Senator Smith published “In The Hour Of Victory” — based on letters his grandfather Major Toby Smith sent to his family during the Second World War [1939-1945] — earlier this year.

The book and the forthcoming film tell the story of Major Smith who was a member of the first contingent of Bermudian troops to travel to the UK in 1940. He was killed in Holland in October, 1944.

Trailer for the “In the Hour of Victory” film:

Sen. Smith has said the 300-plus letters home begin with Major Smith’s voyage to the UK — when the ship carrying Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and Bermuda Militia Artillery troops came close to being torpedoed by a German U-boat — and end just two days before his death leading his men into battle in Holland.

He recently said: “I never knew my grandfather. My father lost his father when he was five years old. I knew when I picked up the very first letter, that there was a story to be told here.”

The film’s synopsis says, “Untouched for 50 years, a family finds a bundle of letters setting them on a journey into their past, and the rediscovery of a tragic love story amid the turmoil of World War II. Bermudian, Major Toby Smith lost his life at the battle of Overloon during the final Allied push for victory.

“This film weaves a haunting portrait etched in Toby’s own words through the letters he lovingly and dutifully wrote to his wife and five children as he agonised over loyalty to them and the war against the Nazis during four years of service abroad.

“This first-hand account uniquely re-captures the war-time era and its impact on a family, leaving a lasting legacy of what it means to serve one’s King and Country. Based on the book by Major Smith’s grandson, Jonathan Smith. Lucinda Spurling and Jonathan Smith will attend the screening.

The film will screen on at 7pm on Saturday April 21st, and you can download a Bermuda Documentary Film Festival guide here [PDF].Tickets are available at BDAtix.com.

The Vestry And The Friends Of St. Peter’s Church, the Pilot Warden and the Branch Pilots Of Bermuda hosted the service at his grave in St. Peter’s Graveyard, St. George’s, as well as placing wreaths over board at Murray’s Anchorage.

Approximately fifty family members and friends gathered at the graveside to honor Mr Darrell. Reverends David Raths and Erskine Simmons officiated the service and Senior Branch Pilot Mario Thompson addressed the crowd. TS Admiral Somers Sea Cadets were smartly represented and provided an honour guard at the ceremony.

The first black man to own a home in Bermuda, James “Jemmy” Darrell was a slave who was ‘owned’ by Captain Francis Darrell of St. George’s. Some researchers believe that Darrell [who was light-skinned] may have been Francis Darrell’s offspring.

In May 1795, James Darrell piloted Admiral George Murray’s ship, the 74-gun HMS Resolution, into Murray’s Anchorage on the North Shore near Tobacco Bay, St. George’s. The Admiral was so impressed with Mr. Darrell’s skill that he recommended that he be granted his freedom, and Governor James Craufurd released him from his enslavement on March 1, 1796.

Shortly after being freed he purchased a house in St. Georges on what is now Pilot Darrell’s Square. He was made a Kings Pilot on May 23, 1796. Kings Pilots were premiere pilots whose main responsibility was to pilot British naval ships through the Bermuda reefs.

Mr. Darrell’s life as a free man was not much different than during enslavement due to legislation introduced to limit rights of the freed slaves. He consistently fought these regulations which sought to limit his hard-earned rights, writing petitions asking for better pay for pilots, as well as for the legal right for blacks to will their property to their wives, children or relatives. Mr Darrell died at age 66 on April 12, 1815.

Click to enlarge photos:

The Vestry And The Friends Of St. Peter’s Church, The Pilot Warden And The Branch Pilots Of Bermuda have extended an invitation to the Annual Commemorative Service for King’s Pilot James ‘Jemmy’ Darrell at his grave in St. Peter’s Graveyard, St. George’s.

Wreaths will be placed over board at Murray’s Anchorage. Donations will be received for the care of the graveyard.

Pilot James Darrell was a man of many firsts — one of the island’s first King’s Pilots, charged with guiding some of the Royal Navy’s largest and most formidable ships of the line through Bermuda’s treacherous maze of reefs; the first black man to own a house in Bermuda; and one the first to petition against the laws and prohibitions which circumscribed the liberties of Bermuda’s free people of colour prior to Emancipation.

“The first exhibit relates to Mr. Tommy Aitchison, a well-know and highly regarded journalist, cricketer, cricket statistician and cricket enthusiast. Mr. Aitchison passed away last year and Mr. Maurice Hankey, Mr. Anthony Lumsden are donating Mr. Aitchison’s cricket material as well as administrative papers of the Bermuda Cricket Foundation,” said Minister Scott.

“The second exhibit relates to ecclesiastical affairs of Bermuda. With us today is Mrs. Edwena Smith who is representing the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church. The records of the St. Paul A.M.E Church spanning the years 1870 – 2011 are being donated to Bermuda Archives.

“The third exhibit comes from the Order of Good Samaritans & Daughters of Samaria, an Order that was formed in the 1800s to help black citizens immediately after they were freed from slavery in 1834.”

The Minister’s full statement follows below:

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The Queen and the Duke left London by plane in November and visited Bermuda, thence on to Jamaica where they boarded S.S. ‘Gothic’ which was to be their base for the remainder of the tour. After visits to Fiji and Tonga, ‘Gothic’ reached New Zealand on in December for a stay of over a month.

February and March were spent in Australia and the return journey included Ceylon, Aden, Uganda, Malta, where the Queen and the Duke were reunited with their two children and and sailed via Gibraltar to London on the Royal Yacht ‘Britannia’.

The special exhibition will take place in Masterwork’s Rick Faries Gallery and will include rare 19th century Bermuda Perot stamps [one is pictured here] from both local and international private collections, including stamps on loan from the Queen’s private collection.

Bermuda held a pioneering role in the development of the modern day postal service as one of the first jurisdictions to introduce a uniform postal rate in 1842, only two years behind the United Kingdom and three years ahead of the USA.

The introduction of postage stamps to the island by Post Master William Perot in 1848 made Bermuda only the second British colony to issue its own stamps, and was ahead of many other countries such as France [1849], Canada [1851], Russia [1857] and Italy [1862].

The upcoming exhibit will also be a display of priceless Bermuda stamp artwork on loan from the Bermuda Philatelic Bureau.

And according to the BPO, this unique display features one of the most comprehensive international collections of postage stamps and presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for collectors and the public to view these exceptional and priceless works.

Mr. Michael Sefi, keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, owned personally by Queen, will be available to provide special commentary on her collection and the other specimens on display to school groups and organisations.

The BPO advised that if members of the public, specific organisations or school groups wish to participate in this once in the upcoming exhibit, they are encouraged to confirm their attendance by emailing krsmith@gov.bm. Alternatively they can call 294-4460 no later than April 18, 2012.

Sub-Lieutenant Roger Burney [1919-1942] was the British Naval Liason Officer [BNLO] aboard the ill-fated submarine and 20 years after his death his friend, composer Benjamin Britten, named him as one of the four dedicatees of his War Requiem.

The War Requiem was commissioned for the reconsecration of Britain’s Coventry Cathedral on 30 May 1962 after the original 14th century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. As a pacifist, Britten was inspired by the commission, which gave him complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems about war by the English poet Wilfred Owen.

Owen, who was born in 1893, was serving as the commander of a rifle company when he was killed in action on November 4, 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre-Oise Canal in France, just one week before the World War One [1914-1918] Armistice.

The work was dedicated to four individuals, Roger Burney, Piers Dunkerley, David Gill, and Michael Halliday. Burney, Gill and Halliday all died in World War Two [1939-1945]. Piers Dunkerley, one of Britten’s closest friends, took part in the 1944 Normandy landings. Unlike the other dedicatees, he survived the war but committed suicide in June 1959, two months before his wedding.

Roger Burney was born into a military family but remained a committed pacifist until the German invasion of Poland in 1939 when widespread Nazi atrocities led to him joining the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.

While on active service, he met Benjamin Britten in New York — where the British composer was then living — in 1941 before travelling to Bermuda where he joined the crew of the “Surcouf.”

None of the other dedicatees have known graves, but are commemorated on memorials to the missing.

The revolutionary “Surcouf” was launched on November 18, 1929. The vessel was named after the popular French naval hero, Robert Surcouf, whose bold exploits against the English in the Indian Ocean were legendary among his countrymen.

When launched, “Surcouf” was the largest submarine in the World. She was was 361 feet long and displaced 3304 tons when surfaced and 4318 tons when submerged. The two giant 3800-hp Sulze diesel engines could drive the surfaced vessel for 10,000 miles without refuelling at a speed of 10 knots. Maximum speed was 19 knots while surfaced and 8 knots while submerged. Her underwater duration was limited to just one hour and propulsion in this mode was provided by electric motors and batteries.

Painting of the “Surcouf” operating at sea off Bermuda

She was well equipped for the envisaged role with two massive eight guns mounted in a gun turret installed just forward of the conning tower. Two 37mm cannons, two Hotchkiss machine guns and six torpedo tubes fitted near the tail were also available for use when the vessel was surfaced. When submerged, the four internal torpedo tubes were deemed to be the principal method of attack.

The “Surcouf” was built with a cylindrical watertight hanger located behind the conning tower and where a Besson MB411-AFN seaplane was stored and could be rolled out and launched from a ramp to spot for enemy shipping.

From a strategic viewpoint, the existence of such a potent weapon served as a powerful deterrent during peacetime while presenting an awesome threat during war. Outwardly, she appeared as an exemplar of technological progress and innovation.

In reality though, the “Surcouf” was unreliable and suffered from several crucial design defects. She was prone to leaks, particularly within the gun turret, and which seriously affected the trim of the craft when submerged.

Her diesel engines, electric motors and other systems often broke down and spare parts were almost impossible to obtain due to her unique design. In some cases, the problems were an inherent part of the design and could not be resolved.

During World War Two “Surcouf” fled France for the United Kingdom just prior to the German conquest in 1940 and joined the Allied cause.

Sent to the Western Atlantic on convoy escort duties, she frequently operated out of Bermuda between 1940 and her disappearance in 1942 and was reported as representing a hazard to the shipss she was was supposed to protect.

On one occasion, she even reportedly attempted a botched attack on an American Task Force including the aircraft carrier USS “Wasp and the heavy cruiser USS “Quincy” and at a time before the US had even entered the war.

Short documentary on the writing of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem

On Christmas Day, 1941 — three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour brought America into World War Two – orders were issued for “Surcouf” to proceed to Tahiti from Halifax via the Panama Canal. US and British strategists believed Tokyo was eyeing the French Pacific territory and might launch an invasion and thought “Surcouf” might act as a deterrent.

Roger Burney noted receipt of these orders in his report dated January 16, 1942.

