Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993 TAG: 9312030387
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By VICTORIA CARROLL SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now is the time to see it.
Off-season in Bermuda runs through March. Hotel rates are as much as 40 percent lower and restaurants are not as crowded as in summer months.
Temperatures are cooler but the average still hovers around 68 degrees, ideal for golf, tennis and exploring the 20-square mile island Frommer's Guide calls one of the ``most attractive and civilized places on Earth''.
Visitors should set aside a full day for St. George's, where the settlement of Bermuda began with the shipwreck of the Sea Venture carrying colonists from England to Jamestown in 1609.
Adventurous travelers may want to rent mopeds or scooters to get to St. George's (Remember to drive on the left side of the road!). Taxis and buses are also easy to find.
Once in town, the narrow alleys and walled lanes that wind through St. George's are easily managed on foot.
A small Bermuda National Trust sign on the pink wall outside the old Globe Hotel on Duke of York Street points the way to the Confederate Museum on the second floor.
The walk upstairs is an education in itself thanks to Bermudan artist Desmond Fountain's two-story wall map showing the major events of the Civil War and blockade-running routes from Bermuda to the Confederate States.
Bermuda sided with the South for economic reasons when President Lincoln imposed a blockade on Southern ports.
Museum guides tell the story of how the Confederate government, desperate to import war materials from Europe, used blockade-runners from St. George's.
Ships from Europe brought their cargos to St. George's harbor where smaller, faster blockade-runners loaded up and slipped across to Southern ports.
The blockade-runners also carried cotton from the South bound for Europe.
Confederate agent Maj. Norman Walker oversaw the operation from the Globe Hotel, which now houses the museum.
Walker's pregnant wife became the first woman to run the blockade, risking capture by the North to join her husband in St. George's.
Her story is one of the most exciting the guides tell. Determined that her child would be born on Southern soil, Walker carried a small parcel of dirt on her dangerous trip.
The Walkers` child was born in the Globe Hotel in a four-poster bed with the Confederate flag draped overhead and the Southern soil spread beneath.
The museum also has a replica of the Great Seal of the Confederacy and an antique Victorian seal press. The original seal press and seal were made in England and brought to Bermuda by Lt. Chapman, Confederate States Navy.
Chapman managed to slip through the blockade with the seal, now on display in a Richmond museum, but left the seal press behind in Bermuda.
A visit to St. George's offers many more chances to explore Bermuda's ties with the United States, past and present.
Bermuda is a two-hour flight from the East Coast. Hotels, restaurants, taxis and shops accept U.S. dollars. American visitors can get through customs with a birth certificate.
More than a half million Americans visit Bermuda each year (89 percent of Bermuda's tourists). They come for golf (six public and two private courses, including Robert Trent Jones-designed Port Royal), for tennis (many hotels offer courts free to guests) and for Bermuda's famous pink coral beaches.
Americans are always welcome in Bermuda.
Southerners are especially welcome at the Confederate Museum.
by CNB