| BERMUDA Island 2nd Fleet Replenishment Ship USS Neosho AO-143 made port here from 22 to 25 March 1978. Just before refueling her last customer USS Truckee AO-147 made port here in May 1956 to unload fresh water . Truckee's second call here was late October 1971 for a four day visit. per current records on hand ............................................... |
 |
|
Bermuda
consists of a chain of some 180 coral islands and islets lying 1046km
(650 miles) off the coast of North Carolina, in the Atlantic Ocean. Its
coastlines are characterised by small bays with beaches of fine pale
pink coral sand. The surrounding waters are a vivid blue-green. Inland
there is an abundance of subtropical plants and flowers. Hamilton is
the colony’s capital city, situated at the end of Bermuda’s Great Sound
on the inner curve of the ‘fish hook’. Ferry trips are available round
Hamilton Harbour. In Hamilton parish is the Bermuda Aquarium and
Natural History Museum and Zoo, based at Flatts Village. At the far
eastern end of the chain of islands is the 17th-century town of St
George. The town’s narrow lanes and historic landmarks appear much as
they did more than three centuries ago. St George has many excellent
pubs, restaurants and shops. Bermudian specialities include Bermuda
lobster, shark and fish chowder laced with sherry, peppers and rum.
There are restaurants, cafes, bars and taverns to suit all pockets.
Local drinks are mainly rum based. Most hotels offer evening
entertainment. Local music is a mixture of calypso and Latin American. People: 61% African descent, 38%
Caucasian descent, a small
minority of American Indian descent. Major industries: Tourism,
finance, insurance, structural
concrete products, paints, perfumes, pharmaceuticals, ship
repairing.
A parliamentary British
overseas territory with internal self-government about one-third the size of
|
|
 |
 |
 |
According to geologists this hook-shaped stretch of land was created some 100 million years ago by a volcano. It is perched on the summit of a submarine mountain rising 15,000 feet from the bottom of the sea and is surrounded by coral reefs that protect it from natural erosion. Beyond the reefs the ocean floor begins to plunge to a depth of three miles. The shallow inner lagoon stays mostly calm, transparent and dreamily blue-green, and the beaches have a lovely pink cast. From Isles of the Devil to Island of Influence Behind the majestic beauty of Bermuda lies an intriguing past. Early navigators called these islands "Isles of the Devil." They were discovered by accident in 1503 by Spaniard Juan de Bermudez. But they remained uninhabited, despite visits by the Spanish and English, until more than a century later. SOURCE |
| A Brief History of the Devil's Triangle Limbo of the Lost. The Twilight Zone. Hoodoo Sea. The Devil's Triangle. The vast three-sided segment of the Atlantic Ocean bordered by Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, did not receive its most famous nickname until 1964, but reports of bizarre happenings there, or nearby, have been recorded for centuries. In fact, many claim that Christopher Columbus bore witness to the Bermuda Triangle's weirdness. As the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria sailed through the area in 1492, it is reported that Columbus's compass went haywire and that he and his crew saw weird lights in the sky, but these events have mundane explanations. From the account in Columbus's journal, it is thought that his compass's slight inaccuracy stemmed from nothing more than the discrepancy between true north and magnetic north. As for the lights, Columbus wrote of seeing "a great flame of fire" that crashed into the ocean -- probably a meteor. He saw lights in the sky again on October 11, which, of course, was the day before his famous landing. The lights, brief flashes near the horizon, were spotted in the area where dry land turned out to be. | |
 |
The Dockyard is at
Ireland island Normally we would get the ferry across to
Hamilton, but you could walk
it if you wished. I love this photo, taken through the trees.
Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by
shipwrecked English colonists
headed for Virginia. Tourism to the island to escape North American
winters first developed in Victorian times. Tourism continues to be
important to the island's economy, although international business has
overtaken it in recent years. Bermuda has developed into a highly
successful offshore financial center. A referendum on independence was
soundly defeated in 1995. SOURCE
|
