A true story of how the Bermuda wound up with the world’s most elegant Naval warehouse
The Royal British Navy’s North America and West Indies Station on Bermuda was long ago the largest naval base outside of the U.K.—with the Royal Naval Dockyards a key centerpiece.
Back in the early 1850s the commander of the base sent word to London that they were in dire need of more warehouse space. The Royal Naval architects dutifully commenced drafting blueprints and once completed sent them out on the next available transport.
Naval officials on Bermuda were a bit surprised to receive blueprints that included a front façade with elegantly fenestrated twin clock towers, and elaborate detailing on the stone facings throughout.
At the time, convicts from the adjacent prison performed the majority of the physical labor at the Royal Dockyards and roadwork around the island, and thus the cost of labor to construct the elegantly detailed general stores warehouse was not an issue.
Prisoners chiseled and slaved away and just as the warehouse was close to completion in the spring of 1856, a Royal Naval frigate tacked in to Bermuda harbor and tied up at the pier. A young lieutenant raced down the gangplank and asked to see the commander.
The lieutenant breathlessly inquired, “you didn’t build the warehouse from the plans we had sent you, did you?”
The commander replied, “Why yes, come along and have a look.
“Oh no’, the lieutenant sighed, “This is awful. You obviously didn’t receive the subsequent note we sent instructing you to wait for revised plans as we had erroneously sent you the blueprints for the Royal Embassy in Khartoum.”
“Oh my” the commander replied, I was wondering why we wound up with what is surely the most elegant warehouse in the entire Admiralty!Makes me wonder what Khartoum’s new Embassy looks like?”
The British Royal Navy no longer maintains a base on Bermuda, but the old warehouse remains as a centerpiece of the Royal Naval Dockyard’s tourist attraction filled with tourist shops and restaurants, along with an adjacent cruise ship terminal.
You are invited to subscribe to the Award-winning travel podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast Directory, Apple Podcast, and more than twenty other podcast hosting sites including iHeartRadio and Spotify