On January 29, HMS Malabar — the Royal Navy’s Western Atlantic headquarters in Bermuda suggested that “Surcouf” should head directly for the canal. This request was ignored and Surcouf sailed from Halifax on February 3 and arrived in Bermuda on February 7.

As feared, her captain produced a lengthy defect list. One of the electric motors was in desperate need of service and, considering the risk of “Surcouf” diving out of control again, this was deemed as serious. The dockyard estimated a three month repair time.

The last report from Roger Burney — dated February 10, 1942 — paints a dismal picture of what life aboard the submarine was like.

He commended his associates forced to endure the torture with him and how the crew were often drunk and incapable. He revealed the content of a personal conversation with the captain and where the latter revealed inability to recognise some ships as friend or foe.

Messages flashed between Bermuda and London and where the latter suggested she should go-to-sea irrespective of condition beyond the minimum requirements. The Admiralty knew her presence would not deter the Japanese and one letter even suggested that “Surcouf” should be paid off and her crew used to supplement the Bermuda defence force.

Repairs delayed “Surcouf’s” departure from Bermuda until February 12 but the submarine was destined never to reach the Panama Canal.

What precisely happened to the “Surcouf” on that last fatal voyage has remained conjecture ever since. Speculation about sabotage or mutiny was rife at the time but failed to hold up under scrutiny. It seems far more probable, though equally unproven, that she was the victim of a night time collision in the Caribbean with a freighter called “Thompson Lykes” at 10.30pm on February 18. All 130 men aboard are assumed to have been lost, making the sinking of the “Surcouf” the worst submarine disaster ever up until that time .

The opening “Requiem aeternam” from Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich 

In the immediate aftermath of Bermuda’s Gunpowder Plot, the British dispatched HMS “Scorpion” to the island to remove a number of artillery pieces fearing the Americans would return to seize the ordnance.

And in 1776 two Royal Navy sloops of war, HMS “Nautilus” and “Galatea”, were dispatched to Bermuda with the task of preventing illicit trade between Bermuda and the 13 rebellious Colonies.

But the increased British military presence did not prevent a brief invasion of the West End of the island by American forces in 1777 as the Revolutionary War continued to rage.

British soldiers had been stationed at the 17th century battery near Wreck Hill in Somerset because although the fort was antiquated, it was strategically located — guarding the West End Channel, one of the few passages through Bermuda’s treacherous ring of reefs.

The soldiers fired on two armed warships which advanced in a threatening manner despite the fact they flew British colours.

The ships responded with broadsides from their cannon, lowered the British ensigns and flew the red-and-white barred US Naval jack from their bowsprits. The two ships then sent landing parties to Wreck Hill.

The British troops retreated, and over the course of several days the Americans spiked the fort’s guns and destroyed its walls. They withdrew themselves when a reinforced British contingent approached.

The brief West End skirmish — one of the few times in the island’s history that Bermuda has been the scene of a battle — factored into British Board of Admiralty plans to reinforce the island as a major naval outpost. Although the British had lost nothing but face at Wreck Hill, the fact two US warships had approached the island and landed men demonstrated Bermuda’s vulnerability to invasion.

After the American Revolutionary War,  Bermuda was now considered vital to maintaining the British colonial empire in the Atlantic and work began on a definitive nine year survey of the island’s waters, a project  legendary mariner Pilot James [Jemmy] Darrell participated in .

After the completion of the survey, the Royal Navy began to improve Bermuda’s harbours and in 1811 commenced work on the large dockyard on Ireland Island to serve as its principal naval base guarding the western Atlantic Ocean shipping lanes.

Susan Fogwell – whose travel articles have been published in “The Los Angeles Times”, “Orlando Sentinel” and USAToday.com — said the East End of Bermuda is a ” place I plan to return to again and again.”

Illustrated with a gallery of 12 slides of St. George’s, Ms Fogwell’s report recommended visitors with only a day for sightseeing in Bermuda should spend their time in the East End.

“All you need is a little hunger for history and this UNESCO World Heritage Site/ will enlighten and entertain with its slew of sites,” she said. “It was in the year 1609, when Sir George Somers struck a reef off the eastern end of the island.

“All 150 people aboard his ship and made it to shore in skiffs. The productive captain, crew and colonists stayed for 10 months and built two ships, the ‘Deliverance’ and the ‘Patience’, a church and a few houses.

“They salvaged the rigging from the ‘Sea Venture’ and set sail again. Somers returned to Bermuda on ‘Patience’ to supply the island settlers who were on the verge of  starvation but died soon after arriving in 1610.

“It was with this history in mind that I jumped on the back of my husband’s red rental scooter and ventured off to the oldest continuously inhabited town of English origin in the Western hemisphere.

“The hard history of the area seemed in bright contrast with its pleasant present. The ride was scenic, sketched in pastel.”

But what makes Bermuda’s Easter observation unique is the tradition of kite flying on Good Friday.

In a report for the island’s schools compiled by the Department of Community & Cultural Affairs, it’s noted how most Bermuda families choose to pass the day together setting aloft brightly coloured kites.

The sky is transformed into a dancing mosaic of brilliant and beautiful shapes, colours, and sounds.

The business of kite flying is only interrupted by the temptation of codfish cakes and warm hot cross buns. Those who make kites spend months preparing for this holiday.

No one is certain how this long-established Bermuda tradition started, but one story often repeated is that it began with a Sunday school teacher’s creative lesson on Jesus Christ’s ascension to heaven.

It is said that the teacher made a cross kite, took it to a hilltop, and set it flying, then cut the string and the students watched it sail upward towards heaven.

However the tradition started, kite flying on Good Friday is now an avidly awaited ritual in Bermuda.

Look TV interview with Bermuda’s “Kite King” Vincent Tuzo

Al Seymour Jr, of Somerset, who has been making kites since he was 11 years old, recalls how as a youngster he thought of Good Friday as a joyful day of kite flying: “Good Friday was like Christmas morning. It was like having Christmas twice.

“A lot of people my age and older would get up at 6.00 am and go outside to see whose kite was up first and making the most noise. Kites would be up all day. We made them and flew them.

“Most of the guys would have around eight or nine kites in the living room. You take your ugliest one out first. That was your tester.”

Bermudian kites are carefully crafted from colourful tissue paper and clear white pine wood, with rattan or cane (bamboo) for the headstick bender. Great care is taken to ensure that the colours blend perfectly.

Originally kites were made out of newspapers, brown paper, a page from a notebook, fennel sticks, and flour mixed with a little water served as the glue. In the past many Bermudians made their own kites.

Unfortunately today’s busy lifestyle leaves little time for kite making. While some folks still make or purchase traditional kites of paper, imported plastic kites are becoming popular because of their convenience and lower price.

Each Bermudian kite is unique with different shapes and colours creating its style.

Mr Seymour stated that the Bermuda headstick kite is the best known design. He says, “Its four-stick design goes back to the 1800s. The kite is admired in the kite world because it is both sturdy in framework and delicate in its covering and patterns.

“They have been made as small as one inch and as large as 20 feet in length. This standard four stick design is supplemented to produce round styles. The round style uses five sticks so the kite will have eight sides, an octagon. The moonie has a rounder shape because it uses six sticks, so it’s a hexagon shape.”

Rather than for their shapes and colours, Somerset kites are famous for the sound caused by their hummers.

Mr Seymour states, “The hummers add the icing on the cake. They transform a silent Good Friday sky into a pleasant multi-pitched drone heard from one end of the island to the other.”

Kite maker Antoine [Sow Wow] Simons, of Somerset, explains why Somerset kites, called buzzards, are considered the loudest and wildest of all Bermuda kites.

He said: “It’s more or less built for sound. They do have some colours in the lines, but the main object of that kite is for the flying technique and the sound. It makes an extra loud sound.

“What gives it its sound is the tightness of the hummer line. The tighter the line, the more noise the kite will make. And the structure of the kite balances out along with the lines and the amount of breeze that’s blowing that particular day. If you wanted to make a kite to fly today, you would more or less build a kite according to the wind today. If you have some already made, you would know which one to fly today because of how much wind is blowing.

“Some are a little wider than others, or narrower. So it’s more or less built on the width of the kite and the tightness of the hummer line.”

This is why most kites in Somerset are made with wire rather than bamboo, because the bamboo would bend up when you tighten the hummer line unless you reconstruct the kite with some type of reinforcement behind it to keep the bamboo from bending.

“We usually use the bamboo only if we’re going in a kite competition. For the prettiest kite and stuff,” said Mr. Simons. “But when it comes to flying the kite, we never use them because we are looking for the sound.

“Sometimes I’ll have one particular kite in one year that makes [such an] outstanding sound that it will never lose me. I’ll have that kite in my memory for a very long time.

“Out of all those kites, there’s one sound that will really stand out amongst the rest, and [it] will stay with you for a very long time until you can make another kite that will end up having a very loud sound as well.

“But you don’t get that very high, high pitch every time you make a kite. It’s just something that comes now and then, just like an athlete who could only run his best speed once in 10 years, and it would stay with him for the rest of his life.”

How exactly is a hummer made?

Mr. Seymour explains: “String is strung along the back and up on both sides of the headstick to form a triangle. Tissue paper is cut, folded in half and glued on the string. This combination creates a sound when both vibrate in the wind.

“The pitch can vary according to how tight the string is and how wide/narrow the tissue paper is cut. Wide paper and less taut string will produce a lower hum and does not need a high wind to create the sound. Somerset kites have a unique sound as the string is so taut it creates a reed effect like a clarinet and requires higher wind speed.”

Its impact — the equivalent of a 500,000-megaton bomb blast — will splash out some 1,000 cubic miles of sea water and form a crater 15 miles across in the ocean floor.

Bermuda will be largely obliterated by the immediate impact blast — some 22,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August, 1945. Any remaining fragments of the island will be deluged by tidal waves 100 feet high which will sweep across coastal cities on both sides of the ocean, and earthquakes 100 times worse than any ever recorded will be felt all over the world.

Clearly, Icarus must be stopped. No expense will be spared.

This was the apocalyptic scenario of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Project Icarus in the mid-1960s, with students charting the hypothetical course of a rogue asteroid on a near-collision course with Bermuda — and conjuring with ways to prevent the catastrophe.

Astronomer Walter Baade used the 48-inch reflecting telescope at Palomar Observatory in southern California to capture mankind’s first image of asteroid 1566 Icarus on June 26, 1949.

Icarus, it was soon found, is unusual because its elliptical orbit takes it from the inner edge of the Main Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter to well within Mercury’s orbit.

Icarus needs 1.12 years to circle the Sun once. Every 19 years, always during the month of June, Icarus and Earth pass near each other at a relative velocity of about 18 miles per second. Baade detected Icarus during one of these close encounters.

