Summer Is Winding Down 
But The Fun Continues!  
Greetings Friends!
September is here, can you believe it?! I guess it's true what they say, time flies when your having fun. But not to worry, there will be plenty more fun to enjoy as the weather cools. As the seasons change, so will the adventures - but rest assured the fun will not stop here in the Royal Naval Dockyard!
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So...who's ready to take a look at what's still going on this summer, and a bit of what's coming up this fall? I hope you'll join me as we'll also take a look at photos from around Dockyard, and enjoy some more interesting history from the Heritage Matters books.

Don't forget you can also keep connected and up to date with what's happening by visiting our Facebook page - Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda and our NEW & IMPROVED website www.thewestend.bm 
Lets go for a walkabout!

 

When you spend a day in Dockyard, especially in the summer months you are bound to see an array of interesting things. The juxtapositions are incredible, with the historic alongside the modern, the stone buildings contrasting the vibrant flora and fauna and brilliant blue sea.  So why did the chickens cross the road? Simple....to get to Dockyard! Can you really blame them, its awesome here! :)

 

Some people may not think that our feathered friends should be roaming the streets, but personally I enjoy their presence; and have witnessed countless visitors of all ages enjoy them also. In my humble opinion they add a bit of unique flare to the area, and to Bermuda. A reminder of how life used to be, when grocery stores didn't exist and the pace of life was determined by necessity. Many locals still enjoy keeping chickens and livestock, whether it be to remember some traditional ways of life, or to have a sense of being a bit more self-sufficient. One of my fondest memories as a child, was waking up early to feed our chickens and to collect their fresh eggs. And although the world is rapidly changing, I hope that there will always be a little wilderness left inside us all.

 

Here are a few more photos from around the Dockyard.   

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

   
 


 

 
 



 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any cool photos from your own walkabout Dockyard, we'd love to see them. Follow this link to our Facebook Page where you can post and share your experiences! Share Your Pics With Us!  
Clocktower Mall
Let's also check out a few things happening over in the Mall!
 


Café Amici's Awesome Staff!

And just a few of their delicious dishes!






Shine Hayward (Local Entertainer) Playing live music in his usual spot.

Who doesn't like a cool treat in the summer months!...

Especially when you can get it from two of the friendliest and most wonderful people on earth! (Did I mention they also have great coffee and other delectable treats).

Hand Made Bermuda Ltd - come see all the great stuff they have while supporting local artists and crafters.









Orchid has an array of interesting and colorful items to choose from.








Come see what else the Clocktower Mall has to offer, you may be surprised at what you'll find! And remember every Sunday spend $25 anywhere in the Mall (doesn't have to be all in one place - feel free to spread out your spend) and you can enter a draw for a prize worth $50. Simply take your receipts from your Sunday spend to the Carole Holding Bermuda Shop next to Café Amici and fill in the entry card! The draw takes place on the following Monday, lucky winners will be called or emailed to collect their winnings.
Dockyard Glassworks

There's always loads to see at the Dockyard Glassworks and Rum Cake Company. From live demonstrations to samples and workshops. When visiting Dockyard its well worth popping in! All items are hand crafted one of a kinds, no mass production here, simply amazing artistry.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Christmas approaches, these amazing glass ornaments are perfect to collect or to give as a special gift! 

 

 

 

 


 

 

To learn more about Dockyard Glassworks & Rum Cake Company visit their site by clicking here!

Inmate Craft Market

 

On August 28th the Department Of Corrections held an Inmate Craft Market here in the Royal Naval Dockyard, on the lawn next to the Clocktower Mall.  This initiative serves multiple purposes, and is intended to benefit the inmates and the community overall.  Here are some photos from the event, which they plan to do again in the future.

 

 
Heritage Matters

 

As mentioned in last months newsletter, Dr. Edward Harris, Executive Director at the National Museum of Bermuda has written a series of books which are comprised of essays on the history of Bermuda entitled 'Heritage Matters'.

