I keep most of my money in Bermuda. It’s a pleasant place. Very respectable. I prefer it to the Caymans. Bunch of chancers they are in the Caymans. You could wake up one morning and find your account’s been frozen.
And it gives me an excuse to sail up there once in a while. That means going through the Bermuda Triangle. It’s a fairly long haul and I always think I’m going to disappear into some mysterious dimension but no luck so far.
When I’m there I usually tie up in St George’s. It’s a quiet place and the site of the first settlement. There’s a small park there which contains the grave of a most remarkable man. One of my heroes in fact. Admiral George Somers. George was in charge of a small fleet sent by the Virginia Company in 1609 to relieve the settlers in Jamestown. Unfortunately they ran into a storm and became separated from each other. George managed to keep his own vessel, Sea Venture, afloat for 3 days and nights but she was a new ship and her caulking couldn’t take the beating. With nine feet of water in the hold he ran her onto a reef off an island that became known as Bermuda. There were 150 souls and a dog on board. Not one life was lost.
The survivors built two new ships from the wreckage and set sail for Virginia. Not everybody wanted to go but they had signed Company contracts.
It was all documented by William Strachey an aspiring writer who sailed on the Sea Venture and went on to Jamestown. Shakespeare used the story as the basis of ‘The Tempest.’
There is also an excellent book on the subject called ‘Brave Vessel’ by Hobson Woodward.
John Lennon sailed to Bermuda in 1980 from Long Island. It did him good. He weathered a storm and got a few songs written. The Double Fantasy album. He finished it just before that clown shot him in New York.
George’s heart is buried in Somers Gardens. The rest of him was taken back to England.
Rest in peace George. You too John.
And it gives me an excuse to sail up there once in a while. That means going through the Bermuda Triangle. It’s a fairly long haul and I always think I’m going to disappear into some mysterious dimension but no luck so far.
When I’m there I usually tie up in St George’s. It’s a quiet place and the site of the first settlement. There’s a small park there which contains the grave of a most remarkable man. One of my heroes in fact. Admiral George Somers. George was in charge of a small fleet sent by the Virginia Company in 1609 to relieve the settlers in Jamestown. Unfortunately they ran into a storm and became separated from each other. George managed to keep his own vessel, Sea Venture, afloat for 3 days and nights but she was a new ship and her caulking couldn’t take the beating. With nine feet of water in the hold he ran her onto a reef off an island that became known as Bermuda. There were 150 souls and a dog on board. Not one life was lost.
The survivors built two new ships from the wreckage and set sail for Virginia. Not everybody wanted to go but they had signed Company contracts.
It was all documented by William Strachey an aspiring writer who sailed on the Sea Venture and went on to Jamestown. Shakespeare used the story as the basis of ‘The Tempest.’
There is also an excellent book on the subject called ‘Brave Vessel’ by Hobson Woodward.
John Lennon sailed to Bermuda in 1980 from Long Island. It did him good. He weathered a storm and got a few songs written. The Double Fantasy album. He finished it just before that clown shot him in New York.
George’s heart is buried in Somers Gardens. The rest of him was taken back to England.
Rest in peace George. You too John.
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