MIT Professor Paul Sandorff taught the Interdepartmental Student Project in Systems Engineering in the Spring 1967 Term at MIT in Boston. He noted that Icarus and Earth would pass each other at a distance of four million miles — about 16 times the Earth-moon distance– on June 19, 1968.

Discovery Channel simulation of large asteroid collision with Earth

He then asked his students to suppose that, instead of missing earth on that date, Icarus would strike in the Atlantic Ocean east of Bermuda with the explosive force of 500,000 megatons of TNT.

Professor Sandorff gave his class until May 27, 1967 to develop a plan for averting the catastrophe.

In 1967, the physical characteristics of Icarus were little known. For purposes of their study, Dr. Sandorff’s students assumed that it measures 4200 feet in diameter and has a density of 3.5 grams per centimeter, yielding a mass of 4.4 billion tons.

For comparison, earth has an average density of 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter.

They acknowledged, however, that, given its orbit, which resembles that of a short-period comet, Icarus might be a defunct comet nucleus. In that case, its density and mass would likely be considerably less. They also assumed that it is a solid body; that is, that it is not made up of small pieces held together loosely by weak mutual gravitational attraction.

In March 1967, the MIT students visited Cape Kennedy, Florida, to size up US space capabilities. At the time, the first manned flight of the Apollo Command and Service Module [CSM] had been postponed indefinitely following the Apollo 1 fire which killed Gus Grissom and two other atronauts on January 27, 1967 and the Saturn V moon rocket had yet to fly [Apollo 4, the successful first Saturn V test flight, would not occur until November 9, 1967].

Nevertheless, the students wrote that “the awesome reality” of the Vertical Assembly Building [VAB], in which the Saturn V and Apollo spacecraft would be prepared, and the twin Launch Complex 39 pads [Pads A and B], from which they would be launched, had “completely erased” any doubts that they might have had about using Apollo/Saturn technology in their project.

Professor Sandorff’s students proposed to hijack Project Apollo, delaying NASA’s first manned lunar landing by about three years. They would take over the first nine Saturn V rockets earmarked for the moon program, commence construction in April 1967 of a third Launch Complex 39 Saturn V launch pad [Pad C], and add a high bay to the VAB. Three Saturn Vs would be used for flight tests, and the remainder would each launch toward Icarus, each carrying heavily modified unmanned Apollo CSMs bearing enormous 44,000-pound nuclear warheads with a destructive yield of 100 megatons.

Though the MIT students did not mention it, a 100-megaton warhead was not a standard part of the US nuclear arsenal. Given the secrecy surrounding nuclear weapons during the Cold War, they might not have known that no warhead of such destructive yield had ever been built.

The most powerful nuclear bomb ever, the Soviet Union’s 60,000-pound “Tsar Bomba,” had exploded on October 30, 1961, with the force of 50 million tons of TNT. Only a single “Tsar Bomba” was built, and the US had not deigned to match the Soviet feat.

Detonation of the Soviet “Tsar Bomba” — so-called “King of the Bombs”

Hence, a 100-megaton nuclear device would have required development and testing. The MIT students did not include a nuclear weapon development and testing program in their Project Icarus plan.

The Icarus CSM — which the MIT students dubbed the Interceptor — would comprise three modules: a drum-shaped propulsion module corresponding to the Apollo Service Module [SM], with attitude-control thrusters and a Service Propulsion System [SPS] main engine; a drum-shaped payload module based on the SM’s structural design but containing the 100-megaton nuclear device; and a stripped-down Command Module [CM] containing Icarus detection sensors and an MIT-designed Apollo Guidance Computer modified for automatic operation. Unlike the two-module Apollo CSM, the three modules of the Interceptor would remain bolted together throughout its flight.

The first Project Icarus Saturn V [Saturn-Icarus 1] would lift off from Cape Kennedy on April 7, 1968, 73 days before the asteroid was due to collide with Earth. Its payload, Interceptor 1, would reach Icarus 60 days later, when the asteroid was 13 days and 20 million miles out from Earth. At about the time Interceptor 1 was due to reach its target, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Haystack radar would detect Icarus for the first time.

Saturn-Icarus 2 would launch on April 22, 1968, 58 days before Icarus was due to strike. Interceptor 2 would reach its target 15.5 million miles and 10 days out from Earth. Saturn-Icarus 3 would lift off on May 6, 1968, 44 days before Icarus was due to arrive, and its Interceptor would reach Icarus one week and 11 million miles out from Earth. Saturn-Icarus 4 would lift off on May 17, 1968, 33 days before Icarus arrival, and Interceptor 4 would reach the asteroid 28 days later, when Earth and Icarus were 7.7 million miles apart.

Saturn-Icarus 5 would leave Earth near dawn on the U.S. east coast on June 14, 1968, and Interceptor 5 would reach Icarus 1.4 million miles out from Earth, 22 hours before expected impact. By then, the asteroid would appear as a modest star in the pre-dawn sky near the constellation Orion. Saturn-Icarus 6 would lift off a few hours after Saturn-Icarus 5. Icarus would be about 20 hours and 1.25 million miles from impact when Interceptor 6 reached it.

As each Interceptor closed to within a quarter-million miles of Icarus, an optical sensor in its nose would spot the asteroid. The SPS and thrusters would then adjust the Interceptor’s course to ensure a successful interception.

As the Interceptor closed to a distance of 550 feet of Icarus, a radar would detect the asteroid and trigger the nuclear device, which would explode at a distance of from 50 to 100 feet.

If the students’ assumptions about Icarus’s mass and density were correct, then each 100-megaton near-surface nuclear blast would excavate a bowl-shaped crater up to 1000 feet wide.

Bermuda as seen from space — the target of asteroid Icarus

The effect the explosions would have on Icarus’s course was, of course, not known with precision; the students calculated that each blast would alter its velocity by between eight and 290 meters per second.

The MIT students acknowledged that Icarus might shatter; in that event, subsequent Interceptors would target the largest fragments. Data from each Interceptor as it approached Icarus and from Earth-based optical telescopes and radars would be used to target subsequent Interceptors as needed. Conversely, if fewer than six explosions were sufficient to deflect or pulverize the asteroid, then the remaining Saturn V rockets and Interceptors would stand down.

All but one of the Interceptors would be joined at Icarus by a separately launched 540-pound Intercept Monitoring Satellite [IMS] based on the Mariner II design. Mariner II, the first successful interplanetary probe, had flown past Venus on December 14, 1962. In addition to data immediately useful for Project Icarus, the IMS would provide pure science data.

The first IMS would leave Earth atop an Atlas-Agena rocket on February 27, 1968. It would pass between 70 and 135 miles of Icarus at the time of the first explosion. This would place it outside of the zone of large high-velocity debris from the explosion, but within the zone of plasma, dust, and small debris. The IMS would analyze the small fragments and hot gases to gather data on Icarus’s composition. A 50-pound foam-honeycomb bumper would shield the IMS during passage through the debris cloud.

No IMS would monitor the fifth interception — if it occurred — unless the sixth interception were called off. The IMS for monitoring the sixth  [or fifth]interception would lift off on June 6, 1968, between the Saturn-Icarus 4 and 5 launches.

Professor Sandorff’s class estimated that Project Icarus would cost $7.5 billion. It would, they calculated, stand a 1.5% chance of only fragmenting the asteroid. If this happened, then Icarus might cause even more damage to Earth than if it were permitted to impact intact. The probability that Project Icarus would reduce the damage Icarus would cause was, however, 86%, and the probability that it would succeed in preventing any part of the asteroid from reaching Earth was 71%.

During the June 1968 close approach, Icarus became the first asteroid detected using Earth-based radar.

Massive Saturn V rockets armed with 100 megaton warheads were to be fired at Icarus in the MIT scenario

During its next close approach, in June 1987, Icarus came no nearer Earth than about 15 million miles. During the June 1996 close approach Icarus and Earth were about 10 million miles apart.

Through data gathered during this close approaches, scientists found that Icarus is roughly spherical, rotates rapidly (about once every 2.25 hours), probably is a light-colored S-type asteroid made mostly of stony materials, and measures about 4600 feet across. Its density is probably about 2.5 grams per cubic centimeter. Its closest approach since June 1968 will occur on June 16, 2015, when Icarus will pass about five million miles from Earth.

Heir to the Marquess of Exeter, he first appeared in the Olympics in 1924, when he was eliminated in the first round of the 110 metre hurdles.

In 1927, during his last year at Cambridge, he caused a sensation by running around the Great Court at Trinity College in the time it took the Trinity Clock to toll 12 o’clock. A fictionalised version of this event was featured in the 1981 Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire”, in which the feat is credited to fellow British athlete Harold Abrahams.

For this reason, Lord Burghley, who was then 76 years old, reportedly refused to allow the filmmakers to use his name — his character, played by Nigel Havers, is referred to as Lord Lindsay.

An aristocrat renowned for his common touch, he was once called “the only athlete who can look at 35 Rembrandts in his own home, then jog through 40,000 acres without leaving his own domain.”

Lord Burghley-inspired character delivers Harold Abrahams’ eulogy at the opening of “Chariots of Fire.”

At the 1928 Olympics, Lord Burghley won the 400 metres hurdles. Lord Burghley was elected to the British Parliament in 1931, but was granted a leave of absence to compete in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, where he won a silver medal in the men’s 4×400 metre relay.

Appointed Governor of Bermuda in 1943 at 38-years-old, he served here until the end of World War Two in 1945.

An extremely colourful character, he once set another unusual record by racing around the upper promenade deck of the ocean liner “Queen Mary” in 57 seconds, dressed in street clothes. A brass plaque was installed on the ship to commemorate the event.

And when he had an artificial hip joint replaced in 1970, he made the original device a radiator ornament for his Rolls-Royce.

Lord Burghley — who succeeded his father as Marquess of Exeter in 1956 — is believed to be the first hurdler to place matchboxes on hurdles and practice knocking over the matchboxes with his lead foot without touching the hurdle.

After leaving Bermuda, he served as president of the British Amateur Athletic Association for 40 years, president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation for 30 years and as a member of the International Olympic Committee for 48 years.

He was also chairman of the Organising Committee of the London 1948 Olympics.

There is an illustrated  ”Life” magazine profile of Lord Burghley published shortly after he arrived in Bermuda here.

The pontiff’s three-hour layover here marked the island’s only papal visit to date.

Between four and five thousand locals jammed the airport to greet the former Italian cardinal who reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from June, 21 1963 until his death on August 6, 1978.

In his welcoming speech Governor Lord Martonmere said “There are days in the life of every country when history is made — this is such a day. People of many faiths have come here tonight to pay tribute to a Pope who is not only a great religious leader but also a great apostle of world peace and human understanding.”

Pope Paul replied: “How strange it would have seemed until recently that the Successor of St. Peter would find sufficient a few hours to cross broad continents and mighty seas, and visit distant lands whose very existence was unknown to the first Pope!

