Saturday, 15 March, 1862: This day commences with a moderate breeze from the WSW and clear Weather. Pilot onboard at 11.30 AM. Received onboard 191 convicts and the Passengers; took Steamer and proceeded out of the Camber. Set Sail and came down on the North Side. At 1.30 PM being at Sea, discharged Pilot and set all Sail as required. Steered ENE. Pumps attended to.

¿ Barque Cedrine, from Bermuda towards Portsmouth, England, March 1862

The beginning entry of the log of the first and only voyage of the Bermuda-built barque Cedrine, marked the advent of a new era in ocean transportation and the end of two significant periods in the heritage life of Bermuda.

Under the command of its master and shareholder, Captain Thomas Melville Dill, the Cedrine was towed a steam tug out of the Camber, being the harbour of the Bermuda Dockyard, before she set sail down the north shore, past the Dill lands in Devonshire, towards the Narrows Channel at St. Catherine's Point and the open Atlantic.

One of the last large ships of sail to be constructed at Bermuda, the Cedrine signalled the end of the days of sailing ships for the island, as steam propulsion had been slowly but inexorably encroaching on and replacing the great square riggers of previous centuries.

Local shipwrights and craftsmen had built the Cedrine at the Shelly Bay boatyard of Joseph J. Outerbridge of Bermuda cedar taken from Captain Dill's property at what is now the Ariel Sands hotel.

Three other barques were built at that yard, but one imagines that by the 1870s, the mallets and hammers had there fallen silent, except for the occasional making of a small Bermuda sloop. The Age of Steam and Iron found no ship-makers at Bermuda, as the maritime construction trade came to the fore in the great yards of the Clyde and other places, where the raw materials and foundries for the new types of ships were near to hand.

While the building of small boats and dinghies continued into the new century, the blight of the late 1940s put paid to any possibility of reviving boatbuilding in Bermuda cedar. The remnants of that once and proud tradition can only be seen afloat in these times in the recently-restored small sloop, Shamrock, and a few racing and domestic dinghies.

Fibreglass and noise have largely replaced timber and silent travel in the channels and harbours of Bermuda. The construction of the Spirit of Bermuda, a new sail-training vessel for the island, replicates in modern materials, something of the form, if not the substance, of a type of locally built ship called a "Bermudian" in the late 1700s. That is good heritage reproduction, but it is likely that the Cedrine was one of the last Bermuda barques that will ever be seen.

The Cedrine was commissioned by the Royal Navy to transport convicts from the Dockyard to their country of origin, via the great Portsmouth naval base on the south coast of Britain. Ending an era of four decades that started in 1823, the hammers and tools for the construction of the stone Dockyard were also falling silent, as the last building was being completed in the early 1860s.

For almost 40 years, prisoners, who were transported for convictions minor, major, and political, toiled away to build the imposing buildings, wharfs and fortifications of the Dockyard, now one of Bermuda's most important historical sites, worthy of a "World Heritage" status.

His sails set, Captain Dill maintained an east-northeast heading for the maiden voyage of the bright new Cedrine, averaging some 177 nautical miles a day, at an average speed of 7 knots per hour. It was smooth sailing until the early morning of April 3, when disaster struck in the form of the implacable western shore of the Isle of Wight, as recorded in the logbook.

Wednesday, 2nd April 1862: These 24 Hours commence with thick weather & Strong wind from SW . . . At 10 PM made the Portland Light, bearing NNE Distance 12 Miles . . . At 1.40 AM seeing what appeared to be a black cloud in the NE, called Capt. Dill who immediately come on deck & ordered the helm Down. The Ship come to the wind & took aback, in so doing She touched lightly, but this prevented her Staying. She rounded broad off the helm, then put up main yard Squared to try and veer the Ship before She could gather way. She struck heavily & forged in Towards the Shore, thumping heavily. At about 4, the passengers & prisoners got on Shore by means of a Hawser & life Boat from the Shore. At Daylight commenced landing baggage and unbending sail. At high water, the Ship Stuck heavily. Blowing heavy from the SSW.

In other words, the Captain ordered the helm down to bring the bow of the vessel about, to clear the land and danger. On coming into the wind for that tack, the ship "miss stays", and fell back on the original tack into the shore. An attempt was then made to "wear ship", that is to put it on the opposite course by jibing or turning the stern, rather than the bow, through the wind by moving the sails. That manoeuvre also failed, as the surf propelled the Cedrine onto the beach, from where it could not be refloated.

The Cedrine was a total loss, except to the Isle of Wight natives, who stripped its timberwork, some of which was used in refurbishments of two nearby churches. To this day, that of Sts. Peter and Paul in the village of Mottistone has a chancel ceiling of unmistakable Bermuda cedar and major tie beams and trusses of the same material.

I recently viewed the evidence of the remains of the Cedrine with my own eyes, following in the tourist steps of other Bermudians, such as Denis Glynn, who published the whole story in the Bermuda Maritime Museum magazine, MariTimes, in 2003.

As for the 191 convicts, the escape from Bermuda, the Cedrine, and a possible watery grave proved exhilarating. On April 4, 1862, The Times of London reported that they congregated at the nearby village of Brighstone, where "having apparently plenty of money, they nearly drained out of stock the two public houses, the result being that the majority of them became drunk and quarrelsome, a series of fights taking place simultaneously in the middle of the road".

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Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm or by telephone to 799-5480.,