St. David's Island, Bermuda
Encyclopedia
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. It is located in the far north of the territory, one of the two similarly sized islands that makeup the majority of St. George's Parish
St. George's Parish, Bermuda
St. George's Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named after the founder of the Bermuda colony, Admiral Sir George Somers.It is located in the north-easternmost part of the island chain, containing a small part of the main island around Tucker's Town and the Tucker's Town...
.
The island was originally 503 acres (2 km²) in size (2.0 square kilometres), but was enlarged by reclamation in 1942 to 650 acres (2.6 square kilometres) to allow room for a US military base (originally the US Army's Fort Bell/Kindley Field, later Kindley Air Force Base
Kindley Air Force Base
Kindley Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base in Bermuda from 1948–1970, having been operated from 1943 to 1948 by the United States Army Air Force as Kindley Field.-World War II:...
, and then USNAS Bermuda) which occupied over half the island. The base was closed in 1995, but much of its facilities are still used as part of Bermuda International Airport
Bermuda International Airport
L.F. Wade International Airport , formerly named Bermuda International Airport, is the sole airport serving Bermuda, a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is located in the parish of St. George's and is northeast of Bermuda's capital city of Hamilton. In 2006, L.F. Wade...
. Cooper's Island
Cooper's Island, Bermuda
Cooper's Island is part of the chain which makes up Bermuda. It is located in St. George's Parish, in the northeast of the territory.The 77 acre island is located in the northeast of Castle Harbor, and thanks to reclamation work is now joined to St...
is now attached to St. David's in the southeast, although the two islands are still widely regarded as if they were separate entities
Saint David
Saint David was a Welsh Bishop during the 6th century; he was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and a relatively large amount of information is known about his life. However, his birth date is still uncertain, as suggestions range from 462 to...
, the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, as the similarly sized St. George's Island
St. George's Island, Bermuda
St. George's Island is one of the main islands of the territory of Bermuda. It lies in the northeast of the territory. It is divided between the town of St. George's and St. George's Parish...
, to the north, had been named for the patron saint of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The two islands are separated by two bodies of water - Ferry Reach
Ferry Reach, Bermuda
Ferry Reach is a three mile long channel in the north-east of Bermuda, which lies between St. George's Island in the north and St. David's Island in the south south-west of the town of St. George's.It extends south from St...
in the south-west and St. George's Harbor
St. George's Harbour, Bermuda
St. George's Harbour is a natural harbour in the north of Bermuda. It serves as the port for the town of St. George's and separates St. George's Island in the north and west from St. David's Island in the south and east. Several other islands lie to the south and east, closing the harbour from the...
in the north-east. St. David's is separated from the Bermudian mainland by the waters of Castle Harbor in the south, but is joined to it by road via The Causeway
The Causeway, Bermuda
The Causeway is a narrow strip of reclaimed land and bridges in the north of Bermuda linking Hamilton Parish on the mainland in the southwest and Bermuda International Airport on St. David's Island in St. George's Parish in the northeast, which are otherwise divided by Castle Harbour.The need for...
.
Notable features of the island include St. David's Head
St. David's Head, Bermuda
St. David's Head is a headland in the northeast of St. David's Island, Bermuda. It is the easternmost point of the territory, and is located in St. George's Parish...
, Bermuda's easternmost point, and the nearby St. David's Battery, on Great Head (Great Head is the more prominent of two headland which comprise St. David's Head); Bermuda International Airport
Bermuda International Airport
L.F. Wade International Airport , formerly named Bermuda International Airport, is the sole airport serving Bermuda, a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is located in the parish of St. George's and is northeast of Bermuda's capital city of Hamilton. In 2006, L.F. Wade...
; St. David's Lighthouse; and Annie's Bay
Annie's Bay, Bermuda
Annie's Bay is a picturesque bay in the northeast of Bermuda. It occupies much of the east coast of Cooper's Island, in St. George's Parish.Access to the bay was restricted from 1942 to 1995, while the surrounding land was part of military bases...
on Cooper's Island.
St. David's Island is connected to the United States by an Atlantic fiber Optic cable known as 360 Americas. http://eyeball-series.org/cable-eyeball.htm
As with the rest of Bermuda, the St. David's islanders were established from a diverse group of immigrants, beginning in the 17th Century. These included indentured servants from England, Spanish-speaking Blacks from the West Indies, and Black, Native American, Irish, and Scottish slaves. The last three groups were largely composed of prisoners-of-war and others ethnically-cleansed from their homelands following English wars of conquest. Although hundreds of Native American slaves were absorbed into the population of all of Bermuda, other Bermudians have long distinguished St. David's islanders (disparagingly) as 'Mohawks'. Only two Mohawk boys were recorded as having been imported to Bermuda following Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
-Mohawk wars, but to many English in the 17th Century, the Mohawks were the best known Native American people, and any Native American was likely to be described as a Mohawk. Today, many St. David's islanders are proud to be called Mohawks, and are actively re-establishing links to Wampanoag
Wampanoag
The Wampanoag In the 1600s when encountered by the English, the Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as within a territory that encompassed current day Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket...
, Pequot
Pequot
Pequot people are a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre reduced the Pequot's sociopolitical influence in southern New England...
and other Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
nations that contributed to Bermuda's settlement. Since the joining of the Island to the rest of Bermuda by the US Army in the 1940s, the former relative isolation of St. David's has ended. The subsequent influx of other Bermudians to what is seen as a more affordable part of Bermuda to buy property, which increased dramatically after the closure of NAS Bermuda in 1995, has eroded the unique character of the islands population, who were once distinguishable by accent and appearance.
External links
- Bermuda Online
- Google Maps satellite photos of Bermunda
- Cape Cod Online: Worlds Rejoined.
- Genealogy.com: Massasoit
- King Phillip's War