“Yet such journeys are but the continuation into this century of the apostolic wanderings of the first who held the high office of representing Christ for men of all continents and races.

“We therefore thank God, Who has given man dominion over creation and the wisdom to use it, that We are thus enabled to visit some of the most distant parts of that universal flock which He has committed to our care.”

The Pope continued: “We are well pleased that our return journey from the Eucharistic Congress at Bogotá permits Us to visit, though it be for a few brief moments only, these islands so justly famed for their beauty, and so find ourself among you and greet you all.

“May God bless all of you who have come to meet Us. May He bless your homes and all whom you hold dear. And before We leave these islands of the Atlantic, so distant on the map, yet so close to our heart, we lovingly impart our special blessing to you and to your spiritual and temporal leaders, praying that God may abundantly bestow on Bermuda the blessings of true peace and prosperity.”

Before departing the island, the Pope had a brief meeting with Catholic Bishop of Bermuda Bernard J. Murphy in the civil air terminal building and greeted some of the thousands of well-wishers who had gathered to welcome him.

“We spoke about Bermuda and His Holiness expressed great interest in the welfare of the Church here” said Bishop Murphy.

An exhibition to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the St. George’s church and the Jubilee Honour bestowed by the Queen — the restoration of a 17th century royal designation as “Their majesties Chappell” — will be held at Masterworks Art Museum, Rick Faries Gallery, July 27 – August 29, 2012.

The exhibition will feature church memorabilia and selected works by local and international artists depicting the chronology of this iconic Bermuda church.

If you can provide items of interest or works for sale, please contact The Friends of St. Peter’s Church secretary at gillianouterbridge@northrock.bm.

The church is built on the same location as a 1612 structure erected by the island’s first permanent settlers who arrived that year aboard “The Plough”. The first church was made of wooden posts and palmetto leaves and was destroyed in a storm.

St. Peter’s is also thought to be near the site of a small church built by the “Sea Venture” castaways who celebrated Christmas while stranded in Bermuda in 1609.

“During our time of abode upon these islands, we had daily every Sunday two sermons preached by our minister, besides every morning and evening at the ringing of a bell we repaired all to public prayer, at what time the names of our whole company were called … and such as were wanting were duly punished,” wrote one “Sea Venture” survivor in a pamphlet published in London in 1625.

On August 1, 1620, the first Parliament in the New World was convened in St. Peter’s. The church was rebuilt in 1713-14, after a 1712 hurricane caused widespread devastation thoughout the island and additions were completed in 1814 and 1832.

The font of the church — approximately 500 years old — predates the 1609 wreck of the “Sea Venture” and the altar is the oldest piece of woodwork in Bermuda. St. Peter’s cedar altar has been in use since 1624 and is the oldest piece of cedar furniture in Bermuda.

The church’s historic communion silver was presented to St. Peter’s by King William III in 1697. The set contains two massive flagons, a large chalice, a paten and an alms basin, all bearing the royal coat of arms.

An even older piece is a small chalice dated 1625 and bearing the seal of the Bermuda Company, the London commercial venture formed to settle the island after the “Sea Venture” survivors finally reached Virginia aboard two locally built ships in 1610.

The churchyard contains two graveyards: a walled area to the west of the church was for used black slaves until the 19th century, while the eastern section was reserved for white parishioners.

Mr. Warner has described the richness of Gombey tradition, as an inspiring and unifying force in Bermuda.

Reasnin’ will give Mr. Warner the chance to expand on that sentiment and to share his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the Gombey tradition in Bermuda as well as to reflect on his role as the steward of one of Bermuda’s oldest and most notable Gombey Troupes.

The discussion will begin in an interview style, with questions fielded by Gavin Smith. Questions will probe into aspects of life, work and tradition that have led to the current ideals of Mr. Warner’s devotion to the Gombey.

The Reasnin’ series is free, but donations toward The Chewstick Foundation’s programs and infrastructure are much appreciated.

Each and every person is welcomed to attend on the first Tuesday of every month at the Chewstick Headquarters on the corner of Court Street and Elliot Street.

Talks start at 6:00 pm and questions and general discussion take place immediately following. For a complete schedule, future suggestions for individuals to interview and other event information contact Chewtsick at 292-2439.

Warner Gombey Troupe at Friswells Hill 2011 Christmas Parade

Sponsored by Hamilton-based specialist insurer Hiscox and to be held at Bermuda’s leading art museum, the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art, the exhibition is part of the 200th anniversary celebrations for the Bermuda Post Office as well as Masterworks’ 25th anniversary. Issued by Perot at his Queen Street post office [pictured], Bermuda held a pioneering role in the development of the modern day postal service as one of the first jurisdictions to introduce a uniform postal rate in 1842, only two years behind the United Kingdom and three years ahead of the USA.

Perot’s introduction of postage stamps to the colony in 1848 made Bermuda only the second British colony to issue its own stamps, and was ahead of many other countries such as France [1849], Canada [1851], Russia [1857] and Italy [1862].

1854 Bermuda Perot stamp

The three Perot stamps will travel to Bermuda along with the famous Kirkcudbright Cover bearing a block of ten 1d penny blacks — the first stamps issued in the world — and posted on the first day of use on 6 May 1840, as well as a number of other early stamps of Great Britain provided from the Queen’s private collection.

The three Perot stamps from the Queen’s collection will also be joined by five other Perot stamps, some of which are owned by Dr David Saul – a former Premier of Bermuda, bringing together probably for the first time since the mid-19th century, eight of the remaining eleven Perots believed to have survived.

Michael Sefi, the Keeper of the Queen’s private stamp collection, commented: “Only 11 Perot stamps are believed to have survived and it is a rare thing indeed for the three held in the Royal Philatelic Collection to be travelling overseas.

“That they are ‘returning’ to Bermuda for the first time is particularly appropriate and, on its 200th anniversary, celebrates the important role the Bermuda Post Office played in the development of the modern postal system.”

Charles Dupplin, CEO of Hiscox Bermuda, added: “Together with the five other Perots being lent to the exhibition, they will make for a spectacular addition to the Masterworks’ exhibition and for keen philatelists, it is a real privilege to see such rare and pioneering stamps returning, albeit temporarily of course, to their ‘home’ country.”

Tom Butterfield, Creative Director and Founder from the Masterworks Museum said: “In our 25th Anniversary year it is thrilling to us that we are able to host these stamps to share with the people of Bermuda and our visitors. They
will complement our collection and add to the overall experience of seeing a little piece of Bermuda’s history and culture when one walks through our doors.

“This exhibit is an illustration that visual art forms take on many interpretations and this adds to that lexicon. We are honoured to be given the responsibility, and we sincerely hope that all of Bermuda will come down to the Botanical Gardens and see this once in a lifetime exhibit.”

Made in Bermuda in 1912, “The Relief of Lucknow” was produced by Thomas Edison’s pioneering East Coast film company for the British market and about ten minutes of the movie’s Bermuda location footage survives today. The historical recreation’s original running time was close to a half hour.

The previous year the Edison Company began to make films on specifically European themes to increase sales in Britain. A 1911 adaption Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” shot in Cheyenne, Wyoming depicted the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War [1853-1856] as a tale of British loyalty and sacrifice had proved a box office sensation in the UK.

Indian nationalist rebels on the attack in “The Relief of Lucknow”

“The Relief of Lucknow” was a follow-up. During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, rebel forces had laid the British garrison based at the Residency in Lucknow. Lucknow was eventually relieved, first by forces under the command of Sir Henry Havelock and Sir James Outram, followed by a stronger force under Sir Colin Campbell.

The company had started sending actors and personnel to shoot films in outdoor locations away from its New Jersey studio and Serle J. Dawley — director of “The Charge of the Light Brigade” — led the trip to Bermuda.

Taking advantage of the island’s good weather, varied locations and proximity to New Jersey, Dawley shot a number of short films — 20 minutes to half-an-hour long — here in the spring of 1912.

Aside from “The Relief of Lucknow”, other titles included perhaps the earliest version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island” and a drama called “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter.”

Those films are now considered lost like more than 90 percent of the movies shot during the pre-1927 silent era.

“The Relief of Lucknow” was filmed in Bermuda because the island offered the advantages of tropical scenery and the presence of the 2nd Battalion of the Queen’s Own Regiment, then stationed here.

 British troops attack Indian rebels in “The Relief of Lucknow”

The film was made to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the Indian Mutiny, also referred to as the Uprising or, by Indian nationalists, as India’s first War of Independence.

Sepoys — Indian troops of the British East India Company — were the visible face of the uprising, but acts of bloody rebellion by civilians, peasants, and landed gentry against the British and their supporters cut across India’s Upper Gangetic Plain.

There were long and short-term motives for the Uprising, ranging from the Company’s brutal taxation policies, its rapid annexation of land by flouting agreements with Indian Princely allies, and recent anger over the Enfield rifle, rumored to use cartridges greased with pig and beef lard, which gave offense to Muslims and Hindus alike.

Significantly, the events of 1857 ended the British East India company’s rule and initiated the British Crown’s official control over India’s revenue and governance.

Lucknow was the capital of Awadh, and is located in the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. During the Mughal era, it was ruled by Shi’ite Nawabs and renowned for its tradition of dance, music, architecture and poetry.

“The Relief of Lucknow” was shot at various locations around the island including Villa Monticello in Flatts Village — a special effects charge used during a battle scene accidentally blew the verandah off the building.

Surviving footage from “The Relief Of Lucknow”, shot on location in Bermuda in 1912

Mr. Cameron will appear at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on April 11 at 6.30 pm to discuss his lengthy career [he is pictured here with former resident Michael Douglas at the Bermuda International Film Festival in 2007] .

Film excerpts will be shown and the evening will also feature a musical solo by Mr. Cameron’s granddaughter, Siria Rutstein.

There is a $10 fee for this event. Spaces is limited; please contact the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs on 292-1681 for tickets, or go to their office at #58 Court Street, 4th Floor.

It was a simple yearning to see the world which existed beyond Bermuda’s shores prompted Mr. Cameron to embark on what became a life-long odyssey of self-discovery, breaking down barriers and learning.

Earl Cameron with Sean Connery and Claudine Auger in the 1965 James Bond blockbuster “Thunderball”

The pioneering actor who shattered the colour bar in British film and TV in the 1950s — and who at 94 continues to work in such Hollywood blockbusters as “The Interpreter” (2005 ) and ”Inception” (2010) — told “The Birmingham Post” newspaper it was wanderlust which prompted him to sign on as a crew member in the British merchant marine just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War in September, 1939.

“We dropped anchor off the Mersey, just as the first heavy bombing raid began on Liverpool,” he said. “I was hoping by some chance to get to Bermuda again. But I ended up in London and when the train was pulling into Euston I thought, ‘This feels like home’. I resigned myself to staying there during the Second World War.”

