* Wesley Frank Craven, An Introduction to the History of Bermuda ( Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1990 )

* Dr Edward Cecil Harris, Bermuda Forts 1612 – 1957 ( Bermuda Maritime Museum, Somerset, 1997 )

* Wilfred Brenton Kerr, Bermuda and the American Revolution: 1760 – 1783 ( Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1995 )

* Nan Godet, Dr Edward Harris, Pillars of the Bridge: The Establishment of the United States bases on Bermuda during the Second World War ( Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1991 )

Commander Ian Strannack, The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press, The Bermuda Maritime Museum, P. O.

* Bermuda Forts 1612 – 1957, Dr. Edward C. Harris, The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press, The Bermuda Maritime Museum, ISBN 0-921560-11-7

* Bulwark Of Empire: Bermuda's Fortified Naval Base 1860-1920, Lt .- Col. Roger Willock, USMC, The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press, The Bermuda Maritime Museum, ISBN 0-921560-00-1

Ian Strannack, RN ( Ret'd ), Bermuda Maritime Museum Press.

* Bermuda Maritime Museum, Sandys Parish, Bermuda

A Gutenberg press replica at the Featherbed Alley Printshop Museum, in Bermuda.

With a total landmass of, and lacking any natural resources, other than the Bermuda cedar, the colonists applied themselves fully to the maritime trades, developing the speedy Bermuda sloop, which was well suited both to commerce and to commerce raiding.

The same lack of economic opportunities within Bermuda had led islanders to abandon agriculture following the dissolution of the Somers Isles Company in 1684, and turn wholeheartedly towards maritime activities.

In the 1860s, however, the major build-up of naval and military infrastructure brought vital money into Bermuda at a time when its traditional maritime industries were giving way under the assault of steel hulls and steam propulsion.

Due historically to a third of Bermuda's manpower being at sea at any one time, and to many of those seamen ultimately settling elsewhere, especially as the Bermudian maritime industry began to suffer, Bermuda was noted for having a high number of aging spinsters well into the 20th century.

The USAAF airfield, Fort Bell ( later, US Air Force Base Kindley Field, and, later still, US Naval Air Station Bermuda ) was on St. David's Island, while the Naval Operations Base, a Naval Air Station for maritime patrol flying boats, ( which became the Naval Air Station Annex after US Naval air operations relocated to ) was at the western end of the island in the Great Sound.

With a total area of and lacking any natural resources other than the Bermuda cedar, the colonists applied themselves fully to the maritime trades, developing the speedy Bermuda sloop, which was well suited both to commerce and to commerce raiding.

Free Blacks, who were the majority of Black Bermudians in the 17th century, were threatened with enslavement as an attempt to encourage their emigration, and slave owners were encouraged to export enslaved Blacks ( with all slaves seen, like horses on an archipelago with dense forests and few roads, as a status symbol ) whenever a war loomed, as they were portrayed as unnecessary bellies to feed during times of shortage ( even before abandoning agriculture for maritime activities in 1684, Bermuda had become reliant on food imports ).

In the 1860s, however, the major build-up of naval and military infrastructure brought vital money into Bermuda at a time when its traditional ( cedar-and sail cloth-based ) maritime industries were giving way under the assault of steel hulls and steam propulsion.

Holbourne Island is often referred to as part of the Coral Sea's Bermuda Triangle, as several maritime mysteries are linked to the area.

Bermuda ( civil ) Government vessels and maritime services use the defaced blue ensign, which is flown both from vessels and from shore facilities.

The RAF station on Darrell's Island served as a staging point for trans-Atlantic flights by RAF Transport Command and RAF Ferry Command, BOAC, and Pan-Am, as well as hosting the Bermuda Flying School, but did not operate maritime patrols.

The FAA station on Boaz Island existed to service aircraft based on vessels operating from or through the Royal Naval Dockyard, but attempted to maintain maritime patrols using pilots from naval ships, RAF Darrell's Island, and the Bermuda Flying School.

