Bermuda - Touring Smith's Parish 3
Flatts Village is another neat little Bermudian community. A
one-time haven for smugglers returning from the West Indies
in the dead of night, it was also an occasional meeting
place of the House of Assembly. Flatts is one of the oldest
settlements on the islands and is very picturesque, located
as it is on the shore of Harrington Sound. Today, the little
town is a microcosm of Bermudian life, a collection of
brightly painted cottages and houses, with tall palms and
lots of flowering shrubs and plants.
Stop 21, The Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo, 441-
293-2727, www.bamz.org,
is in Flatts Village. This is
one of Bermuda’s most popular
attractions. It’s an
aquarium in the true sense
of the word: educational as
well as entertaining. The
large glass tanks hold examples
of most of the finny
inhabitants of the reefs and
oceans around Bermuda,
including the predators: sharks, barracudas, even a moray
eel. Then there are the small aquatic habitats that house the
creatures we never hear about, but that are no less important
to the underwater world they live in – tiny crabs, sea urchins
and corals. The strange-looking sphere you see just outside is
a replica of the bathysphere which Doctor Charles Beebe used
for his famous half-mile-deep dive in 1934.
BEEBE’S INCREDIBLE DIVE:
The highlight of Beebe’s long career was, without
doubt, his ocean dive. It was his insatiable desire
to push the boundaries of the known world and his
dedication to the study of sea life that led to the
dive. In 1929 he built a marine laboratory and
home in Bermuda on Nonesuch Island. There, with
his second wife, Elswyth Thane, a novelist, he
studied the sea life of the area. In 1930, in the true
tradition of science fiction, he made his first descent
into the ocean in a two-ton steel ball he
called the bathysphere (a name derived from the
Greek word bathys, meaning “deep”). In 1934, with
Otis Barton, he made a dive of 3,028 feet, more
than half a mile, and thus set a record for deep diving
that wasn’t broken until 1949.
Beebe was one of the 20th century’s great adventurers, perhaps
the last of a dying breed. Born in 1877, his career
spanned more than 54 years and took him on explorations
from the depths of the sea to the highest mountains, from
Canada to South America, and from the steaming jungles of
Borneo to the desolation of the Galapagos Islands.
He received a bachelor of science degree at Columbia University
in 1898, remained at Columbia for another year doing
postgraduate work, and then, in 1899, the New York Zoological
Society named him honorary curator of birds, and director
of the Society’s Department of Tropical Research.
Beebe retired as director of the Department of Tropical Research
in 1952, but he never stopped working. He continued
his studies of jungle creatures at the New York Zoological Society’s
field station in Simla, in the mountains of Trinidad.
He died in 1962 at the age of 85.
The Aquarium houses
an exhibit that documents
Beebe’s epic
dive. The aquarium itself
contains a large
collection of marine
life, including reef fish,
sharks and barracuda.
The zoo has a fine collection
of reptiles from
around the world, and
there’s a children’s
discovery room where
the kids can enjoy themselves working puzzles and coloring
pictures. The Aquarium and Zoo are open daily from 9 am
until 5 pm. Admission is $8 for adults; $4 for senior citizens
and children under 12.
Continue to Touring Hamilton Parish
Know Before You Go!