Relatives of a man who fell in love with the island and its nautical history are to travel to Bermuda next month to explore the place that inspired him.

Peter Wright said his grandfather, P.M. Wright, had visited the island as a merchant sailor when he was a young man and developed a “lifelong devotion” to Bermuda.

He said that his grandfather later retired to Bermuda and began to build model ships, which were displayed on the island and abroad.

Mr Wright said his grandfather travelled to London’s National Maritime Museum to obtain the original shipbuilding plans for the vessels and then painstakingly built the scale models by hand.

He explained: “While he lived near Rocky Bay in Devonshire, he became fascinated with the historical ships, the ships of particular significance to Bermuda like the Sea Venture and the Deliverance.

“I have this bundle of stuff that I guess my dad accumulated including articles that show my grandfather presenting Sir Bayard Dill, of Ariel Sands, a model of the Ariel.

“He was also asked to create a model that was presented to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club when Prince Philip was in attendance.”

One of the models, a replica of the Deliverance, was presented to a delegation from the State of Virginia as part of its 350th anniversary in a ceremony held at Building Bay, where the original ship was constructed.

His model of the Sea Venture, featured on the cover of his 1962 book, New Manual of Model Shipbuilding, was donated to St Peter’s Church in St George’s and was recently cleaned up and repaired by Milton Hill.

P.M. Wright passed away in 1968 at the age of 86.

Mr Wright said that while he had himself visited the island, he felt inspired to come back to Bermuda with his son, Taylor, to explore what made his grandfather develop a “lifelong devotion” to it.

He said: “I’m trying to recreate what he would have seen I want to go to see where he would have first arrived. I have to go to St Peter’s Church and Hamilton.

“I want to get an idea of where he would have gone and why he would have been so fascinated.

“It’s not just about sandy beaches. You can get sandy beaches anywhere.”