This month
in history

First light shines
at Gibbs Hill
Lighthouse
May 1, 1846

The light beamed from Gibbs Hill Lighthouse for the first time on May 1, 1846.

Bermuda’s first lighthouse was a welcome beacon for seamen who for three centuries had risked being shipwrecked off the island’s treacherous reefs.

A lighthouse was first mooted in 1830. A report sent to the U.K. in 1839 showed the location of 39 wrecks, a 10-year record. Most were in the west end, and only four were bound for Bermuda.

The lighthouse was erected under the administration of Governor William Reid by British convicts, who had been shipped off to Bermuda to serve their time and were housed in airless hulks off Dockyard.

It was built in the U.K. and transported across the Atlantic and unloaded at a wharf near Gibbs Hill.

A report in The Royal Gazette of its arrival said: “The ship with the Cast Iron Light House for Gibbs Hill arrived at Ireland Island at Wednesday last from London, and on Saturday proceeded through Stagg’s Channel to Port Royal.

 “The Light, which will be a revolving one, will stand at an elevation of 375 feet above the level of the Sea, and will be a most brilliant one. This will be the second Iron Light House in the world.”

Work to erect the 117-foot lighthouse began in December 1845.The convicts cut a road up Gibbs Hill and dragged the heavy cast-iron sections along by hand.

Lighting technology has changed over the years, and has long been automated. Views from the top are still breathtaking—for those with the stamina to climb 185 steps. Bermuda’s second lighthouse, which is half the height of Gibbs Hill’s, was built in St. David’s in 1879.

Sources: Bermuda—Five Centuries by Rosemary Jones; Bermuda Journey by William Zuill, Bermuda Beacon by Henry Baker, The Bermudian, April 1952

 
Born this month

Hubert Smith

May 9, 1918-December 3, 2001
Musician, bandleader, songwriter


Hubert Smith: the sound of Bermuda in tourism's golden heyday.
Below, celebrated in recent Troubadours stamp issue.'

One of Bermuda’s top entertainers during the golden era of tourism, Hubert Smith serenaded thousands of tourists, performed for princes and presidents, and wrote countless songs, including his classic, Bermuda is Another World.

Smith, whose career spanned more than half a century, started out entertaining locals at Colonial Opera House on Victoria Street, Hamilton.

When hotels opened up to black Bermudian entertainers after the Second World War, he made the transition to the lucrative hotel circuit.  Smith was able to earn his living working full-time as an entertainer for most of his life, although the era when tourists were clamouring for local entertainment had drawn to an end towards the end of his career.  

Smith was raised in a musical household. His father, Aubrey, was a fisherman and a keen amateur musician and collector of musical instruments. There were weekend jam sessions at the family home in Spanish Point.  By the age of six, Smith had made his own guitar. He also wrote musical ditties as a child and took violin lessons.

When he left school at age 13, he became an apprentice baker. He later worked as a mechanic and as a pilot of tourist tour boats.  He never put music aside. Working nights as a stage hand at Opera House exposed him to all facets of performing from tap dancing to singing, and also to the talents of top musicians, among them Lance Hayward.

Band leader Mark Williams gave him his first professional job as a vocalist after hearing him sing. Williams encouraged Smith to take up an instrument. For three years, he took guitar lessons from a musician who worked on the Queen of Bermuda, which called in at Bermuda each week.

He later studied music composition with Williams. He went on to work as a singer with Kenny Iris’ 12-piece band and later joined Al Davis’ band at Belmont hotel.

But by 1948, sensing a change in musical tastes, Smith immersed himself with the sounds of calypso. One of the first calypso songs he wrote was Green Ticket, about female tourists who would supposedly be ticketed by police if their shorts were too brief.

Around 1953, he formed his own band Hubert Smith and the Coral Islanders, which took its name from the hotel where he was based, Coral Island in Flatts. The band really took off after it moved to Clay House Inn.  

Its popularity led to an offer in 1958 to replace the foreign band at Princess Hotel in Hamilton. Management wanted Smith and his group to swop their colourful calypso shirts for dinner jackets, but after an argument that went on for about six weeks, the Coral Islanders won the day.

They remained at Princess until the early 1960s, when they moved to other hotels. Between 1962 and 1972, Hubert Smith and his Coral Islanders performed in the U.S., Canada and the U.K as part of the annual marketing blitzes, known as briefing tours, organised by the Department of Tourism. He wrote Bermuda Is Another World in 1969 for a briefing tour. Band members changed over the years, but included his two sons Hubert Jr. and George.

