Furness Bermuda Line hotels

Furness Bermuda Line new service to Bermuda in the 1920s created the need of additional modern accommodations for the tourists coming to the island after the first World War. This lead for Furness Withy, parent company of the line, to begin buying existing hotels and purchasing land for this new demand. This led to the formation of the Bermuda Development Company which would Furness' new business development. Eventually the company would manage four main properties: The St George, The Mid Ocean Club, Bermudiana, and the Castle Harbor Hotel. The hotels would continue to see increased business and benefit from legislation passed that would prevent ships from being used as hotels in 1938.[1] Furness Withy would eventually sell all its ownership in the hotels by 1958.[2]

The St. George
The St George Hotel
St George Hotel Indoor Swimming Pool

The St. George Hotel, built in 1906, with 100 rooms, was located in the town of St George.[3] Furness purchased the hotel and would eventually renovate and enlarge it, and build a new golf course.[4] The hotel also had a beach club at Achilles Bay, which is now managed by its successor, the St. Georges Club. The St. George also became known for having one of the largest indoor swimming pools in Bermuda.[2] The hotel also had a ship shaped bar building called the Sea Venture at the top of the hotel's rose walk.[5] The hotel was torn down, and today the property consists of the St. George Club while the golf course land still exists and in the process of being restored.[6]

The Mid Ocean Club
Mid Ocean Club original hotel building

The Mid-Ocean Club was opened in what is now Tucker's Town on March 3, 1922, by Governor Sir James Willcocks.[2] A 18-hole golf course in Tucker's Town, Bermuda. Designed by Charles Blair Macdonaldin 1921, it was modified to its current design in 1953 by Robert Trent Jones. The hotel would be used for several Western Big Three Conferences that would include dignitaries such as Winston Churchill.[7] The original hotel building would be torn down in the 1970s, but the golf course remains.[8]

The Bermudiana
Bermudiana Hotel

The Bermudiana hotel was constructed through 1923 and opened on January 28, 1924.It had 248 rooms located on Hamilton Harbor.[2] The hotel would close in 1939 after the start of World War II, opening again in 1941 to house members of the Imperial Censorship.[9]

In 1951 after a complete renovation, the hotel became Bermuda's first apartment hotel, offering accommodation to both visitors and permanent residents who could lease the apartments. The renovaition also built the new Bermudiana Theatre, designed by architect C. Howard Crane, and able to seat up to 445 people. The theater would offer “21-weeks’ season of continuous plays” would be offered and that the new theatre within the Bermudiana Hotel would allow performances to be viewed in an “atmosphere of luxury and comfort on a par with any metropolitan theatre.”[9]

The hotel would change ownership in 1955, and would later burn down in 1958.[10] A new 237-room hotel, also named Bermudiana, was opened in 1960 on the existing property, until it was demolished in the 1990s.[11]

The Castle Harbour Hotel

The Castle Harbor Hotel, located on Castle Harbour opened in 1931.[12][13] All the materials for constructing the hotel were pre-cast in England and brought to Bermuda by Furness ships.[2] The hotel closed in 1984 for renovations and expansion, and re-opened as the Marriott Castle Harbour Hotel in 1986. The originally built Castle Harbor Hotel would closed in 1999 for a complete rebuilding. The original hotel building was eventually gutted to the structural steel 'skeleton', and rebuilt.[14] The hotel reopened as the Rosewood Bermuda, which is remains today with some recognizable elements of the original property, including the iconic elevator tower, built to bring guests up from the shoreline.

Hotel Tender Boats

Furness Bermuda Line would purchase and construct tender boats to ferry passenger from their ships to their hotel properties. This was due to the long duration by land it would take to transport passengers from the ship piers. Furness would first purchase the former British Admiralty vessel HMS Arctic Whale in 1923 and rename it the Bermudian.[15] In 1929, the company would custom build a tender Mid-Ocean, which would later be renamed the Castle Harbour, when the Castle Harbor Hotel finally opened.[2]

Ship Name Year Completed Shipyard Years in Service for Hotels Status Notes
Bermudian 1915 Admiralty whaler, Adty No 878. Smiths Dock Company, South Bank, UK[16] 1923-1947 Scrapped 1958
  • Built as H.M.S. Arctic Whale, purchased by Furness in 1923 for service to St. George Hotel[15]
Castle Harbour

(originally Mid-Ocean)

 1929 Blythswood Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland 1929-1939 Torpedoed & sunk during WWII off Tobago1942[17]
  • Purpose-built for Furness Bermuda Line for service to St George Hotel & Mid Ocean Club, and later Castle Harbour Hotel

References
  1. "SHIP-HOTELS BARRED IN BERMUDA HARBORS; Bill Closes Hamilton and St. George After Dec. 1". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  2. Plowman, Piers. (2002). Queen of Bermuda and the Furness Bermuda Line. Card, Stephen J. The Keep, The Old Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda: Bermuda Maritime Museum Press. ISBN 0-921560-10-9. OCLC 65177653.
  3. "Exhibit fails to capture Furness link to tourism glory days". www.royalgazette.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  4. "RESTORING ST. GEORGE'S, OLD BERMUDA CAPITAL; 'New and Old Look'". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  5. "Bermuda's History 1900 to 1939 pre-war". www.bermuda-online.org. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  6. "Work progressing on golf course revamp". www.royalgazette.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  7. "Allies Will Meet in Bermuda Club, 'Not Before June 15,' Governor Says; Swank Hotel Also Selected to House Some of the Delegates -- Authorities Push Measures to Insure Security". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  8. "History - Mid Ocean Club". themidoceanclub.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  9. "The Bermudiana Theatre Club". The Bermudian Magazine. 15 January 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  10. "Eyewitness Account Of Bermudiana Blaze". Bernews. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  11. Sayer, E. T. (1 March 1959). "A NEW HOTEL FOR BERMUDA; It Will Rise On the Site Of Old Bermudiana Which Burned (Published 1959)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  12. "NEW BERMUDA LINER SETS MARK FOR RUN; Monarch of Bermuda Cuts Two Hours and 45 Minutes From Record for 667 Miles. SHIP PROVES SMOOTHNESS Is Virtually Vibrationless and Steady in Head Seas--Hotel Opens to Greet 510 Passengers". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  13. "Roadway Burns in Bermuda; Plot Against Big Hotel Hinted". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  14. "Rosewood To Open New Hotel In Bermuda's Tucker's Point Club Complex". Hotel Business. 21 May 2001. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  15. "Quebec SS Co. / Bermuda & West Indies SS Co. / Trinidad Shipping & Trading Co". www.theshipslist.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  16. "Royal Navy ships of World War 1, based on British Warships, 1914-1919 by Dittmar and Colledge". www.naval-history.net. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  17. "Castle Harbour (British Steam merchant) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
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