The wreck gave England its claim to Bermuda, which was settled in 1612. Accounts of the shipwreck and the survivors' life on an "enchanted" island reached London and are widely thought to have helped inspire Shakespeare's The Tempest. The remains of the Sea Venture were found in 1958 and are a protected historic wreck.

The colony and the wreckers

As English settlement grew, so did traffic and losses: the magazine ship Warwick sank in Castle Harbour in 1619 and the Virginia Merchant was lost on the south shore in 1661. Bermudians became expert pilots and salvors, and "wracking" was a recognised way of life: when a ship struck, local boats raced to rescue the crew and salvage the cargo. The Royal Navy frigate HMS Cerberus was lost off the east end in 1783.

Warships, blockade-runners and steamers

The Royal Navy built its great dockyard at the west end of Bermuda, and the island's strategic value grew. The French frigate L'Herminie was wrecked off the west end in 1838, leaving cannon scattered across the reef. During the American Civil War (1861-65) St. George's became a busy base for fast Confederate blockade-runners carrying arms in and cotton out; the Mary Celestia and the Montana are their best-known remains. As steam replaced sail, iron-hulled steamers such as the Minnie Breslauer, Darlington and Lartington joined the list. In 1896 the Royal Navy deliberately scuttled HMS Vixen across the Daniel's Head channel to block it; her bow still breaks the surface.

Liners, freighters and The Deep

The twentieth century brought bigger ships and bigger wrecks: the Madiana, Caraquet, and in 1936 the Spanish liner Cristobal Colon, the largest wreck in Bermuda's waters, whose remains are spread across the northern reefs. During the Second World War the schooner Constellation sank on the north-west reefs; her story inspired Peter Benchley's novel The Deep, filmed in Bermuda in the 1970s.

Bermudian divers led the way in finding and studying these sites. Teddy Tucker (1925-2017) spent a lifetime on Bermuda's wrecks and found many of them; his discoveries, including the Tucker Cross, made Bermuda famous in the world of underwater exploration.

Artificial reefs and protection

Since the 1980s several ships have been sunk on purpose as dive sites and artificial reefs, among them the Hermes, the King and the Xing Da. The older wrecks are now protected as part of Bermuda's heritage under the Historic Wrecks Act 2001, and many popular dive sites are marked by buoys with no-fishing zones around them. Read how wrecks are protected →