Stranded in the British capital and working at several kitchen jobs, Mr. Cameron said his trail-blazing acting career began by chance — he bumped into an actor friend from a West End show called “Chu Chin Chow” (based on Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves). Mr. Cameron joked he ought to be in the cast — and soon he was.

“When one actor fell ill, my big chance had come at the Palace Theatre, Cambridge Circus,” says Mr. Cameron told the newspaper. “Half an hour later I was singing with no voice coming out, my knees trembling and sweat pouring down my face. I was terrible – but I thought ‘this is better than cleaning dishes, I’m now in showbusiness’.”

As a member of ENSA – The Entertainments National Service Association –Mr. Cameron entertained Allied troops in the United Kingdom thoughout World War Two but did return to Bermuda for five months after the war — only to tell his mother he was leaving permanently. She said, “If you have to go, you have to go”.

After performing in West End and repetory theatres throughout Britain for six years, Mr. Cameron said his breakthrough role came in “The Pool of London” – a 1951 film set in postwar London involving racial prejudice, romance, and a diamond robbery. He won much critical acclaim for his role in the film.

“A girl I knew called from a film company at Ealing Studios to tell me (director) Basil Dearden was making ‘Pool of London’,” said Mr. Cameron. “He told me I looked too old, so I shaved off my moustache. I’d told him I was 26, but when he asked again I admitted to 32 and said it was ‘poetic licence’.

“Actors have to tell the truth today! In one example of typecasting when I wasn’t going to get a part because I was ‘born in Bermuda’, I quickly said I was born in Ghana but had worked in Bermuda and I got it.

“After that I was in director Lewis Gilbert’s films ‘Wall of Death’ and then ‘Emergency Call’ with Sid James and Jack Warner.”

By the mid-1950s Mr. Cameron was an established star in the UK and he worked steadily in movies, the theatre and in television. While his more recent TV credits include “The Buccaneers,” “Kavanagh QC”, “Casualty”, and “Waking The Dead”, his significant 1960s television work included “Doctor Who”, “The Prisoner” and “Danger Man”.

Earl Cameron guest stars in this episode of the 1956 Robert Shaw TV show “The Buccaneers”

He also starred with Sean Connery in the 007 blockbuster “Thunderball” (1965) playing Pinder, the British secret service’s Head of Station in the Bahamas –and technically James Bond’s boss during his mission there in the film.

“Nobody wants to make a bad movie,” said Mr. Cameronl. “But I’ve been on films where producers just want to finish it. (Bond producer) Cubby Broccoli had made lots of flops before ‘Dr. No’ launched James Bond, and since Connery was unknown they were expecting another flop with ‘Dr No’.”

Mr. Cameron has worked with screen legends like Dirk Bogarde (“Simba”, 1955), John Mills (“Flame in the Street”, 1961) and Richard Attenborough and Jack Hawkins (“Guns at Batasi”, 1964). But Sidney Poitier – the first black actor to win a best actor Oscar (for “Lilies of the Field” in 1964) and a recent recipient of the United States’ highest civilian honour, The Presidential Medal of Freedom – remains a particularly good friend.

“Sidney directed me in London in One Warm December (1973) and we still speak,” said Mr. Cameron. “He used to tell me that most big stars were either drug addicts or alcoholics so he was very sensible and stopped drinking altogether.

“Even Sidney said I should go to Hollywood but I had a family and didn’t want to. Hollywood didn’t like mixed marriages and my wife, Audrey, was white and Jewish. America didn’t appeal to me because of racism and also its materialism. Bermudans were like poor Americans, trying to copy everything. At the same time they were proud of their British background.”

In 1979, Mr. Cameron retired from acting to run a “little business” in Guadalcanal in the south Pacific’s Solomon Islands, where he lived until 1994 when he moved back to the UK and relaunched his acting career.

Clip from Earl Cameron’s 1961 film “Flame In The Streets”

While he preferred dedicating himself to his family and his Bahai faith rather than seeking fame and fortune in Tinseltown, the call to star in films like “The Interpreter” has been too difficult to turn down.

Had he gone to Hollywood and not “retired” to the Solomon Islands, Mr. Cameron agrees he could have been challenging the great Morgan Freeman for roles in movies like “Shawshank Redemption” (1994).

“Yes, but at that time faith was more important to me than any film,” Mr. Cameron said. “I could have played Mandela, there’s no doubt about that … And I’d have loved to have worked with Clint Eastwood, or when he was younger, Marlon Brando.

Delighted to see the progress of  black stars following in his wake – like the Academy Award-winning Denzel Washington and Oscar-nominee Will Smith – Mr. Cameron was asked by the “Birmingham Post” what his own epitaph would be.

“After a good showbusiness career and being able to have two wonderful wives, Audrey and Barbara, I’ve reached the stage of my life [where] I still love the business that has given me such experiences that I am quite happy to say ‘Cheerio, goodbye…’,” he said, adding: “I’m very proud to have been a pioneer not only in films after the war but also by being the only black actor at that time having worthwhile parts in the theatre.”

Mr. Cameron has revisited Bermuda numerous times in recent years, paying a courtesy call on Premier Paula Cox at the Cabinet Office in 2010. Plans were announced in 2010 for a feature-length documentary about the Bermudian actor’s life and trail-blazing career.

Trailer for 2005 movie “The Interpreter”

Mr. Cameron was honoured with a retrospective of his work at the tenth Bermuda International Film Festival in 2007, receiving its prestigious Prospero Award for lifetime achievement.

The youngest of six children, Mr. Cameron was born on August 8, 1917 in Pembroke.

His 40-year marriage to the late Audrey produced five of his six children, and he has now been married to his second wife Barbara for 16 years.

The veteran actor was named as a Commander of the British Empire for services to the dramatic arts in 2009, shortly after appearing alongside Dame Helen Mirren in her Oscar-winning role in ”The Queen” (2007).

At the time he said: “I played an artist who painted Helen Mirren’s portrait in ‘The Queen’, so I have already had a trial run. It never occurred to me I would come up for any kind of award like this.”

Last year Mr. Cameron appeared at a series of film screenings in London next month to discuss how the decline and fall of the British Empire was portrayed in UK cinema during the 1950s and ’60s.

The British Film Institute [BFI} and political magazine “New Statesman” are partnered to present the “End of Empire” series.

Held at the BFI’s Southbank facility, films in the series included “Simba” which co-stars Mr. Cameron and the late Dirk Bogarde. Set during the Mau Mau uprising against British rule in Kenya, the 1955 film screened on November 9 and Mr. Cameron led an audience discussion after it was shown.

He also took part in the London borough of Brent’s month-long celebration of literacy in November.

British broadcaster Alex Pascall interviewed Mr. Cameron in front of an audience about his 70-year acting career, his abiding love of literature and black contributions to Western culture at one of the borough’s WordUp festival events held at London’s Willesden Green Library on November 2

Mr. Cameron lives in Warwickshire in the UK near the city of Birmingham.

Earl Cameron outside Buckingham Palace after being appointed a Commander of the British Empire

The scenic 1933 footage was taken during a holiday trip to Bermuda, Bahamas and Jamaica.

The newly posted footage was shot by John B. Porter (1861-1943), a mining engineer and amateur filmmaker, who travelled extensively around the world and took 16mm moving pictures of his travels.

He lived in Montreal, summered in Guysborough, and wintered in California.

Bermuda is featured in the first four minutes of the video

He held the Mining chair at McGill University. Mr. Porter was one of the first filmmakers in Canada to make use of colour film.

In 2010 the Nova Scotia Archives posted film showing Bermuda at the dawn of the modern tourism age in the 1930s shot by a Canadian photo-journalist.

That film is believed to have been shot by Allen Fraser, a Boer War and First World War veteran who was a photographer for the “Halifax Mail” and a Nova Scotian documentarian from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Photo-journalist Allen Fraser’s 1930s Bermuda footage

The legacy of Bermudian slave Mary Prince — whose historic 1831 book [pictured] has lost none of its power to either shock or to inspire understanding and reconciliation among peoples — will be celebrated on the island next week.

In 2007, the United Nations designated  March 25 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade and since 2008 they have commemorated this day with global activities.

For the first time this day will be commemorated in Bermuda as the directors of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail Foundation [ADHT] Bermuda Foundation will collaborate with the United Nations in marking this day.

“We have, with the support of a number of organisations in Bermuda, set up a variety of activities during the week of  March 25-31 to commemorate this day,” said ADHT chairman Maxine Esdaille.

The United Nations stated that “this day honours the lives of those who died as a result of slavery or experienced the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. It is also an occasion to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice.”

Each year there is a theme and the theme for 2012 is “Honouring the Heroes, Resistors and Survivors.”

For this year’s inaugural events, the ADHT will make particular reference to Bermudian Mary Prince, who was the embodiement of a hero, a resistor and a survivor.

She was the first black woman to have a book, which detailed her life as a slave, published in the UK.

American poet Maya Angelou introduces readings from Mary Prince’s narrative

Born in Brackish Pond [now known as Devonshire Marsh] in Bermuda in 1788, Mary Prince’s parents were both slaves: her father owned by Frances and David Trimmingham and her mother owned by Charles Myners.

When Charles Myners died in 1788, Mary and her mother were sold to Captain Darrell, and when she was 12, Ms Prince was sold to Captain John Ingham and his wife Mary Ingham, who lived in Spanish Point.

On being sold Mary says:

I was soon surrounded by strange men, who examined and handled me in the same manner that a butcher would a calf or a lamb he was about to purchase, and who talked about my shape and size in like words – as if I could no more understand their meaning than the dumb beasts.

I was then put up for sale. The bidding commenced at a few pounds, and gradually rose to fifty seven, when I was knocked down to the highest bidder; and the people who stood by said that I had fetched a great sum for so young a slave.

She was sold to again and sent to Grand Turks in 1806 to work extracting salt from the oceans, an industry Bermudians had used seasonally for a century.

Mary Prince returned to Bermuda in 1810, and was sold to John Wood in 1818 and sent to Antigua to be a domestic slave.

In December 1826, she married Daniel James, a former slave who had bought his freedom and worked as a carpenter. She was severely beaten by her master for this “transgression”.

In 1828, her owner John Wood took her as a servant to London. Although slavery was illegal in Britain, she had no means to support herself and couldn’t return to her husband without being re-enslaved. She took shelter with a church, and was eventually hired by Thomas Pringle, an abolitionist writer and Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society.

Mary Prince arranged for her narrative to be transcribed by Susanna Strickland and it was published in 1831.

Her book “The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself” caused a sensation, going through several printings in a matter of months.

The slave narrative scandalised Britain, aroused popular indignation and added major impetus to the abolitionist movement.

