WARS have been good for Bermuda, at the expense of others, of course. The extraordinary prosperity of our privileged existence is founded on the local results of some of the largest wars ever known.

It started in earnest with the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that ended the American War of Independence. In the 100 years before that date, the main source of foreign exchange came from ocean trading on the famed Bermuda sloop.

With the advent of the British Army and the Royal Navy in the late 1700s, the local economy received massive infusions of pounds sterling from military spending that continued unabated until 1995. In the early 1800s, officers were complaining of the high rents demanded by Bermudian landlords, a pattern of exploitation then established and still maintained, but a major indication of the increase in money and greed in the earlier times.

The Civil War in the United States from 1861-65 brought new sources of military funds, as freighters from Britain and Europe anchored at St. George's with goods for the Confederacy of the southern states. These were transshipped to the sleek blockade-runners, ships with steam-driven paddle wheels for racing through the line of quarantine maintained off the eastern seaboard by ships of the northern Union states.

An indication of the increase in business is shown by the number of carriage crossings at Ferry Reach, which rose from several hundred a year to more than several thousand at the height of the war, as people and money moved between St. George's and Hamilton.

The last, and likely final, military incursion at Bermuda was the arrival of American Forces in the Second World War in 1941. While the British military built their Dockyard for the premier technology of the day, namely, the wooden sailing warships of the Royal Navy, the Americans built their main base for the aeroplane, which would come to dominate the skies and therefore the newer methods of warfare. The resulting multi-million dollar Kindley Field, constructed without a penny of Bermuda money, allowed aeroplane tourism to take off in the decades after the war.

THE other side of the coin shows the face of Bermuda at war's end. In 1951, after the Second World War, the main Dockyard closed, bringing to an end the apprentice programmes that had greatly benefited several generations of Bermudian men from all sectors of the community.

Hundreds of buildings that the country had not the means to maintain or preserve went onto an endangered species list: many are now extinct.

In 1995, the British and American military left Bermuda for good at the end of the great Cold War, ending social and economic relations that had served the island in outstanding ways for over two centuries.

While the people went, an incredible heritage of buildings, structures and landscapes was left behind. Some of the finest are at the Bermuda Dockyard and none are finer homes than the desirable residences, the "des res" built for the Officers of the Victualling Yard. The first set of these row houses is now being restored and renovated by the West End Development Corporation and a very exciting project it is. There are two sets of five houses divided by the road into the Victualling Yard. Built in the late 1840s, these elegant residences of the early Victorian period are composed of hard Bermuda limestone of the Walsingham Formation, named after an area near Tom Moore's Tavern in Hamilton Parish.

By geological luck and to the fortune of heritage, this type of rock existed on the surface at Dockyard in hills up to 80 feet high, such as those upon which Casemate Barracks and Commissioner's House now repose.

Much of the flat ground in the Dockyard, now some ten feet above sea level, is the consequence of the quarrying away of that hard rock, from 1809 onwards.

Many caves were found and destroyed and one block in the garden wall of No. 6 Dockyard Terrace is purely Bermuda crystal, excavated from one of the caves.

The hard stone gives the homes of Dockyard Terrace great architectural character and they are without parallel in Bermuda. They form the southern curtain wall of the Victualling Yard and so assisted in the defence of the Yard, not from an enemy without, but from the pilfering hands of the personnel within.

The name of the yard comes from 'victual', an ancient word for food for people, not much used today. The houses were originally built for the officers of the Victualling Yard, but officials, such as the Harbour Master for the Dockyard, also lived in the homes.

The residents are all two storeys with good wooden staircases for access to the upper floors. The roof members are timber and the tie beam of one truss is over 40 feet long. Of some surprise were the flat roofs of several of the units.

When the ceilings were removed, these structures were as good as the day they were made. Timber joists, measuring 6 by 9 inches, were placed at two feet centres across the room. On these were laid large 'slates' of Bermuda stone two-foot square, a stunning piece of construction only found at the dockyard.

AT the rear of the residences are delightful enclosed courtyards built of the hard limestone, originally the laundry yards once complete with hand-hewn sinks of the same rock, several of which still exist at the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Several of the buildings had porch roofs, which will be reconstructed, as shown in the photographs of the 1890s.

It is the intention of Wedco to offer these desirable and suitable residences for rent, so as to encourage people to make Dockyard their home. The homes of Dockyard Terrace are a major part of the architectural heritage of the old Royal Naval Dockyard.

The Government and the Corporation are to be commended for their restoration.

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Photos show: 1: Dockyard Terrace Nos. 1 & 2 in the 1890s.

2: Officer in front of Dockyard Terrace No. 3.

3: Dockyard Terrace nos. 3, 4 & 5 under restoration.

4: Flanking the gate to the Victualling Yard are Dockyard Terrace Nos. 5 and 6.

5: Detail of hard Bermuda limestone at No. 5 Dockyard Terrace

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 sent to drharrislogic.bm, to PO Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone at 799-5480.