The Bermuda Sloop Foundation will host an interactive lecture with Dr Michael Jarvis, author of “In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World” next week.

The lecture, entitled “Maritime Bermuda: What the 18th Century can teach 21st Century Bermudians”, will be held at 5.30pm on Monday at Christ Church, Warwick.

As with his book, which took an interdisciplinary view of mid-Atlantic trade history through the eyes of Bermudians, Dr Jarvis’ lecture will focus on local involvement in maritime history up until Emancipation in 1833.

BSF director Jay Richardson said: “When Europe was growing into North America, Bermuda was the centre of the ‘New World’, [just] as it is the centre of the ‘Insurance World’ today.

“Ninety-five percent of GDP today comes from our financial services — before, it was ships built in the coves of North Shore which dominated the Atlantic trade routes.

“They went on to pioneer anti-slave patrols and blockade running.

“Our bones are full of saltwater, not hibiscus. However we got here, once here Bermudians became a source of technical supremacy in the sailing waters.”