Some readers even found her account of slave life too brutal to be believable.

Her abolitionist employer in London wrote to one sceptical group, the Birmingham Society for Relief of Negro Slaves, confirming she had inspected Mary and the “whole of the back part of her body is distinctively scarred … chequered with the vestiges of severe floggings.”

Last June Premier Paula Cox participated in a celebratory reception at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and unveiled a commemorative bronze plaque honouring the life of Mary Prince,who lived near the site.

Premier Paula Cox & Bermudian BBC News Announcer Moira Stewart At The Mary Prince Plaque Dedication

At the time of the unveiling, British Labour MP Diane Abbott said that as a black woman in those times Mary Prince took a tremendous gamble in committing her story to paper.

“She put herself at risk by telling her story and it’s very important that we remember the slaves who took part in the struggle to abolish the slave trade,” said Ms Abbott, who attended the dedication ceremony.

ADHT Events planned for the upcoming commemorative events planned for the week of March 25-31 include:

Sunday March 25
Commemorative Service at Cobbs Hill Methodist – 4.00pm
Free admission today only for residents to National Museum of Bermuda

 Monday  March 26 – Saturday, March 31
Bermuda Archives
Display at Bermuda Archives Slavery Exhibit – featuring pre-Emancipation period and displays selected narratives written in the early 1830’s by three local women.

Bermuda National Library
Display of books on slavery in Bermuda and throughout the world including “The History of Mary Prince”, the autobiography of a Bermudian slave, which is a “first-hand description of the brutalities of enslavement” and the first account of the life of a black woman to be published in the United Kingdom.

 National Museum of Bermuda
The NMB’s Commissioner’s House is part of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail featuring the exhibition “The Slave Trade & Slavery in Bermuda”. Other exhibits in the House that relate to slavery and its legacy are the incredible mural, The Hall of History, by Graham Foster; Bermuda & the West Indies; and the Defense Heritage exhibit.

Thursday, March 29
Youth News Supplement in the daily newspaper featuring the African Diaspora Heritage Trail Bermuda Foundation,

Friday,  March 30
Global Video conference for students  – live from the United Nations in New York — hosted by the Bermuda College and taking place at ACE Bermuda

Walking in the Footsteps of our Past – Under the expert guidance of  historian Lance Furbert, the public is invited to discover by candle light, the footpaths of the slaves who once lived and worked in St. George. The trail of our people will take us through the alleyways and pathways surrounding the town of St. George; beginning at The Square and ending at the Bermudian Heritage Museum.(NEW)

Saturday,  March 31
Film screening with panel discussion: “My Slave Sister Myself and :Lest We Forget.”

 

Three of the rare stamps which will be displayed at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art from April 19 through 28 are from the Queen’s own collection while two are owned by former Bermuda Premier Dr. David Saul.

Bermuda’s first postage stamps were produced locally in 1848 by Hamilton postmaster William B. Perot at his Queen Street post office [pictured], consisting of the words “HAMILTON BERMUDA” in a circle, with the year and Perot’s signature in the middle.

Known as the Perot provisionals, they are among the greatest rarities of global philately. Only 11 examples of the stamps — issued until 1861 — are known to still exist.

Masterworks will be hosting a philatelic dinner on April 23, which will include talks from Chris Harman, a Fellow of London’s Royal Philatelic Society, London, and Michael Sefi, Keeper of the Queen’s private stamp collection.

After completing the first stretch of the voyage it had to re-provision, discharge some of the cargo and passengers, and load valuable products bound for England. “Warwick’s” arrival here was as an important event for the island. On that voyage, the ship was charged with delivering Captain Nathaniel Butler, the new Governor of the permanent Bermuda colony founded in 1612.

“Apart from delivering Butler, ‘Warwick’ was to carry supplies and settlers to the struggling colony at Jamestown and collect colonial products, mostly tobacco, from Bermuda and Virginia for return to England,” said marine archaeologists Piotr Bojakowski and Katie Custer.

“At the end of November, as ‘Warwick’ was preparing to depart for America, where the Jamestown settlers were no doubt eagerly awaiting the arrival of the ship and the supplies it carried, a hurricane struck. Although the crew had prepared the ‘Warwick’ as the storm approached, all the moorings suddenly gave way and the ferocious wind drove the ship right into the rocky cliffs of Castle Harbour.

“Due to a combination of a powerful north-westerly, shallow reefs, and the sharp limestone rocks surrounding Castle Harbour nothing could be done to save it. ‘Warwick’s’ hull, although sturdy, was no match against the elements; thus, its fate was sealed.”

Dr. Piotr Bojakowski dredging on “Warwick’s” hull in Castle Harbour 

Since 2008 archaeologists from Bermuda, the National Museum of Bermuda, Texas A&M University, the University of Southampton, and the Vasa Museum have dedicated their time, resources and expertise to excavating “Warwick’s” wreck.

And now Doug Inglis, assistant director of the “Warwick” Shipwreck Excavation, has concluded Robert Rich may have had more than merchant work in mind when he dispatched the ship to the New World.

Based on the team’s discovery of an impressive arsenal of weapons aboard the wreck, Mr. Inglis has concluded “the little vessel may have been armed for more than self defense.”

Writing on his blog Diving Archeology recently, Mr. Inglis said:” Sir Robert, the Earl of Warwick, was a major shareholder in the Bermuda Company. Although his stake in the joint-stock company was intended to be an important source of income, Sir Robert involved himself in privateering — legal piracy — on the side.

“Warwick” wreck’s timbers and encrusted spike shot

” … excavation of the shipwreck is revealing a number of exciting clues about the nature of the vessel. I have been part of an international team that has be working on the wreck since 2008.

“One thing that impressed us about the 2011 field season was the variety of ordinance we found aboard the ship. In addition to cannon balls, we found spiked shot, as well as bar shot and expanding bar shot — both designed to de-mast and disable other vessels. Was this offensive armament standard for merchantmen at the time, or was ‘Warwick’ prepared for more than just evasion?”

Before venturing into underwater archaeology, Mr. Inglis specialised in high-altitude archaeology — working in Rocky Mountain National Park and alpine regions of Colorado and Wyoming.

Aside from his work on the “Warwick” project, Mr. Inglis is an archaeological illustrator at Texas A&M’s New World lab. He is completing a Master’s thesis in Nautical Archaeology.

At the end of May he will be returning to Bermuda to join other archaeologists from the island and around the world to take part in the final season of the “Warwick” excavation.

Video report on nautical archeologists exploring the “Warwick”

People reading of his long flight from Bermuda and safe landing at Plymouth in the United Kingdom chuckled with affectionate glee mixed with relief.

With transatlantic air travel still in its infancy, the British wartime leader’s impulsive decision to fly from Bermuda was viewed as a characteristically audacious — and potentially perilous — move. The Prime Minister had visited the island for a secret 24-hour stop-over and addressed the House of Assembly, expressing his gratitude to Bermuda for allowing the construction of US military bases the previous year.

He flew to Bermuda on January 15, 1942 from Virginia aboard the British Overseas Airline Corporation’s Boeing 314 flying boat “Berwick”. The British Prime Minister had been in Washington for several weeks after the sneak Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941 brought America into World War Two [1939-1945].

He had been conferring with ally President Franklin Roosevelt at the White House and had delivered one of his most famous wartime speeches — “the United States, united as never before, have drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard” — to a joint session of the US Congress.

Soon after the flight departed for Bermuda, the Prime Minister entered the “Berwick’s” cockpit smoking his trademark cigar, and Captain Kelly Rogers waived the rules and let him continue, even allowing him to strike a match when it went out.

He tried the controls of the huge craft, as Kelly Rogers whispered into the co-pilot’s ear, ordering him to apply corrections only if it looked as if the plane was getting out of the Prime Minister’s control.

Mr. Churchill was allowed to do a couple of slightly banked turns, and was photographed by one of the official cameramen [above and below].

He talked about his own flying career which had begun in 1913 when he founded the Royal Naval Air Service, and compared the Boeing Clipper with the primitive aircraft he had known then.

When Kelly Rogers made radio contact with accompanying American fighter escorts, Mr. Churchill asked if he could speak to them, but the captain ruled that out as too much of a security risk,

After about four hours they arrived at Bermuda and Kelly Rogers offered a sightseeing flight around the islands.

The Prime Minister was summoned from his seat below and came on the flight deck to view the sights, Mr. Churchill sitting in the co-pilot’s chair.

“The Prime Minister remained in the seat while I executed the landing,” Captain Rogers later recalled. “This is a privilege which is not normally accorded to passengers but conditions were ideal and I was able to handle all controls myself.”

Bermuda Governor Lord Knollys With Winston Churchill At Darrell’s Island

After landing in the Great Sound, the “Berwick” moored at Darrell’s Island, the main flying boat station in Bermuda. Mr. Churchill was met on arrival by Governor Lord Knollys and taken to Hamilton aboard a Royal Air Force launch.

From Hamilton he went to Government House and prepared for his address to the Bermuda Parliament.

During his address to the House of Assembly later that same day, the Prime Minister told the Members of Colonial Parliament that “you in Bermuda happen to be called upon to play a part of especial importance and distinction.

“Everybody has to do his duty to the cause — first to the British Empire, but above that to the world cause.”

The Prime Minister went on state, “I wish to express to you my strong conviction that these bases are important pillars of the bridge connecting the two great English-speaking democracies.

“You have cause to be proud that it has fallen to your lot to make this important contribution to a better world.”

He concluded his remarks by expressing his “profound gratitude” to Bermuda and Bermudians.

The Darrell’s Island Flying Boat Station

The battleship HMS “Duke of York”, with an escort of fast destroyers, had been dispatched to Bermuda to collect the Prime Minister to take him back to the United Kingdom.

But after flying to Bermuda by flying boat he decided that it might be preferable to return to England all the way by air, accompanied by only the most important members of his staff, including Sir Dudley Pound, Chief of the Naval Staff and Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff.

A transatlantic air flight was no small undertaking at this time even for a Boeing clipper, widely regarded as representing the apex of flying boat technology.

Powered by four 1,600 horsepower engines, the magnificent 106-foot long aircraft had a wingspan of 152 feet and was designed to carry 68 passengers and 11 crew in unrivalled comfort for an aircraft of its era. Still, reaching the UK from Bermuda non-stop only just fell within the “Berwick’s” maximum operational range of 3,600 miles

British Second World War Battleship HMS “Duke Of York”

On the morning of the departure it appears that Churchill had some second thoughts about the journey: “I woke up unconscionably early with the conviction that I should certainly not go to sleep again. I must confess that I felt rather frightened. I thought of the ocean spaces, and that we should never be within a thousand miles of land until we approached the British Isles.

