There are, sadly, just a couple of hundred of us who managed to make it to Gibbs Hill parking lot in time to survive that wall of water that had been building up unnoticed for so many winters along Bermuda's northern reefs (Tom Vesey, December 22, 2007).

FROM my position of sublime and all-seeing repose in the Pembroke churchyard, it was amusing to watch tsunami history repeat itself, well sort of, on December 9, 2006, the birthday of your esteemed columnist, who asked me to be his guest writer this week. Oh, sorry, I am Richard Norwood, Bermuda's first and greatest surveyor, if you wish my credentials. I am one of the first Bermudians from the early days when all Bermudians were "expats". I was born in the old country, but I died here at the good age of 85 with my son-in-law, the feckless Whitter suing me in court.

Actually, the first real Bermudian (born in Bermuda) was named "Bermuda". Johnny Rolfe was her daddy, who later married a real American, by the name of Pocahontas.

Most of you know naught of me, except perhaps the roadside sign for "Norwood", that outstanding example of Bermudian architecture built by my daughter and named after me, perhaps in affection.

I heard recently that it was acquired by non-Norwoods, having been in the family over three centuries, but never mind, that's real estate for you. I was brought out on a work permit to dive for pearls, but soon discovered the lack of those little white gems could be augmented by investments in land. As you know, real estate has been the real pearl of the Bermuda economy and I helped to make it so.

You see, I was trained as a mathematician and applied that to land surveying. This skill was commandeered by the authorities, who put me to work chopping up the island for development by the Bermuda Company.

I had the idea that I could carve out some land for me, but the Governor, one wily Daniel Tucker, was one survey peg ahead. Having got to the Gibbs Hill, he sent me to Ireland Island to start surveying back from there.THIS left a large unassigned plot, which he usurped, without so much as a house lot for me. This became the "Overplus", recorded in a street name down on Hog Bay Level, just past Junius Burrows' plumbing place. Some of the best farming land in Bermuda to boot, but now a course for some type of ball game.Anyway, I completed my second survey in 1617 and went back to England for a while. I returned to be a schoolmaster in 1636 and in 1663, the Government asked me to update my Bermuda map.

I completed the survey in my dotage but blow me, a couple of years later, a tidal wave or tsunami came through. I had to redo the map, as the water had breached the island in a number of places.

The great wall of water created new islands where before I had trodden on>terra firma — that's Latin for firm earth, just to flout my solid erudition.

With all that fuss last December 9, here published for the first time is my survey of "Norwood's Great Tidal Wave at Bermuda", so named because I was the only one who bothered to record its aftermath.

Some years later, I understand some of the breaches were filled up by another tidal wave that brought in big boulders, like those deposited by such methods at Virgin Gorda down south.

Before explaining what happened, I would like to give some background data to those doubting Tom Bermudians, who do not think tidal waves occur in the Atlantic.

First off, there are no great breaking waves, like those seen by the boys at that tavern at Mangrove Bay last December: must have been drinking overly.

No, when it comes, and come it will one day, there will simply be a huge rise in the level of the sea, likely driven from the east, not the west, so it will hit St. George's first, not the Dockyard.

Mr. Vesey and his privileged mates will only have a chance to escape if they were already sightseeing at Gibbs Hill. The problem with these waves is not any cresting and breaking, but the huge volume of water that is forced inland. Much of Bermuda would be a new New Orleans.TSUNAMIS have been rampaging around the Atlantic from time immemorial. Some 60,000 people were killed in Portugal in 1755 and several thousand died in 1692, when earthquakes destroyed Port Royal, that Sodom and Gomorrah of the West Indies at Jamaica. Some say that one of the volcanoes in the Canaries off West Africa may drop into the sea and produce a mega-tsunami that will entirely destroy Florida and wash over Bermuda and New York.

The new-fangled reinsurance industry here would thus be busted financially by losses in Florida and literally demolished here, along with all of Front Street.

In my day, the great wave came and broke mainland Bermuda into four new islands. In one place, the water rushed from Crow Lane, up Point Finger Road and down the South Road, to join with flooding from Hungry Bay down the entire "Stretch" to McGall's HillB>ANOTHER wave came up Mill Creek into Marsh Folly, drowning anything below 30 feet above sea level. Today that would take out the island's electricity plant in one big bang of shorting fuses and generators, precipitating a nuclear winter compared to that recent fire and one-day blackout. Unfortunately, the wave will destroy "Norwood" on the way and probably redeposit my bones up on Pond Hill.

If you don't believe me, speaking from the grave as I do, I can reveal something about the "Great Wall of China", as folks in Southampton call them. These are secret tsunami protective devices, apparently built with your taxes, to stop the waves taking out those privileged few who make it to Gibbs Hill.

Mr. Vesey can write about the next great Bermuda tidal wave all he wants, but in his reduced New Bermuda, few will be left to read about it.

Pictures show:

1: Norwood's manuscript map of 1663 and revisions made after tidal wave.

2: A wall of false tsunami water seen from Scaur Hill on December 9, 2006.

3: Secret tsunami protection walls erected for the privileged few.

4: Disposition Sea Venture ferry after December 2006 Bermuda tsunami (courtesy Ondrej Hindl).

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Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The views expressed here are his opinion, not necessarily those of the trustees or staff of the Museum. Comments can be sentdrharris>@logbm, to PO Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone at 799-5480.