On 5 July 2014, one Maggie Paul of England wrote to the Editor of this newspaper, who captioned her letter Delighted by bridge renovation, as follows: ‘I was delighted to see in The Royal Gazette for June 28th that the bridge across to Crawl Island is being renovated.

“I lived in the Naval Hospital between 1947—50 while my father (Jack Tyler) was posted there. He painted that bridge red and thereafter it was always known as Jack’s bridge.

“Following the demolition of our houses, it has been the last reminder of that part of my childhood.

“I have been taking its picture and sadly watching its deterioration over my many subsequent visits to the islands. I look forward to seeing it restored the next time I come — and I hope it will be painted red!”

Maggie Paul had two sojourns in Bermuda, accompanying her father on his duties for the Royal Navy at its hospital establishment on Ireland Island South.

The first was as an infant in 1937 and then as an eleven year old in 1947, when Sidney “Jack” Tyler was a Warrant Wardmaster at the Royal Naval Hospital, a building of the same design and grandeur of the Commissioner’s House, but sadly demolished in 1972.

To Maggie, who lived in a now vanished home on the grounds of the Hospital, ‘Jack’s Bridge’, was near the pier where she fished for small catches to feed her cat, and the Convict Bath House on the adjacent island was ‘the aquarium’.

Returning to Britain in 1951, the island was in her blood and she has returned on numerous occasions, demonstrating the value of heritage tourism, if we would only be bothered to advertise more to those many people who have come to love Bermuda as their own, due to life, family connections and experiences.

Stepping back some generations from the period around the Second World War, the Royal Naval Hospital was built on Ireland Island South in 1818, predating the Commissioner’s House, at least in completion by some ten years.

Other buildings, such as that for the Chief Medical Officer followed, though only the Matron’s House, now a private home with a delightful penchant for inflatable effigies on the lawn, especially at Halloween and Christmas, survives, along with the later Zymotic Hospital, now called “Lefroy House”.

On Hospital Island, flanked by the Great Sound to the south, Crawl Island to the east and “The Crawl” to the north, and accessed by Jack’s Bridge, were early constructed a handsome boathouse (perhaps for the Chief Medical Office) and a bath house for convicts, brought to the island for over four decades from 1823 onwards.

The little building is in fact a bathtub, as its walls descend several feet into the ground below low water level, and a hole in the east wall allows for a flow of seawater in and out of the building, which had no floor, but only interior steps into the pool.

Like similar structures on the western coast of Boaz Island, the idea was that the convicts could have a bath while still be confined to quarters, as it were, to save the nuisance they would have undoubtedly created if allowed to swim in the open sea.

As far as is known, the convict bath houses at Bermuda are unique in being a feature of British convict establishments in overseas territories.

The construction of the Ireland Island bath house is uncertain but it may likely date to the 1820s, after the arrival of the convicts whose job it was to construct much of what is now the historic Royal Naval Dockyard at Bermuda.

The bath houses at Boaz Island are later, as that island was not occupied by convicts until after 1848.

In 2003, Hurricane Fabian struck Bermuda and the features of Hospital Island were much damaged. The boat house had its brick-arched doorway and wall destroyed and eastern wall of the bath house was left with a gaping hole through the masonry, below a window: the structure was in imminent danger of being totally destroyed in the next major hurricane.

Fortunately, the West End Development Corporation has recently supplied funding for the restoration and consolidation of the bridge and the bath house, a task that has now been completed under the expert supervision of Michael Tatem and his team from Correia Construction, in consultation with the National Museum.

Mr Ray Charlton has written as follows: “As Chairman of the West End Development Corporation it gives me great pleasure to be a part of active improvements to our vested historical structures and buildings.

“This particular initiative is part of a larger Wedco Board sanctioned Dockyard Beautification programme. The Bath House refurbishment is another example of Management’s and the Board’s commitment to maintaining and upgrading the former Royal Naval Dockyard, which for many years lay idle after the Navy downsized and eventually left Bermuda in 1995.

“Wedco and the National Museum have a strong relationship and often partner to ensure that the historical structures such as the bridge and bath house at Hospital Island are refurbished and saved for future generations to enjoy.

“As we continue over the coming months, Wedco will be delivering several other building refurbishments within the North Camber.”

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Director of the National Museum. Comments may be made to director@nmb.bm or 704-5480.