Inside the hot and crowded ballroom at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, shareholders were packed as tightly as sardines waiting for their chance to vote.

There was standing room only, with chairs pushed tightly together to get everyone in. At a raised top table there was a panel hosted by the bank's chief executive officer Henry Smith, chairman Joe Johnson, and deputy chairman of the bank's board Paul Leseur and company secretary Judy Doidge. CEO-in-waiting Phillip Butterfield sat in the front row.

Two large screens made sure that everyone could see what was going on, and a PA system kept the huge crowd able to hear the speeches.

During the question and answer session, speakers were kept to five minute slots with the emotion caused by the deal a central theme during the hour and 45-minute meeting before the vote.

The most emotional plea came from Michael Ashton. In a soft-spoken but moving speech, he said: “A mourning process is required.”

He wanted to speak to the “emotionalism” of the issue. He said grandfather had been in business since 1912 and grandfather had done business with the bank, his father had done business with the bank, and now he did business with the bank and his children were doing business with the bank.

Sounding at some points as if he was almost in tears, he said he viewed the sale “with mixed felling and sad trepidation...” but said that it was for the best. “I believe it is a path to the future,” he said, but commiserated with people that had an emotional tie to Bank of Bermuda.

“I have begun to feel a stranger in my own land, but we are citizens of the world,” he said. Adding he was “not sure where HSBC will take us or treat us”, but hoped the people will not lose the familiarity with the bank and the bank with the people.

Mr. Smith replied that the board was going to remain intact with Bermudians at the helm and just two HSBC people joining and would continue to watch out for welfare of Bermudians.

Andrew Trimingham told the crowd that his forefathers founded the bank in 1889, adding he had the greatest emotional ties to the bank and that he got his first shares the day after he was born.

But he warned: “If we do not move Bermuda further on to the world stage, it might fall off the world stage.”

Equal rights activist, Eva Hodgson was concerned with the issue of outsourcing and Bermudian women losing jobs and breaking up the structure of local society.

And she said that whatever the commitment the bank had from HSBC, she did not know how long it would last.

And she said that most bank employees were women, and would lose their jobs and “therefore men will feel it” adding that she was very concerned about a possible increase in criminality resulting from the job losses.

“I would just like to express my frustration especially as it was this Government that made the disaster possible,” she said.

But Mr. Smith said that even without HSBC, the bank was outsourcing more and more adding that it had been in news recently that they were looking to outsource their IT department and that they would continue to look for avenues to outsource.

American anti-sale activist Walter Lipman said that HSBC was good at exporting jobs to the cheapest locale for that job, and cited the recent 4,000 jobs lost in London which had been outsourced to people in India.

He added that HSBC was also good at buying banks.

“They will never overpay for a bank.”

He said that “quite frankly” if he was selling his shares, he wanted to be overpaid for them. And he added that when the bank said it had no other offers, what it was “not telling you” was there would be a $30 million break up fee because the bank was already in talks with HSBC. He did not believe that “the bank was too sickly to compete”.

All in all, 14 shareholders got up to speak, and it was only an hour and three quarters later that the full crowd dispersed and voting was allowed to take place. During the time no water or refreshments were offered and the room heated up. One woman said she did not care about the vote any more when she left, and said: “All I want is a glass of water a mile long.”

Mr. Lipman who flew in for the vote said the picture the bank painted of itself of being “ too sickly to compete” was odd in that its fourth quarter results were very healthy. He said that HSBC has six hedge fund clients in Hong Kong while the Bank of Bermuda has a whopping 600. “ The Bank of Bermuda has been a stick in their eye for some time and in their home territory,” he said.

Mr. Smith took exception to Mr. Lipman's “too sickly to compete” statement. He said: “We experienced a stronger fourth quarter than we expected” but added that the bank lacked “ horsepower” to grow business.

Former Premier Sir John Swan said the move was monumental in the same way that his signing of a treaty with the US led to the growth of the insurance industry. He held that the buyout could lead to other international banks like Chase Manhattan and duetche Bank being interested in Bermuda. “ We'll be chased left and right. There will be opportunities for Bermuda.”

Shareholder Bob Richards who runs a financial consulting business disagreed with Sir John's notion that the move would lead to Bermuda becoming a major banking centre in the world.

“All the major banks are here already,” he said, “ they come every week and carry the entire bank in their laptop computers.”

He described the buyout as “ an exception in this world.”

“ It's unheard of for a country of this size to have such an offer,” he said. And he added that the Bank of Bermuda was “ the champion of offshore banks in the world” but claimed that the role of such institutions was fading.

He said that faced with the fact that the Bank of Bermuda is the Island's largest business it was a good idea for it to become an international bank.

Fernance Perry, one of the largest shareholders, acknowledged that selling the shares would be emotional for many but he said one could not “feast” on “tradition, attachment and sentimentality.”

A shareholder who described herself as “ a small fish” spoke passionately in favour of the move. “ I want my daughter who is away in college to be able to come home and get a job. I welcome the change.”

In great praise of Henry Smith was shareholder Harold Smith (no relation) who said: “ I would just like to thank Henry Smith for bringing the bank out of the dark ages to a new way of thinking. I came here today to a funeral because I am losing a friend but it's also a wedding and I'm happy.”

On a more sombre note shareholder Peter Ventos said he believed many would lose their jobs. “Any outside company will always want to bring in its own people to do the jobs,” he said.

Robert Pires acting a representative of corporations encouraged anyone who might be displaced to see him for a position. “ I have a terrible time trying to get people,” he said.

Unlike the majority of those who spoke Desmond Grayson a former bank employee and shareholder, said he was not emotional about the sale but he asked if the bank would no longer be able to ensure a high rate of return with it.

In response Bank of Bermuda CEO Henry Smith said that the risk would be much greater because of today's changes in the financial world environment.