ROYAL NAVAL IMAGES INCLUDING PRIVATEERS AND BERMUDA MERCHANTMEN.

TWO BERMUDA SLOOPS UNDER WAY. THESE VESSELS MIGHT HAVE FROM ONE TO THREE MASTS, AND WERE CHARACTERISED BY THEIR FORE-AND-AFT RIGS. THIS DESIGN HAD EVOLVED EARLY IN BERMUDA, THANKS TO A DUTCH BOAT-MAKER WHO HAD WORKED ON THE ISLAND DURING THE FIRST DECADE OF COLONIZATION ( THE DUTCH, LONG-RULED BY THE SPANISH, HAD LEARNT FORE-AND-AFT RIGS FROM THE SPANIARDS, WHO HAD DERIVED  THEM FROM THE MOORS WHO HAD RULED SOUTHERN SPAIN  FOR CENTURIES).

This page is concerned primarily with the Royal Navy as it concerns Bermuda.    Private men-of-war are not technically Royal Navy, but served as an important auxillary to the naval fleet in war time, up 'til the war of 1812.    In that war, Bermudian privateers captured a significant proportion of the total British captures in the Western Atlantic and Great Lakes.    In 1795, as part of the building up of the island as what was to becoime the primary RN sdtation in the Western Atlantic, a fleet was initially built by placing contracts in local shiupyards for sloops-of-war. The fleet would grow to include a large number of Bermuda built sloops, cutters and schooners, but crewing them was a far greater problem. The Royal Navy was always short of manpower, and with the American independence the problem grew far worse as America's burgeoning merchant fleet poached off large numbers of RN sailors-not only in US ports, but in any port where US vessels happened to lie along side British.    The US Navy, too, benefitted from Royal Navy deserters, and it was said that the majority of US Navy mid-shipmen in 1812 were RN deserters.    The Royal Navy's somewhat undiplomatic reaction to this situation was, in fact, one of the causes of the US decleration of war.    The Royal Navy had come to rely increasingly on impressment to maintain its numbers. This led to 'hi-Jacking' or 'Shanghaiing' sailors as they were needed. This was considered for building the Bermuda-based fleet, but as the Admiralty saw Bermuda's dependency on its sea-farers, it was decided instead to rely on inducement. The Colonial assembly was encouraged to provide bounties for enlistment, which rose as high as 12 pounds for each Able Seaman. Those who found themselves at loose ends in the colony were attracted also. A ship carrying Irish emigres was wrecked on the island's reefs, and most of the survivors were recruited into the locally-based fleet.    Additionally, many islanders became commissioned officers in the RN, serving out their careers across the planet.

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