As an indication of the increasing popularity of Bermuda as an all-year-round resort, Mr. M. Fred Tivoli tells us that the Castle Harbour Hotel, of which he has been manager since last December, will reopen for the summer season on July 15th. This is the first time a winter hotel has been open in the summer and the occasion marks an important event for Bermudians.

Now and then when some of the Bermuda playboys get organized to show a favoured visitor the high spots of local entertainment, a game called drinking golf is instituted. There are supposed to be eighteen well liked bars on the Island, and the game consists in progressing from one to the other, having one drink at each. Some of the adepts order a different drink at every "hole", but we don't advise this. The nineteenth hole in this game is bromoseltzer, as it is. – Voyager, issue of July 1935

The increasing popularity of Bermuda from the 1930s onwards continued into the first year or so of the 1980s, a good run of half a century. Since 1981, it may be fair to say that we have witnessed signs of the dis-popularity of the island, particular to the affluent traveler, our ultimate bread-makers of the trade of tourism. The Voyager magazine of July 1935, published at New York, noted that the opening of a major hotel for the summer, in what is now our main season, was a significant event for Bermuda. Not wishing to add to any tourism doom-sayings, it is possible that in the near future we may witness another such pivotal occasion, if major hotels close for the winter. Having invented and been the best of the best in "island tourism", we seem somewhat to have lost our bearings, our navigational skills in the modern GPS times.

The Voyager of July 1935 gives us a glimpse into the beginnings of the halcyon days of Bermuda tourism, a copy of which was kindly given to the National Museum archives by Mrs. F. Nora Kast of Southampton. A quick Internet search on the magazine led nowhere, or rather everywhere, as "voyager" seems to be one of the most popular words in English, perhaps indicating an innate human thirst for the waters of travel and discovery. At any rate, Voyager was a Manhattan magazine geared towards the affluent of that fair metropolis and its suburbs, and included material and pictures on Bermuda. In addition to mention of bar-hopping with a golf card ("Clippey Clop Around Bermuda"), the intrepid voyager, presumably male, could read about bears in Canada or a jaguar hunt in Panama. Pity the poor jaguar, but other sections for ladies or their benefactors listed the latest in Paris and New York fashions, with several dollops of gossip for all on the comings and goings of well-heeled voyagers.

To think about the island, a number of advertisements provided enticements, such as that of the Bermuda Trade Development Board, which invites one to visit "Neptune's Kingdom", or the management of The Devil's Hole who advised that "Hundreds of tropical fish are waiting to provide you with sport in this beautiful natural grotto. Just drop your line in and watch them fight to be caught." Once on the island, voyagers can travel through The Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily, including (Heaven forbid!) "Verbatim reports of the House of Assembly". In one of few mentions of heritage, the magazine notes the publication of The Adventurers of Bermuda, the first of Dr. Henry Wilkinson's magisterial four-volume history series.

To get to the island in the summer of 1935, the Furness Bermuda line provided what were dubbed "the millionaires' liners", the exquisitely appointed Monarch of Bermuda and Queen of Bermuda, which carried around 800 passengers, as opposed to the modern voyager behemoth with their capacity in the several thousands. Furness advertised that "Two great pleasure-planned vessels – as truly a part of Bermuda as the white limestone house, the beaches, the bicycles, or Government House itself! For no ships afloat were ever so well adapted to this particular voyage as the Monarch of Bermuda and the Queen of Bermuda. Big and steady enough to sail around the world … they are still as intimate and charming as a Bermuda club, as brilliant as a Bermuda house party." For more than 100,000 passengers to July, 1935 and those to follow, the idea was to start your holiday on the ship and finish it at the pier side upon return from Bermuda.

To stay on the island, because of turnaround timing in increments of seven days, the voyager had to find accommodation for the visit. One could stay at the Inverurie and Cedar Lodge "in the heart of the real Bermuda", including "Arrifa's famous Hungarian dance orchestra"! Across Paget Parish, the Elbow Beach offered "the blue sea in your front yard", being "The only hotel that's right on the beach". On the other hand, the Belmont Manor and Golf Club was the "Coolest spot in all Bermuda", presumably referring to its hipness, rather than its lack of heat in those pre-aircon days.

To be entertained on the island, one of the high points was considered to be the Perfume Factory, the creation of "aromatic chemist", Herbert Scott, who "first visited the island in 1926, and apparently noted two things, the attractiveness of Miss Madeline Smith, now Mrs. Scott, and that the flowers blowing so luxuriantly on every side were being wasted". Perhaps due to his interest in both, a leading product of the Perfume Factory became "Passion Flower", "just about the most expensive fragrance a lady can have, and one of the rarest".

In touching on other Bermudians, mention was made of two perhaps "unballasted" voyagers: "Eric Johnson and Carl Holmes walked into our New York office the other day, having just landed from Bermuda after a twenty-day (27 May to 15 June, 1935) crossing in a fifteen-foot, home-made boat. They were very brown and weather-beaten, but Mr. Johnson had lost none of his characteristic intensity of purpose and lofty ideals. For, you must understand, he did this stunt so the good people of his native Warwick Parish would appreciate him and vote for him at the next election, so that he can help the poor, etc., etc."

As might be suggested, even in 1935, aspiring politicians seem willing to voyage any which way they can, in order to find the Holy Grail of election victory.

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