“I thought perhaps I had done a rash thing that there were too many eggs in one basket. I had always regarded an Atlantic flight with awe. But the die was cast. Still, I must admit that if at breakfast, or even before luncheon, they had come to me to report that the weather had changed and we must go by sea, I should have easily reconciled myself to a voyage in the splendid ship which had come all this way to fetch us.”

The Boeing 314′s departure from Bermuda on January 16 was not as easy as its arrival had been.

“It was, as the Captain had predicted, quite a job to get off the water,” Churchill later recalled. “Indeed, I thought that we should hardly clear the low hills which closed the harbour. There was really no danger; we were in sure hands. The flying-boat lifted ponderously a quarter of a mile from the reef, and we had several hundred feet of height to spare.”

Mr. Churchill was extremely taken with the luxury of this great clipper of the clouds, the experience rivalling that of a voyage on one of the great ocean liners widely used at that time

“There is no doubt about the comfort of these great flying-boats,” said the Prime Minister. “I had a good broad bed in the bridal suite at the stern with large windows on either side. It was quite a long walk, thirty or forty feet, downhill through the various compartments to the saloon and dining-room, where nothing was lacking in food or drink. The motion was smooth, the vibration not unpleasant, and we passed an agreeable afternoon and had a merry dinner.”

Contemporary Cutaway Illustration Of The Interior Of A Boeing 314

The trip from Bermuda to the southern English port city of Plymouth was a protracted one, a distance of 3,330 miles which the great aircraft was covering at an average speed of 190 miles per hour.

“Darkness had fallen, and all the reports were good,” said Mr. Churchill. “We were now flying through dense mist at about seven thousand feet. One could see the leading edge of the wings, with their great flaming exhausts pouring back over the wing surfaces. In these machines at this time a large rubber tube which expanded and contracted at intervals was used to prevent icing. The Captain explained to me how it worked, and we saw from time to time the ice splintered off as it expanded. I went to bed and slept soundly for several hours.”

Near the conclusion of the flight, Mr. Churchill was briefly at risk from both friend and foe alike.

On the morning of January 17, as the “Berwick” approached Britain, Captain Kelly discovered a navigational error in not sufficiently correcting for the prevailing winds. This had allowed the aircraft to drift south of its intended landfall.

“When they did not pass over the Isles of Scilly at the expected time it was realised that they were heading for the port of Brest, the most heavily defended of all the German occupied towns in Europe,” said historian Martin Cherrett, editor of the World War II Today website.

“They were only six miles off when the decision was made to turn abruptly north, and the Luftwaffe planes scrambled to investigate a raider heading in from the sea never found them. They were lucky again as they approached the Royal Navy base at Plymouth. Coming in from an unexpectedly southern direction they were now thought to be a German raider and ‘six Hurricanes from Fighter Command were ordered to shoot us down’ Churchill later recalled.”

Fortunately — as the Prime Minister curtly noted — “they failed in their mission.”

Brief Newsreel Footage Of Churchill Piloting The “Berwick” En Route To Bermuda & Arriving In The UK

In the 1973 Bond thriller “Live And Let Die”, Mr. Ebbin played Dambala, one of the chief henchman of villain Dr. Kanaga [Yaphet Kotto].

Dambala is a voodoo priest of sorts who first appears during the pre-credits sequence,  killing a British agent named Baines with a venomous snake during an occult ritual on the fictitious Caribbean island of San Monique. In fact, the ritual murder carried out by Mr. Ebbin’s character introduced Paul McCartney’s Oscar-nominated title song for the film.  The Dambala character later shows up when Bond comes to the island and is shot by 007 during the secret agent’s attempts to find the entrance to Kananga’s lair.

Mr. Ebbin, who shot his scenes at the Pinewood Studios outside London, was a highly-respected featured performer in many local dance revues.

Born in Bermuda in 1945, he also appeared in a number of major theatrical productions in New York in the 1960s and ’70s.

After a long stint working abroad, he later returned to Bermuda but died at a relatively young age in the 1990s.

Mr. Ebbin became the second Bermudian actor to play a major role in a James Bond film.

In the 1965 blockbuster “Thunderball”, legendary Bermudian performer Earl Cameron was cast alongside Sean Connery’s 007 as Pinder, head of the British Intelligence Secret Service’s Bahamian station.

“Live and Let Die” was the eighth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond.

The film is adapted from the 1954 novel of the same name by Bond creator Ian Fleming.

In the film version, a Harlem drug lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tons of heroin free to put rival New York  drug barons out of business.

Michael Ebbin’s Dambala menaces Jane Seymour’s Solitaire character in “Live And Let Die”

Mr. Big, however, is revealed to be the disguised alter ego of Dr. Kananga, a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, the fictional island where the heroin poppies are secretly farmed.

Bond is investigating the death of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, where he is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drug baron’s scheme.

“Live And Let Die” also features Jane Seymour as Bond’s love interest Solitaire, Julius Harris as Kananga’s primary henchman Tee Hee Johnson and actor/dancer/choreographer Geoffrey Holder as the enigmatic Baron Samedi.

The movie was released at the height of cinema’s blaxploitation era, typified by gritty urban action films like the Academy Award-winning “Shaft” [1971].

Many blaxploitation plot elements and clichés are featured in the 007 film, including Afro hairstyles, black gangsters and “pimpmobiles”.

Michael Ebbin is glimpsed here in the pre-credits sequence of “Live And Let Die”

It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomaniac super-villains, and instead focuses on drug trafficking, depicted primarily in early ’70s blaxploitation films.

It is set in African-American cultural centres such as Harlem and New Orleans, as well as the Caribbean islands.

“Live And Let Die” was also the first James Bond film featuring an African-American Bond girl to be romantically involved with 007, Rosie Carver, who was played by Gloria Hendry.

While searching for locations in Jamaica, the film’s crew discovered a crocodile farm owned by Ross Kananga, after passing a sign warning that “trespassers will be eaten.”

The farm was put into the script and also inspired “Live And Let Die screenwriter” Tom Mankiewicz to name the film’s villain after Mr. Kananga.

“Live And Let Die” trailer

The international Naval Dockyards Society and the National Museum of Bermuda are jointly hosting the conference — titled “Bermuda Dockyard and the War of 1812″ –from Thursday, June 7 until Tuesday, June 12

Bermuda became the Royal Navy’s warm water North Atlantic base in the 1790s, supporting trade routes and colonies after Britain lost control of its American colonies and ports during the American War of Independence.

Following the French and Napoleonic wars, persisting tensions with America and France escalated into maritime trade disagreements and ultimately full-scale naval conflict.

During the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, the Royal Navy’s “North America Station” in Bermuda was the staging area for the British attack on Washington and Baltimore.

It was in Bermuda, in the summer of 1814, that the British naval fleet was amassed with 5,000 army troops and Royal Marines and then set sail to invade the United States.

Reaching the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland on August 11, the British forces routed the disorganised American army at the Battle of Bladensburg and then marched into Washington, DC, burning down the White House, Capitol Building, and Library of Congress, the only time in American history since the Revolutionary War that a US city was occupied by an invading army.

History Channel War of 1812 Documentary, Part 1

As Baltimore historian James G. Howes has written: “British forces then sailed up the Patapsco River in a two-pronged naval and land attack on Baltimore, spearheaded by the British army and marines who came ashore east of this major American seaport near Sparrows Point on September 12, advancing as far as present-day Patterson Park in Baltimore.

“There they encountered a large force of 10,000 Americans behind hastily-built fortifications. While the British forces engaged the determined American defenders on land for two days, British warships simultaneously drew closer to Fort McHenry, strategically located at Baltimore’s harbor entrance.”

Beginning on the morning of Tuesday the 13th, the Royal Navy warships unleashed a heavy 24-hour bombardment by cannons and rocket batteries.

“All through the day and rainy night, the defenders of Baltimore withstood these land forces and the naval attack on Fort McHenry, knowing that surrender meant the same fate for Baltimore as the capital had suffered,” Mr. Howes continued.

“As the morning of the 14th dawned and the guns firing on Fort McHenry fell silent, a Baltimore lawyer named Francis Scott Key, held prisoner on a British ship eight miles away, anxiously peered through a spyglass at the embattled fort.

“Seeing the large American flag still flying above Fort McHenry’s ramparts, he knew the besieged gallant defenders had withstood the British assault and Baltimore was saved.”

Painting Of The British Assault On Fort McHenry

So inspired by the sight was Francis Scott Key, as he gazed at the Stars and Stripes, that he began to pen some verses.

“Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Published shortly afterwards in the Baltimore American newspaper, Key’s stirring poem, written on a British vessel from Bermuda in Baltimore Harbor on September 14, 1814, would become the United States’ National Anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”.

The dockyard and military defences developed at Bermuda during this intense period survive largely intact today and arguably merit World Heritage status.

The National Museum of Bermuda and Naval Dockyards Society anticipate that these monuments and the Atlantic context of the War of 1812 will inspire new histories and connections during the conference.

The international conference on the theme of Bermuda’s Dockyard and the War of 1812 will be enhanced by Bermuda heritage tours, enriched by the expertise of National Museum of Bermuda executive director Dr. Edward Harris and other local heritage professionals and tourism ambassadors.

History Channel War Of 1812 Documentary, Part II

Mr. Plummer, whose career spans seven decades, made his professional debut in 1948 with Ottawa’s Stage Society, performing over 100 roles with its successor, the Canadian Repertory Theatre. He then joined the Bermuda Repetory Theatre — a professional theatre company based out of the old Bermudiana Hotel in Hamilton — for its 1952 season. Performing for visitors and locals at a small theatre at the hotel, the Bermuda Repetory Theatre was for several years a magnet for young, up-and-coming American and Canadian actors.

Mr. Plummer performed in half-a-dozen plays during his time in Bermuda, playing Old Mahon, “The Playboy of the Western World”, Anthony Cavendish in “The Royal Family, Bermuda Repertory Theatre”, Ben in “The Little Foxes”, Duke Manti in “The Petrified Forest”, Father in “George and Margaret”, Hector Benbow in “Thark” and Bernard Kersal in “The Constant Wife.”

His success in Bermuda caught the attention of a US producer which led to Mr. Plummer being cast in a 1953 American tour of the play “Nina.”

But when the time came for him to leave Bermuda, he was reluctant to do so.

“”Whenever I’m about to say farewell to a place in which I’ve lingered too long and I know I must get out — damn it, if I don’t get hooked,” Mr. Plummer said of Bermuda in his 2008 autobiography, “In Spite Of Myself. “I’d known all along these jewels set in Azure waters were a romantic group of islands whose history was as baffling and mysterious as the triangle that bears their name.

