FORMATION

In the early 1960’s, the late Forster Cooper envisioned the creation of a maritime museum in the Keep Yard of the former Royal Naval Dockyard, and for a number of years sought to persuade the government of the day to finance such a development. Another decade was to pass before the Bermuda National Trust produced a feasibility study for such a museum and presented the findings to the Ministers of the Cabinet in May 1974.

In anticipation of a favourable decision by the Government, the Council of the Trust asked Dr. Jack Arnell to form a group to bring a museum into being. In August of the same year, he and Mr. Andrew Trimingham founded the Bermuda Maritime Museum Association and awaited the Government’s approval, which was forthcoming in October.

By this time, the Keep had stood abandoned for over twenty years, except for the use of one or two buildings on the upper level by the Royal Canadian Navy some ten years earlier and the existence of a Police pistol range in the lower clearing. Every building had been vandalized and hardly a door or window remained hanging, while the grounds were overgrown with acacia, sage and fennel.

Clearing seemed to be the first task and a small group of interested people spent their weekends cutting through shoulder-high, almost impenetrable brush to open a walk around the ramparts. The plan at the time was to clear a picnic ground on the upper level and to encourage Bermudians to make use of it as a money-raising device and to give them an opportunity to see a part of the Island which had never been open to the public. It was considered totally unrealistic to plan a museum in less than two years.

The planned visit of Queen Elizabeth II in February 1975 changed this course of events and provided an unanticipated impetus for quick action. Late in November 1974, it was decided to include the opening of the Bermuda Maritime Museum on the Queen’s itinerary, providing that a worthwhile exhibition could be mounted.

The Keep Yard, 1974 (J.A.)

The following fortnight was a period of frantic organization, involving fund-raising, a membership drive, and getting contractors at work on the Main Exhibition Hall. In the ensuring weeks, volunteers of every age, egged on with the knowledge that they would see the Queen, cleared and levelled the ground, planted grass, painted the newly-installed doors and windows, and did virtually every other kind of job that did not require special trades training. In twelve weeks, the exhibition hall was ready and a hundred or so museum volunteers, members of the Bermuda National Trust, and other invited guests proudly watched the Queen unveil the plaque at the entrance to the building on 17 February 1975.

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II as she unveiled the commemorative plaque (BNB)

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II examining the Tucker gold treasure, now on display in the Treasure House. (BNB)

However, this did not mark the opening of the Museum to the public for it was still necessary to replace the railings on the ramparts above the museum area and install other safety measures. This work was completed in another six weeks, and on Easter Monday, 31 March, 1975, the Keep was officially opened by Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Since then, other buildings have been restored and used to house the ever-expanding collection of exhibits, drawn mainly from Bermuda’s own heritage.

At present, the Museum is located in the buildings, which for over a century were used by the Army Ordnance Department as the arsenal of the Dockyard. These are all situated on the lower level within the Keep, which was formed by successive excavations as the construction progressed. Brief histories of the older of these buildings are given in the second section. Several smaller buildings of a more temporary nature used to stand under the cliffs to form a complete quadrangle, but have since been demolished; others dating from the World War I era have survived and are presently the Caretaker’s Cottage, the Museum Workshop, and the Restoration Laboratory.

Because of the hazards associated with munitions storage, there was strict security in this area. Heavy gates hung on the pillars inside the entrance to the Keep and barbed wire adorned the walls to keep out the naval personnel, who lived or worked in Commissioner’s House. Similarly, gates barred access down the ramp from the ramparts at the eastern end of the Yard. There was a separate entrance to this area through a tunnel in the southeast corner of the Yard behind the Keep Pond. Access was controlled through a guard room, which still exists on the outside of the fortress wall; the tunnel itself was blocked up some years ago.

The displays in the various buildings are being constantly changed as new material is received and special exhibitions drawn from private collections are mounted. As a result, no attempt has been made to describe the exhibits as such. Instead, some historical background is given on those subjects where there is a special Bermudian connotation.