Nonsuch Island (originally Nonesuch Island) is part of the chain of islands which make up Bermuda. It is in St George's Parish, in the northeast of Bermuda. It is 5.7 ha (14 acres) in area and is at the east entrance to Castle Harbour, close to the south-easternmost point of Cooper's Island (now ostensibly part of the much larger St David's Island). Among the island's charted features is a bay called Nonsuch Bay.
In 1865 it served as a yellow fever quarantine hospital. On the eastern part of the island there still remains a small cemetery. In 1930 it served as a base for William Beebe and Otis Barton's landmark bathysphere dive.
The island is a wildlife sanctuary. It is wooded and with a small freshwater marsh, access to the public is strictly limited. The restoration of the once barren island into a 'Living Museum of pre-colonial Bermuda' is the lifetime work of now retired Bermudian ornithologist and conservationist David B. Wingate, and part of his effort to bring back from near-extinction the once plentiful endemic nocturnal seabird, and national emblem of Bermuda, the cahow. This project involves the reintroduction of other species, notably the West Indian topshell.
Accounts written at the time of Bermuda's settlement leave no doubt that herons and egrets of several species were resident and breeding on the island. Diego Ramirez (in Wilkinson 1950) describing the events of his shipwreck on Bermuda in 1603, wrote of "the many very large dark herons" and Sylvanus Jourdain, (in Lefroy 1877), a survivor of the Sea Venture shipwreck of 1609 that led to British settlement, reported in 1610 that "there are also great store and plenty of herons and those so familiar and tame that we beat them down from the trees with stones and staves, but such were young herons. Besides many white herons without so much as a black or grey feather on them." Likewise, William Strachey (in Lefroy 1877), another survivor of the Sea Venture and the official chronicler of the Virginia expedition, wrote of the "white and grey Hernshawes and bittons."
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Coordinates: 32°20′51″N64°39′47″W / 32.34750°N 64.66306°W
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The London Company was an English joint-stock company established in 1606 by royal charter by King James I with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
St. George's, located on the island and within the parish of the same names, settled in 1612, is the first permanent English settlement on the islands of Bermuda. It is often described as the third successful British settlement in the Americas, after St. John's, Newfoundland, and Jamestown, Virginia and the oldest continuously-inhabited British town in the New World, since the other two settlements were seasonal for a number of years.
Sea Venture was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual vessel for her day, given that she was the first single timbered, merchantman built in England, and also the first dedicated emigration ship. Sea Venture's wreck is widely thought to have been the inspiration for William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
The Bermuda petrel is a gadfly petrel. Commonly known in Bermuda as the cahow, a name derived from its eerie cries, this nocturnal ground-nesting seabird is the national bird of Bermuda and can be found pictured on Bermudian currency. It is the second rarest seabird on the planet and a symbol of hope for nature conservation. They are known for their medium-sized body and long wings. The Bermuda petrel has a greyish-black crown and collar, dark grey upper-wings and tail, white upper-tail coverts and white under-wings edged with black, and the underparts are completely white.
The flora and fauna of Bermuda form part of a unique ecosystem due to Bermuda's isolation from the mainland of North America. The wide range of endemic species and the islands form a distinct ecoregion, the Bermuda subtropical conifer forests.
Southampton Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named for Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624).
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.
Castle Harbour is a large natural harbour in Bermuda. It is located between the northeastern end of the main island and St. David's Island. Originally called Southampton Port, it was renamed as a result of its heavy fortification in the early decades of the Seventeenth century.
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, located on St. George's Island, to its north. To its south is St. David's Island. The harbour and both islands lie within St. George's Parish. It was for two centuries the primary harbour of the British Overseas Territory.
Ordnance Island is located within the limits of St. George's town, Bermuda. It lies close to the shore opposite the town square, in St. George's Harbour.
The following is a list of places of interest in Bermuda.
The Somers Isles Company was formed in 1615 to operate the English colony of the Somers Isles, also known as Bermuda, as a commercial venture. It held a royal charter for Bermuda until 1684, when it was dissolved, and the Crown assumed responsibility for the administration of Bermuda as a royal colony.
David Balcombe Wingate OBE, born October 11, 1935, is an ornithologist, naturalist and conservationist. He was born in Bermuda.
Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter. However, there were only 61 people still alive when the spring arrived.
The Bermuda night heron is an extinct heron species from Bermuda. It is sometimes assigned to the genus Nycticorax. It was first described by Storrs L. Olson & David B. Wingate (2006) from subfossil material found in the Pleistocene and Holocene deposits in caves and ponds of Bermuda. Its anatomy was rather similar to its living relative, the yellow-crowned night heron, but it had a heavier bill, a more massive skull and more robust hind limbs. The specialization of the bill and the hind limbs showed that it was apparently adapted to the feeding on land crabs.
Several of the islands strung across the South entrance of Castle Harbour, Bermuda were fortified in the early days of the territory, hence the harbour's name. When official settlement of the archipelago by England began in 1612 the first permanent town, St. George's was placed on the North side of St. George's Harbour. St. George's Harbour could be accessed directly by channels from the East. Those channels, however, were shallow, suitable, originally, only for small ships. As a consequence, and despite any major settlement on its shores, Castle Harbour was an important anchorage in the early years of the colony, with its main entrance, Castle Roads being an important route in from the open Atlantic for shipping. It was also a weakpoint, as it was remote from the defences of St. George's Harbour, and difficult to reach. It was quickly fortified and garrisoned by a standing militia.
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the British Overseas Territory of the Bermuda Islands.
The Bermuda towhee is an extinct passerine of the towhee genus Pipilo that was confined to Bermuda. It was a large member of the genus and closely related to the eastern towhee. The scientific description was in 2012, based on Pleistocene and Holocene remains from Quaternary cave deposits. 38 bones from at least five individuals are known.
The Bermuda flicker is an extinct woodpecker from the genus Colaptes. It was confined to Bermuda and is known only by fossil remains dated to the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. However, an old travel report by explorer Captain John Smith from the 17th century may also refer to this species.