Click on the numbers in the map to jump to the relevant section in the text below.
QUICK TOUR:
In a hurry? For a quick visit, sample Bermuda’s maritime
past in Building 1, the shipwreck exhibits in 2 and 4, and our
spectacular view over the ramparts behind Building 4.
MUSEUM BUILDINGS OF THE KEEP YARD
1. Queen’s Exhibition Hall
2. The Shifting House
3. Bermuda Monetary Authority
4. Shell House
5. Forster Cooper Building
6. The Boatloft & Children's Room
7. Restrooms
BUILDINGS ON THE UPPER GROUNDS
8. The Dainty Exhibit
9. Artifact
Conservation Laboratory
10. Jack Davis student
residence
11. The Commissioner’s House
12. High Cave and
magazine
A-G Bastions and magazines
WELCOME to The Bermuda Maritime Museum, housed in the fortress Keep of the Royal Navy’s mighty HM Dockyard.
The fort was built by convicts in the 1820s, and became the centre of the Navy’s Western Atlantic base for almost 150 years.
Our exhibits are on show in eight buildings in the Keep Yard and Upper Grounds. Starting at the entrance gate, turn right and follow this easy route:
This was built as a magazine and once stored
4,860 kegs of gunpowder. The special non-sparking bitumen floor
still shows the impressions of the wooden powder racks.
Exhibits in this building:
Navigation
Whaling
Pilots & Customs
Bermuda Sloops
Ship models
Guns & Ramparts
Cable & Wireless
Flying boats
Cruise Ships
Bermuda transportation Co.
This was so named as it stored ordnance being shifted to and from naval vessels. On exhibition here are historic diving equipment, and artifacts recovered from 17th Century wrecks, including the Sea Venture, which foundered here in 1609 leading to the first settlement.
Ship's Pennies and Years of Change, showing Bermuda’s history in coin and notes.
The Isle of Devils exhibit portrays Bermuda in the Age of Discovery.
Two exhibits reached by separate entrances: Gibraltar of the West, the Royal Navy exhibit; The Bromby Bottle Collection.
This large building at the end of the Parade Ground houses a number of attractions:
Children's Room
Great Store House Clock
Weather Forecasting
Turtling
Bermuda Dinghies
Watercraft
Pillars of the Bridge,
recalling 50 years of US forces.
See the beautifully restored Dainty, an elegant 100-year-old Bermuda racing yacht recently brought back to life and given a new home at the Maritime Museum.
Once home of the Royal Naval Dockyard Commissioner, this imposing cast-iron framed building is being carefully restored to its former glory. A special exhibit follows restoration work as it progresses.
A shot has never been fired at an enemy from the bastions of HM Dockyard. Yet its impressive defences have seen a changing complement of evolving naval guns over the years.
The smooth bore cannon, developed in the 14th Century, changed little until the introduction of the short and relatively light carronade in 1779. Major advances were made in the mid-19th Century, including the introduction of the exploding shell and the use of rifling inside the barrel, which improved the range of the gun.
Rifled muzzle-loaders (RMLs) and rifled breech-loaders (BLs) were easier and quicker to load and fire. They were followed by modern breech loaders (BLs) with steel barrels in the 1880s.
There were three periods of armament in Dockyard:
Period 1 (1820-1860s)
Work began in 1809; by the
1830s, the fortifications were complete. By 1857, the Keep,
surrounded on three sides by water, was armed with 68 guns,
mostly 24- and 32-pounders.
* A 32-pdr could fire a 32lb ball a distance of 1,900 yards.
Period 2 (1870s-1905)
The Keep was rearmed in the
1870s; concrete emplacements for 10-inch RMLs were built on five
of the bastions. Two new magazines were built; from these, shells
were carried to the guns on shellways.
* A 10-inch RML could fire a 400lb exploding shell a
distance of 4,800 yards.
Period 3 (1900s-1920)
At the turn of the century,
three 4.7-inch Quick Firing BL guns, for work against torpedo
boats, and four 6-inch BLs were mounted on the bastions, each
supplied from an underground magazine.
* A 6-inch BL could fire a 100lb exploding shell a distance
of 12,000 yards.
VISITOR INFORMATION
There is no smoking allowed in the exhibition halls
The Bermuda
Maritime Museum
The Keep, The Old Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda
P.O. Box MA 133,
Mangrove Bay MA BX, Bermuda
Tel (441) 234-1333 Fax 441) 234-1735