 

These books are wonderful and full of interesting historical facts, stories and photos.  Therefore, we're sharing some of these essays with you monthly.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do!

 

Again, a huge thank you to Dr. Harris for allowing us to share his work, for providing the content, and for writing these incredible books which are both insightful and entertaining.

 

This month's essay is 'Cloudy shark oil, barometer of the seas' from 'Heritage Matters Volume 5.

Cloudy Shark Oil Barometer Of The Seas

1: Mr. Gerald Smith points to a disturbance in a shark oil barometer.  

Barometer of the Seas By Dr. Edward Harris, mbe
 
I was watching the Weather Channel this morning as Jim Cantore was broadcasting live from Bermuda. It turns out that the old timers there have always used Shark Liver Oil as a barometer for bad weather. They keep small clear jars of this oil, which is also clear, and depending on a change of color or consistency to the oil they know if something bad is coming. If the oil gets slightly cloudy it's a thunderstorm, if it turns white it's a hurricane coming. They've shown it a couple times today as (Hurricane) Bill got closer and sure enough it was progressively turning solid white. I researched it a bit today and it seams kosher, but nobody knows exactly why. "Inspector", a Web Site Post, 21 August 2009.

Their fins are cut off, often while they are still alive. Their mutilated bodies are thrown back into the ocean to die in agony. The fins of a shark represent only 7% of its actual body weight, but finning is profitable. Shark Foundation Database (www.shark.ch).

As we "dodged the bullet" of Hurricane Bill, which bypassed Bermuda a couple of hundred miles to the west in the early morning of Saturday, 22 August 2009, its predictability, or rather tracking, was almost mundane, given the wonders of satellite science and internet dissemination of data. Unlike the hapless complement of the Sea Venture who blundered unwarned into a hurricane in late July 1609, we can observe the position of such a storm by the minute from the comfort of our homes, via computer.

It is unlikely that any hurricane will again take us by surprise as Emily did but a mere 22 years ago. While storms will always be unpredictable, for it is in their nature, modern science has reduced the romance of such frivolity by its intense tracking capacities and the instantaneous transmission of storm positioning information. The advance in storm watching and data dissemination has almost negated the need for trusty barometers. Yet for many generations, the barometer was the main early warning system for approaching bad weather. One of the oldest may be Bermuda shark oil barometer, which may be unique to the island, or at least has come to appear so, as it has been made into a cultural icon of unpredictably proportions, if now entirely obsolete.

A barometer is an instrument that can measure changes in the pressure of the atmosphere. The Italian Evangelista Torricelli is credited with its invention in 1643, but perhaps in Bermuda's 400th anniversary year, we can find some proof that our shark oil implements predated that of Dottore Torricelli. As that scholar noted in a nice maritime analogy, "We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of elementary air, which is known by incontestable experiments to have weight". The change in the weight, or pressure, of the "elementary air", or atmosphere, due to high pressure (good weather) and low pressure (bad weather) causes the barometer to go up or down, or rather its contents, such as water or mercury. Thus we know why ordinary barometers act as they do and why mariners were grateful for such weather tools.

Modern "weather forecasting" began in the mid-1800s and was largely the work of Robert Fitzroy, RN, the Captain of HMS Beagle during its now famous voyage with its Origin of Species author, Charles Darwin and later Vice Admiral and Governor of New Zealand: it was he who coined that phrase. In 1863, Fitzroy published his Weather Book, which contained, among many items far in advance of current scientific opinion, interpretative guides to the meaning of barometric readings. Being a devote Christian, Fitzroy disagreed with Darwin's theory of evolution, though it was he who gave Darwin Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, a revolutionary book that had much to do with the evolution of Darwin's theories about the age of the Earth and its living creatures.
 

2: Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy RN of HMS Beagle fame.
 

