Mayor critical of Govt’s lack of involvement in 400th anniversary celebrations

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Mayor Kenny Bascome says St George will now take care of its own tourism agenda after criticising Government’s lack of involvement in its historic celebrations over the weekend.

St Georgians marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Bermuda’s first group of permanent settlers by holding events including history lectures and church services.

A steady stream of visitors attended throughout Saturday afternoon, with highlights including Caribbean music in the town square and a photo session in which dozens of people crammed onto the Deliverance replica to mirror the crowdedness of the vessel on its trip to America all those years ago.

Mr Bascome described the occasion as a learning curve, saying at future events more re-enactments will take place to help people relive the dramas the way they unfolded in the 17th Century.

And he said the Corporation needs to raise its own game in the light of an apparent lack of commitment from Government.

“I think it’s gone quite well but when we do anything similar in the future we need to go out and look for sponsorship so we can do more re-enactment. It’s a learning process,” Mr Bascome told The Royal Gazette on Saturday.

“I’m very disappointed that the Department of Tourism’s not got any of their people here. This is a great opportunity for the people driving the plan to be directly involved, to meet visitors and see how their plan can be achieved.

“We need to be proactive. Having returned to office, we are going to hear a lot more from me as Mayor.

“Since we can’t convince the Department of Tourism to go after nostalgia tourism, we need to look at doing that for ourselves, because I believe that’s a market in itself for all the hundreds and thousands of people that have been stationed here over the years.

“We need to step our own game up and not worry about what’s not being done by other people.

“We need to do what we need to do to cause these folks to realise the opportunity they are losing by not being part of a success that’s on the horizon.”

Common councillor Phillip Anderson, who operates the visitors’ information centre in the Old Town, said the event gave people a chance to brush up on a key piece of sometimes overlooked history.

About 60 men, women and children arrived in Bermuda aboard the Plough on July 11, 1612, including the first governor designate, Richard Moore, to begin building the colony.

That settlement learned how to adapt to Bermuda’s climate and conditions to build homes, grow crops and hunt for food.

Three years earlier the Sea Venture had wrecked on the Island, leaving behind two settlers to mark the beginning of continuous human settlement of Bermuda; the rest of the Sea Venture’s crew continued to sail across the Atlantic on the Patience and Deliverance, to aid a fledgling settlement in Jamestown, Virginia.

“If it wasn’t for the stoppage in Bermuda, maybe today there wouldn’t have been an America,” said Mr Anderson.

“Bermudians don’t know the story well enough. It’s simple, but it’s not being told. Here was a day for Bermudians to come along and understand that history.

“I saw some school teachers who knew parts of it but they came to find out the rest of the story. There’s nothing better than learning from feeling than from reading.”

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