As Bermuda turned to a maritime economy, after the dissolution of the Somers Isles Company in 1684, the rig was adapted to larger, ocean-going ships, the famous Bermuda sloops.

Elsewhere around the town there are a multitude of historical sites such as the old State House ( the first stone building in Bermuda, other than fortifications, built in 1620 to house Bermuda's Parliament, and today the oldest building on the island ), the Unfinished Church, the Old Rectory, St. Peter's ( the oldest surviving Anglican and oldest continuously occupied Protestant church in the Western hemisphere ), the Tucker House, the Bermuda National Trust Museum, and the St. George's Historical Society Museum and the Featherbed Alley Printshop museum ( both in the Mitchell House ).

The State House, Bermuda | State House, the building which housed the House of Assembly of Bermuda | House of Assembly from 1620 until 1815

Plaque of the 1797 Scottish-rite Masonic Lodge which has been housed in Bermuda's State House, Bermuda | State House since 1815

Bermuda was, at the time, considered by the UK government more as a naval and military base than as a colony ( it housed the chief Royal Navy base in the western North Atlantic, and the attendant large military garrison.

* Either of two sites which had housed the Admiral of the North Atlantic and West Indies Squadron of the Royal Navy in Bermuda: Mount Wyndham and Admiralty House, ( Pembroke, Bermuda ).

* Bermuda National Trust, a body dedicated to the preservation of historic and environmental sites of interest, including several museums.

Bermuda has of private paved roads ; of public paved roads ; of historic, mostly unpaved railroad trail, used in parts as a scenic trail ; two marine ports ( Hamilton and St. George's ), and one airport, the L. F. Wade International Airport, located at the former U. S. Naval Air Station.

Hamilton is the only incorporated city in Bermuda, but actually is smaller than the historic town of St. George's.

" The Bermuda National Trust is a charity, established in 1970 to preserve natural, architectural and historic treasures and to encourage public appreciation of them.

Following the Crimean War, the trend was towards reducing military garrisons in colonies like Bermuda, partly for economic reasons, and partly as it became recognised that the Royal Navy's own ships could provide a better defence for the Dockyard, and Bermuda.

Following the Crimean War, the trend was towards reducing military garrisons in colonies like Bermuda, partly for economic reasons, and partly as it became recognised that the Royal Navy's own ships could provide a better defence for the Dockyard, and Bermuda.

An 1848 woodcut of Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda | HMD Bermuda, Ireland Island, Bermuda | Ireland Island, Bermuda.

The main channel by which vessels reach most parts of Bermuda west of St. George's, including the Royal Naval Dockyard, on Ireland, the Great Sound, Hamilton Harbour, The Flatts, Murray's Anchorage, and other important sites, carries them around the East ends of St. David's and St. George's Islands, where the coastal artillery was always most heavily concentrated.

HMS Ambuscade, at HMS Malabar ( the former Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda ) in the 1990s, on her way to the West Indies to commence her role as West Indies Guard Ship.

The Royal Navy had created a permanent establishment in Bermuda in 1795, and began buying land around the archipelago for the development of a naval base including what became the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda.

After the closure of most of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda in 1951, a small part of the base known as served as the succeeding station.

In August, 1814, British forces sailed from the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda to attack the U. S. capital of Washington, D. C. On August 24, the British Army had overrun confused American defenders at the Battle of Bladensburg and marched into Washington, which had been abandoned by the military.

* was a Floating Dock, towed to the Bermuda Dockyard in 1869 by, and Terrible.

Most of the Dockyard, along with other Admiralty and War Office land in Bermuda was sold to the Colonial Government.

A detachment of the Parachute Regiment, training at Warwick Camp at the time, provided a guard and escort for the late Governor's body, his coffin carried atop a 25 Pounder field gun of the Bermuda Regiment, to the Leander class frigate HMS Sirius, which was stationed at HM Dockyard Bermuda at the time.