Bermuda

My connection to Bermuda is filial and professional. For many years I took a group of students to Bermuda to take an interterm course called the Biology of Volcanic Coral Islands. It was taught at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, seen above. The course was conceived and originally designed by Dr. William L. Mengebier, my predecessor as chairman of the Biology Department. We taught it together the first five times, and I taught it alone an additional five times. I also had an opportunity to take my 1981 sabbatical in residence at BBSR investigating the endemic status of Sisyrinchium bermudiana L. (Iridaceae). The activities I was involved in at the station with students were various and always a lot of fun. I developed an interest in the Bermudas in terms of its connection to my maternal origins from the original colony that settled in Jamestowne in 1607, prior to its eventual movement, in time, to Williamsburg. According to a genealogy compiled by my Aunt Violet Noland Gray, I am descended from Robert Beheathland, one of the original settlers. It seems I have to thank Sir George Somers for being stranded in Bermuda. He was headed for Jamestowne to rescue the colony, and he did not make it, having shipwrecked in Bermuda. The colony in Jamestowne was suffering with problems of disease, weather, local Indians, and themselves, but eventually, under the leadership of John Smith, it prevailed. If Sir George had made it to Jamestowne, my origins could have been altogether different, as the settlers were seriously considering abandoning the colony to return to England if rescuers came. Bermudians and scientists owe much to Captain Somers. He wisely made a list of the native flora and fauna of the Bermudas while stranded there, and this record from the wreck of his ship H.M.S. Sea Venture remains the comparative standard for all visitors to the islands who want to see how things have changed over time, both biologically, and geologically.