In the late 1850s, a British officer with considerable artistic talents travelled around Bermuda and painted a number of scenes in watercolours, a legacy of historical images now to be found in the Fay and Geoffrey Elliott Collection in the Bermuda Archives.

In some of the views, like those presented here, the landscape appears denuded, perhaps the result of several centuries of shipbuilding during which the ‘sustainability’ of the Bermuda cedar seems hardly considered.

The lack of forest helps to emphasise the predominant position of fortifications perched on some of the hills, dug in, if you will, against attacks by the enemy.

Those unwanted souls in the first 170 years of Bermuda’s existence as a living platform for humans were primarily the Spanish and to counter that threat a number of small forts were built, starting at settlement in 1612.

Those were all on the east and south coasts from St Catherine’s Point in the east to Wreck Hill in the west, with only a couple on the northern shores of the Island.

St George’s Parish, with Bermuda’s principal early anchorages of the town and Castle Harbour, contained all the larger forts of that period; several, such as Southampton Fort, surviving into modern times.

After the 1783 Treaty of Paris which ended the first ‘Anglo-American’ war, the enemy for the next 125 years or so became the United States of America, a mere 700 miles to the west of Bermuda compared to a distance of 3,000 miles to the great English naval bases of Portsmouth and Plymouth.

Consequently, the British military latched onto their mid-Atlantic possession for the location of a naval base and starting in 1809 the largest fortifications in Bermuda were erected at Ireland Island in the west, complemented by half a dozen major forts all in the east at St George’s.

The decades rolled by, the Georges and a William came and went, and Queen Victoria began her long reign in 1837, a 64-year period that saw extraordinary advances in weaponry, as well as in shipbuilding and ship propulsion.

Pointed projectiles replaced cannonballs, iron and steel replaced ships of timber, and steam was substituted for the wind as the source of power for “sailing”.

After three centuries of cast-iron cannon, modern looking “rifles” of steel ushered in the “arms race”, a contest that continues unabated in present times with devastating consequences.

Such rifles are represented in the pairs of 6-inch and 9.2-inch guns at St David’s Battery, completed around 1910, and the last British armaments to be erected at Bermuda, a pair of 6-inch guns at Warwick Camp (now moved for display to Alexandra Battery).

The eastern end of Bermuda at St George’s Parish was always the most vulnerable section of the coast, as the most direct access from the open sea is there to be found.

After Thomas Hurd’s 1790s survey of the reefs, a major ship channel (now called The Narrows) was located off the St George’s Island and that passage gave large vessels access to the harbours at Murray’s Anchorages, Grassy Bay and the Great Sound.

Consequently, fortifications after 1809 were concentrated on the coasts of St David’s, Paget and St George’s Islands for the protection of The Narrows against an attack by the United States.

Agreements in the early 1900s ended such potential conflicts between Great Britain and the United States and the rest, thus far, is history, with the United States assuming the coastal defence of Bermuda in the Second World War.

Thus after 400 years, many of Bermuda’s fortifications are to be found in St George’s Parish and, along with the Town of St George’s, those historic structures were designated by UNESCO in 2001 as a World Heritage Site.

Despite the loss of much of the most magnificent fort in the area (Victoria) to build a hotel in the 1960s, much of splendour and significance remains in the military heritage assets of St George’s Parish.

If hotel tourism is to recover (it is difficult to contemplate a future here for many if it does not, including most who work in the heritage sector of the economy), the occupancy of rooms during the winter months is critical.

One of the key factors in such a balmy resurgence is the heritage of this Island, if it were but properly cared for, exhibited, put on itineraries for discerning visitors and advertised as setting us apart from other destinations, particularly for those interested in things British (as are many of the enemy of old to the west).

The historic fortifications of St George’s Parish are almost without parallel for range of age, of construction types, and of cannon and gun collections, especially in such a concentrated area.

The forts and their surroundings are major tourist assets that must be brought fully online physically (and digitally), if they are to serve Bermuda in her time of need and help to defend and revive hotel tourism.

In the apparent lack of understanding of their historical and touristic value and the neglect of the full restoration needs of our forts, we Bermudians have been the latest enemy: it is time to sign a peace treaty with the fortifications of Bermuda and get them to work for us in the defence of a revived tourism economy based on such heritage assets, particularly in St George’s Parish.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Director of the National Museum. Comments may be made to director@nmb.bm or 704-5480.