What the weather-wise Admiral would have made of a Bermuda shark oil barometer cannot be forecast or broadcast. Mystical and magical would be likely adjectives he might have used, though whether he could have made up some guidelines for its interpretation that would better those made locally is uncertain. Apparently no one has yet determined what makes the oil from a shark's liver act differently in differing atmospheric conditions, but "act up" it does, that is to say, it becomes agitated or cloudy as adverse weather is approaching the island. The oil, by the way, is extracted from the liver of a deceased shark and there are various theories about when is the best time to obtain the liquid, such as during a full moon, or such like.

However, this barometer of the seas is on its way to extinction, a tradition that in an evolutionary sense can no longer compete with satellite tracing and imagery and internet accessibility.

Its disappearance may also be linked to that other barometer of the seas, the shark. Long denigrated as the demon of the oceans, the shark occupies the top of the watery totem pole, in the way in which people occupy the top rung in the atmospheric ladder. Neither sharks or we have a natural predator; we are each at the apex of the killing chain in our respective domains. Unfortunately for the shark, we have been able to invade and attack him and her in their home front, with increasingly devastating results. We kill sharks for sport, for their fins and ethnically, because we just do not like them, as they very occasionally kill us.


3: Three men and a twelve-foot shark at Bermuda.

 4: Shark hook with chain from 1590s shipwreck.

The comparison is staggering. According to one source, there were only 4 reported kills of humans worldwide by sharks in 2008, out of 120 "shark-human interactions". On the human-shark "interactions", another site claims that three sharks are killed each second, which brings the scoreboard since 1 January 2009 to Monday 24 August 2009 at 11.57 PM to 64,645,988 dead demons. That figure does read that over 64 MILLION sharks have been wiped out in the first eight months of Bermuda's 400th anniversary year round the oceans, seas and rivers of the world.

If the kill ratio were reversed, the sharks would wipe out the human species in less than a century, or perhaps much less, as each woman killed wipes out the reproductive capacity.

5: Self-induced distress signal by ingested man.
 

6: Invitation taken up by Stanley Simmons in the shark.
 
 There are many who insist that the wellbeing of sharks is the barometer of the good health of the oceans. You do not need a shark oil barometer to forecast that the ultimate fate of the shark is perhaps already fixed in the present hurricanes and typhoons of killing. At a kill rate of 100 million sharks of some 500 species each year, it is unlikely that your grandchildren will ever see one in the wild. As shark oil will not be available for the traditional Bermuda barometer, they will have to reply on that other ancient weather vane, the "booming" of the seas on the beaches of the south shore.
 
 
Photos show:
 
1: Mr. Gerald Smith points to a disturbance in a shark oil barometer.    
 
2: Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy RN of HMS Beagle fame.

3: Three men and a twelve-foot shark at Bermuda.
 
4: Shark hook with chain from 1590s shipwreck.
 
5: Self-induced distress signal by ingested man.
 
6: Invitation taken up by Stanley Simmons in the shark.
 

 
Dr. Edward Harris, mbe, jp, fsa, Bermudian, as mentioned is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. This article represents his opinions and not necessarily those of persons associated with the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharris@logic.bm or by telephone to 332-5480.
  
Complimentary Weekly Events Are Still On, Catch them while you can!

 

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Snorkel Park Events

 
Upcoming Oktoberfest Event
Fun Golf Happenings

Come and "Putt a Round" with us during the cooler day's of autumn!  Perfect weather for a round of the World's Best Mini Golf!! We will be open from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm during the months of September and October.  
 
Summer is slowly coming to an end..... Bermuda Fun Golf is the perfect venue to host your end of season party!  Family, friends or colleagues will love an event at Bermuda Fun Golf! We offer group rates and catering!  Visit our website at www.fungolf.bm or contact us at office@fungolf.bm for more information!


 
Thanks so much for joining me again this month!
I hope you enjoyed the September newsletter, and as always I'd love to hear you feedback in an effort to continuously improve.

Look forward to sharing more with you next month, until then let's make history happen and create memories that will last a lifetime! 
 
 
Rebekah Cabrall
WEDCo