Bermuda?s maritime legacy, from sloops and schooners to ships of the line, is showcased in a new exhibition at the Commissioner?s House in Dockyard.

?Bermuda Under Sail? is the latest exhibition at the Commissioner?s House. It is the ninth in a series of collaborative shows by Bermuda Maritime Museum and Bermuda Archives, featuring selections from the Fay and Geoffrey Elliott Collection.

Included are watercolours and sketches by renowned Royal Navy-trained artists such as Thomas O?Brien Mills Driver (born 1789), Flag Captain Michael Seymour (1802-1887), and Gaspard Le Marchant Tupper (1826-1906), who captured the Island?s maritime traffic in their highly detailed topographical renditions of Bermuda.

?Ships often represented but one element in scenes depicting harbours or seascapes,? said museum curator Rosemary Jones. ?But these artists often had an avid interest in sailing and produced detailed portraits of particular vessels, some well known for their racing prowess or importance to Bermuda?s commercial or military activities.

?Notably, several artworks capture scenes of some of the first sail races in Bermuda in the mid- and late-1800s, a time when the Island?s yacht clubs were born.?

Ms Jones said ?Bermuda Under Sail? shows the scope of maritime life in and around the Island throughout the century, when Bermuda?s harbours were crowded with local and visiting vessels-from Royal Navy warships to supply ships, pilot gigs and trading sloops.

?It was the age of sail, before the advent of trans-Atlantic steamships in the latter decades of the 19th Century,? she said. ?And while privateering, salt-trading and ship-building had declined by the end of the 1700s, sailing vessels remained an integral part of Island life.

?Ships were employed for military, commercial and-increasingly-for recreational purposes in Bermuda. With the establishment of HMS Dockyard at Ireland Island in the early years of the 19th Century, Bermuda became a major headquarters for the Royal Navy fleet that anchored off Grassy Bay. Supply vessels and mail carriers to the Island were also regular visitors.?

According to Ms Jones the mid and late 1800s saw the establishment of Island yacht clubs, including the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in 1844, the Royal Hamilton Amateur Yacht Club in 1882 and the St. George?s Dinghy Club in the 1860s.

Founding members-including British Army Garrison officers and prominent Bermudians ? organised regular challenge races and regattas featuring cedar sloops and later dinghies. The Bermuda Native Yacht Club, established in 1845 by professional black boatmen, such as pilots, fishermen and sailing crews, also staged sail racing in Hamilton Harbour and the Great Sound. These events typically drew large crowds of spectators and sowed the first seeds of interest in yachting as one of the Island?s best-loved competitive sports.

?Poor roads around the Island meant that boats, primarily small one-masted dinghies sporting what was known as the ?Bermuda rig?, were the mode of choice for travelling between the parishes,? said Ms Jones. ?Local trade was done via these vessels, and locals moved both freight and passengers aboard such distinctive workboats.

?Bermuda Under Sail? captures all these facets of maritime life, and provides an opportunity to see rare artworks, logbooks and photographs, not usually on public display.?

The exhibition, in the Fay and Geoffrey Elliott Room, on the second floor of Commissioner?s House at Bermuda Maritime Museum, will run until September 4.