The Bermudas

 The Bermudas (also known as Somers Isles) are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean approximately 640 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.  They were accidently discovered in 1505 by Juan de Bermúdez, who was blown off course while returning to Spain from the Caribbean.  For the next hundred years, ships landed there occasionally to obtain fresh food and water, but due to the small size and low elevation of the islands (as well as the dangerous reefs surrounding them), no one attempted to settle there.  In 1609, a flotilla of ships under the command of Sir George Somers was dispatched by England to resupply the new settlement at Jamestown in what is now Virginia.  The flagship Sea Venture got separated from the flotilla in a storm and wrecked on the reef off the Bermudas.  The survivors reached shore and began work to rescue themselves.  Using remnants of the Sea Venture and wood from the Bermuda cedar forests, they built two small vessels.  Most of the survivors then continued the voyage to Jamestown, arriving in 1610, after they had been given up for dead.  Some of the survivors remained on the Bermudas.  These first settlers were supplemented by persons arriving on the Plough in 1612.  They founded St. George and made it the first capital of Bermuda.  In 1615, King James granted a charter to the Somers Isles Company to administer the islands.  The Bermudas were closely affiliated with Virginia until the American Revolution interceded.  The Royal Navy constructed a large dockyard on Ireland Island, which then served as its principal naval base in the western Atlantic.  The British attacks on Washington and Baltimore during the War of 1812 were launched from Bermuda.  During the US Civil War, Bermuda served as a way-station in the supply chain for the Confederate States.  Goods, principally cotton, were brought by blockade runners from the southern states and traded for weapons and other finished goods imported from Europe, which were then smuggled back to the Confederacy.  Beginning in the early twentieth century, tourism became a major business for the Bermudas.  The islands, though, never lost their attachment to the sea.  Today, various maritime companies, including several major marine insurance companies, are located in the Bermudas.