Smith could also add television appearance to his resumé. He provided the music for the series Crunch and Des, which ran from 1955-1956, and sang in the 1958 series Adventures of the Sea Hawk. Both were U.S. productions that were filmed at Darrell’s Island.

Actors Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and U.S. president John Kennedy, when he was a young and unknown midshipman, were among those who heard him perform over the years. Royalty he met included Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret and Prince Charles.

He received numerous awards including the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour. Smith, who performed well into the 1980s, was also the long-time president of the musicians’ union.

At the time of his death, many of Bermuda’s musicians had become victims of changing economic times and musical tastes and struggled to find regular work.

Smith belonged to the generation of musicians that reaped rewards from the thriving tourism industry. He made numerous recordings and left an indelible mark on the music scene.

In March of this year, he was one of several musicians honoured by the Post Office in a Bermuda Troubadours stamp issue.

Sources: The Mid-Ocean News, May 26-27, 1979; Bermuda Sun, April 10, 1987; Jazz on the Rock, Part Two, The Writers Machine, editor, Dale Butler

Previous Bermuda Biographies home pages by month:


Photo: Leah Furbert, Bermuda Sun

Heritage Under Siege

It’s one of the ironies of life that the theme for this year’s Heritage Month 2008 is ‘Life in Old Bermuda’, for much of old Bermuda is being lost to the wrecking ball.

The latest example of heritage under siege is Alexandrina Hall [pictured above], which dates back to 1852 and was built by members of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows lodge.

Alexandrina Hall was the hub of black Bermudian society for more than a century, the venue for everything from weddings and socials to political meetings.

But lodge membership has dwindled over the years, and trustees of Alexandrina Hall are said to be negotiating with developer Ramadhin Smith to sell the historic property.

Still, ‘Life in Old Bermuda’ is what we are being asked to celebrate this month. Tales will be told all month about the good old days. An old-style Bermuda bazaar, like the kind that would have taken place at Alexandrina Hall, is also on the Heritage Month calendar.

Celebrating Bermuda Day

Bermuda Day will be celebrated on Monday, May 26 because May 24 falls on a Saturday.

Festivities will kick off as usual with the Marathon Derby in the morning, while the parade will get under way at 1.30 p.m.

It will begin at Albuoy’s Point and wind its way along Front Street, Court Street, Victoria Street and Cedar Avenue, ending up at Bernard Park.

Culture Minister Dale Butler said: “We would like to take this opportunity to encourage the community to come out and participate in the Bermuda Day celebrations and welcome participation from all segments of the community.”

For the story of the evolution of the Bermuda Day holiday, check out our May 2007 home page.

Art in the Gardens

Heritage is also the theme of Masterworks’ annual Art Festival, which will take place on Sunday, May 25 from 12 to 5 p.m. in the Botanical Gardens, Paget.

There’s a big incentive for artists entering this year’s competition.  Festival sponsor Butterfield Bank will hand out $2,500 in cash prizes to the best amateur artist and the best professional. It’s in celebration of the bank’s 150th anniversary. Winning entries will be displayed at the bank throughout June.

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Spirit in southern pilgrimage

The sail training vessel Spirit of Bermuda is heading south this month to Turks and Caicos for a “pilgrimage and community learning expedition.” 

Those making the journey will have a unique opportunity to reconnect with their history and heritage.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, white Bermudian slaveholders sailed in sloops to Turks and Caicos with black slaves, who were put to work raking salt.

It was backbreaking work that reaped huge fortunes for slaveholders because salt was a valuable commodity on the international market, used to preserve food, including cod.

Spirit Of Bermuda will be in Turks and Caicos from May16 to 21. The ship will return to Bermuda via the Bahamas and Jacksonville, Florida.  Bermudian slave Mary Prince raked salt in Turks and Caicos. Read the account of her triumph over slavery in The History of Mary Prince and check out her bio.

Corporation has change of heart  

The Corporation of Hamilton has bowed to public pressure and will allow the Bermuda Society of Arts to remain in the space it has occupied since from 1958, the year City Hall was built.

In yet another indication of heritage under siege, in January the Corporation gave the Society six months to quit the building because it needed office space. Corporation members were apparently unaware that the city fathers back then had set aside the space specifically for the gallery.  

The hue and cry from artists was such the Corporation had a chance of heart. They have now given the BSoA a five-year lease. BSoA president Edwin Smith was understandably relieved. He told the Mid-Ocean News: “We have individuals lining up for exhibits for '09 and we have been in a holding pattern because we didn't know if we could accommodate them or not. We can now breathe a little easier."

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