“If Bermuda had been created by any other than some sea god, it had certainly been christened by a force called Shakespeare [in his Bermuda-inspired play 'The Tempest']. If it had been born merely in a poet’s mind — a poet who had never seen it — what a rich magnificent birth. But it did exist; it was real. In the beginning of time, the sea had belched it forth. It was Caliban’s island, wild, lush, painfully beautiful — I suddenly wanted to stay: ‘I’ll show thee every fertile inch o’ the island/I’ll show thee the best springs, I’ll pluck thee berries …/I prithee let me bring thee where crabs grow/… Wilt thou go with me’?”

The Original Bermudiana Hotel, Destroyed By Fire in 1958, Where Mr. Plummer Performed 

Mr. Plummer said he spent his final days in Bermuda “on my well-worn moped, covering the countryside for all I was worth, searching for more ‘subtleties of the isle’ lest I forget. I would scour the reefs in glass-bottom barks gazing down into the laser-clear depths, watching the big morays undulate slowly: seductively — their mouths opening and closing in silent screams.

“I would watch for hours, paralysed by the underwater beauty of countless fish of all shapes and sizes and the never-ending sunken gardens reaching to infinity.”

After completing the tour of “Nina”, Mr. Plummer went on to make his Broadway debut in 1954 in “The Starcross Story”. He received widespread acclaim the following year in the New York production of “The Lark” alongside Julie Harris — another veteran of the Bermuda Repetory Company — and Boris Karloff.

He made his film debut in 1957′s “Stage Struck”, and notable early film performances include “Night of the Generals”, “The Return of the Pink Panther” and “The Man Who Would Be King”.

Toronto-born, Montreal-raised Mr. Plummer probably remains best known to movie audiences as the stern widower Captain Georg Ludwig von Trapp in the hit 1965 musical “The Sound of Music.”

His most recent film roles include the “The Insider” as CBS reporter Mike Wallace, the Disney-Pixar 2009 film “Up” as Charles Muntz and “The Last Station” as Leo Tolstoy.

Aside from this week’s Oscar for his performance as Best Supporting Actor in the film “Beginners”, Mr. Plummer has won numerous other awards for his work including two Emmys, two Tonys and a Golden Globe.

Christopher Plummer’s Post-Academy Award Win Interview:

A member of the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry [DCLI] attached to the 1st Special Air Services Regiment [SAS] with the acting rank of captain, the 23-year-old was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order [DSO] for his valour during a battle with German forces following the Allied invasion of Italy in September, 1943.

He is pictured here at the time, sporting the legendary SAS Parachute Wings badge.

The DSO was established by Queen Victoria in 1886 to recognise individual instances of meritorious service under fire and is often regarded as an acknowledgement that recipients only just missed out on the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour Britain bestows.

A 1984 obituary by Derrick Harrison noted: “It was during the battle to hold Termoli, when the German counter attacked in division strength, that Tony Marsh showed most clearly those natural qualities of command that earned him the respect of all who operated with him.”

Commanding troops from the SAS’ Special Raiding Squadron, according to his DSO citation:” Captain Marsh, with 56 men, was holding a front of one mile on the right flank of the Sector west of Termoli.

“At mid-day on the 5th October 1943, his positions were subjected to very heavy and accurate shelling and mortar fire, at the height of which, his position was further weakened by the transfer of one of his sections to another sector.

“At this time the enemy was developing a determined counter-attack on his left flank. Despite the intensity of enemy fire he held fast and with his own fire pinned down groups of the enemy infantry which attempted to infiltrate into his position. Later in the afternoon several of his men were badly wounded, whilst some distance away on his right flank his remaining other section was being gradually forced back.

“Although by this time, Captain Marsh’s position had become untenable, he refused to move until he was able to communicate his intention to the troops on his left. Meanwhile, with his few remaining men, he succeeded in beating off further attacks on his position by German Infantry.

“Striking north to join up with his right hand section he came across two wounded men. From them he learned that he was completely cut off, but pushed on, taking the wounded men with him, until finally pinned down by machine gun fire. He eventually succeeded in evacuating all the wounded men to our own lines under cover of darkness although only 150 yards from an enemy post.

“Throughout Captain Marsh showed great coolness and determination. His high standard of courage and complete disregard for personal safety throughout the operation played a decisive part in saving a very dangerous situation.”

After the D-Day Landings on June 6, 1944 he was parachuted in behind enemy lines to help organise the French resistance forces and he continued to operate behind the German lines in Belgium, Holland, Germany and finally Norway.

British-born Lt.Col. Marsh first came to Bermuda in the 1950s when he commanded the “A” Company of the DCLI then stationed on the island at the old Prospect British military garrison.

Then DCLI Bermuda Company Commander Major Anthony Marsh Accompanies Princess Margaret As She Inspects Troops At Prospect, 1955

He retired from the British military in 1958 but returned to Bermuda to work for the Trade Development Board, forerunner to the Tourism Ministry.

Six months later he was commissioned into the Bermuda Militia Artillery which he commanded until the amalgamation of the island’s forces into the Bermuda Regiment in 1965.

Lt. Col. Marsh died in Bermuda in 1984 at the age of 64.

The exhibit, which will run through March 14, consists of 26 photographs of US presidential visits to Bermuda, beginning with President Harry Truman’s vacation cruise to the  island in 1946, and Bermudian Premiers visits to Washington, DC.

Bermuda’s proximity to the United States has made it the site of a series of summit conferences between British Prime Ministers and US. Presidents.

The first meeting was held in December 1953, at the insistence of Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to discuss relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Participants at the conference included Churchill and US President Dwight D. Eisenhower [the two men are pictured together above at the Mid Ocean Club, site of the meeting] along with French Premier Joseph Laniel.

In 1957, a second Bermuda summit conference was held;  this time British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan arrived earlier than President Eisenhower, to make it clear that they were meeting on British territory, as tensions were still high regarding the previous year’s Anglo-US conflict over the Suez Canal.

President Eisenhower And Prime Minister Macmillan At The 1957 Bermuda Conference

“Ike himself suggested Bermuda as the place, feeling that it might help soothe the British hurt feelings to hold the conference in British territory,” reported “Time” magazine. “From the start, the tone of the meeting was cordial. Macmillan was waiting at dockside with outstretched hand as the President, arriving in Hamilton Harbour aboard the missile cruiser USS ‘Canberra’, stepped ashore from a US Navy launch. ‘Harold, how are you?’ Ike said warmly.

“That evening, the Big Two’s big four—President, Prime Minister, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd—gathered for a roast-beef dinner in the private dining room of Macmillan’s hotel suite. Despite white dinner jackets, it was a friendly and informal meeting.”

At the Bermuda meeting, President Eisenhower urged the British Prime Minister to set aside British anger toward Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel Nasser for nationalising the Suez Canal and recognise that restoring close relations with Cairo, while working to isolate Nasser internationally, would be more likely than outright hostility to serve Anglo-American interests in the Middle East.

Eisenhower and Dulles also urged the British to consider Saudi Arabia’s King Saud as a potential regional rival to Nasser.

Macmillan returned in 1961 for the third summit with President John F. Kennedy, who was familiar with Bermuda, having made numerous personal visits. The meeting was called to discuss Cold War tensions arising from construction of the Berlin Wall.

Newsreel footage of the Kennedy-Macmillan 1961 Bermuda Summit

In 1971 US President Richard Nixon met in Bermuda with British Prime Minister Edward Heath to discuss the war then raging between India and Pakistan. As the two countries fought their third war since gaining independence in 1946, the US administration believed India was about to dismember Pakistan.

While many observers viewed India as playing a helpful role against an oppressive military junta in West Pakistan [now Pakistan], led by General Yahya Khan, transcripts of the Heath-Nixon summit in Bermuda show it was more than that.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on a visit to Britain, had told Heath of the pressure in her cabinet for her to take Pakistani territory and not return it. India, she said, had seen Pakistan tying itself to China and now the United States also was establishing links with Beijing with Nixon scheduled to visit the country in 1972 — the first US president to do so since the Communist regime had come to power in 1949. President Nixon’s friendly overtures to the Chinese, and their closeness to Pakistan, she said, had made it necessary for India to sign a treaty with the Soviet Union.

Papers from the Bermuda summit show that President Nixon and his foreign affairs adviser, Dr. Henry Kissinger, suspected India of scheming not just the separation of East Pakistan [now Bangladesh], but the break-up of West Pakistan and even moves against the Pakistani side of the disputed Kashmir territory.

President John F. Kennedy At Bermuda Government House Tree Planting Ceremony, December 1961

The most recent Bermuda summit conferences between the two powers occurred in 1990 and 1991, when British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major met US President George H.W. Bush here.

Direct meetings between the President of the United States and the Premier of Bermuda have been rare. The most recent meeting was on 23 June 2008, between former Premier Ewart Brown and President George W. Bush [pictured below].

Prior to this, the leaders of Bermuda and the United States had not met at the White House since a 1996 meeting between Premier David Saul and President Bill Clinton.

Prior to that Sir David Gibbons had met with President Jimmy Carter while Sir John Swan had conferred with both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush on a number of occasions.

At the Masterworks exhibit there will be formal photographs of American presidents in Bermuda to participate in international summits juxtaposed with never-before-seen informal photos such as President George Bush flying kites during his 1990 summit meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Dwight D. Eisenhower attending church.

The presidential libraries provided most of the photographs and assisted with research. The exhibit pictorially represents the sustained and close relationship between the United States and Bermuda in the last half century.

The purpose of the Expo is to have students learn about persons of significance in Bermuda’s History through research and presentation. The Expo will run until Thursday, March 1, 2012 in the school hall.

The Expo has been organized by the school’s Science/Social Studies Coordinator, Ms. Zonique Swainson and her committee. Students were allowed to submit individual or group projects in one of four categories: Multimedia Documentary (Information presented using technology), Exhibit (Information presented as a three dimensional display), Historical Paper (Written information on the subject) and Performance (Live presentation done in a dramatic fashion).

The committee received over 80 entries for the Expo with all students from primary one to six participating. The morning’s opening ceremony included a piano performance of ‘Hail to Bermuda’ by primary two student Gloria Candiolo, a monologue on Mr. Stanley Burgess presented by Sijay Samuels, and power point presentations on Clyde Best and Bishop Norris Dickenson by Jordyn and Kallan Richardson and Delia Ebbin respectively.

Mr. Best gave concluding remarks and shared his pride in the work students had produced. He also encouraged them to always try their best, set goals for themselves and work toward their goals.

School principal, Mrs. Holly R. Richardson commented, “I am very proud of the effort students have put into preparing for this History Expo. Students have produced fine works, and have been able to use their talents in a variety of ways to share their learning. I look forward to the presentations over the next couple of days, and encourage everyone to support our students in this and other positive events.”

Student presentations will continue on Wednesday and Thursday morning at 8:45 a.m. The public is invited to come and be a part of the opening for the next two days, as well as to view the projects at any time through the school day.