storm surge, life on Bermuda's cargo and passenger docks came to a virtual standstill yesterday.

In addition, several of the small boats in harbours around the Island broke their moorings due to the high seas and wind and, in some cases, ended up being thrown onto the nearby shore.

One boat that broke free was the 39-foot yacht El Gato Gordo which was swept from its mooring in St. George's Harbour, through the pylons of the old railway bridge and crashed into the Swing Bridge.

The boat is owned by Horace Whitehead who normally lives on board. He had left the boat anchored in the harbour and moved onshore to safety.

Last night the Bermuda-registered boat was secured to the bridge and appeared to be badly damaged on her port side.

Mr. Whitehead, 73, is the plant manager at the Royal Naval Dockyard and has been living on the boat full time since March with his wife Morag.

His son, David, who is the manager of St. George's Boatyard, said last night that his father was at the bridge inspecting the damage.

He said: "The boat was in the harbour moored on the other side of the old bridge. We had just had the moorings checked so I do not know why she slipped.'' "From what I have heard,'' he continued, "there is some damage to the port side which does not look too bad. But we will not know the full extent of it until we get her out of the water.

"She has a very deep hull and we do not know what is going on down there.'' Mr. Whitehead said he and his father had to wait until the weather improved to inspect the vessel properly.

Yesterday afternoon, a Harbour Radio spokesman said incidents of this nature numbered about 15 so far.

He added that most of the cases were located towards the eastern end of the Island, which received the most severe bashing from Hurricane Gert.

"The few remaining ones happened in the central parishes,'' he said. "So far we've had no reports of anything happening towards the West End.'' One boat owner who was fortunate enough not to have his craft "run loose'' was Al Seymour Jr. who keeps his vessel, the Sugar Jack at Mangrove Bay in Sandys Parish.

He said: "My boat's still overboard but I made sure that I secured it on Monday before the bulk of the bad weather arrived.'' Mr. Seymour said preparations had included running another mooring line to the boat to make sure it would stay in place, the installing of three bilge pumps, and the saying of three Hail Marys.

Asked how the craft held up during the hurricane's closest point of approach, he said: "Basically it held. But I don't know how it would have handled if the wind had been coming from a different direction.'' Mr. Seymour was one of the lucky ones. For those whose boats were left high and dry, only hard work and perhaps careful preparation will put them back on the water again and possibly prevent such a problem from happening when the next hurricane strikes.

Larger vessels in the vicinity of Bermuda showed that they were not taking any chances.

While the Island would normally have five different cruise ships in its three harbours at this time of year, there were none here yesterday.

A Harbour Radio spokesman said that all of the liners were either keeping their distance or had diverted to different ports.

The Horizon and the Nordic Empress were scheduled to arrive at King's Wharf, Dockyard and Penno's Wharf, St. George's, respectively, this morning. They had moved away to calmer waters while the hurricane passed through.

The captains of three other regular cruise ships decided it was safer to divert to other ports.

The Zenith headed back to Newport News, Virginia, the Norwegian Crown made her way to Halifax, and the Norwegian Majesty steamed off to Newport, Rhode Island.

The 23,000-tonne oil tanker Iver Explorer also thought it wise to seek safer waters.

After arriving from St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands on Monday, the local pilot and her captain made the decision to ride the storm out 200 miles to the west of the Island.

The three-masted schooner Fleurtje spent yesterday in the same way, leaving her usual anchorage in Hamilton Harbour on Monday for safer seas with smaller waves.

Finally, the Cable and Wireless ship Sir Eric Sharp departed on Monday to wait the hurricane's visit out elsewhere.