Convicts' Bay (better known as Convict Bay) is a bay located in St. George's Harbour on the eastern side of St. George's Town on St. George's Island

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and near to

Ordnance Island Ordnance Island is located within the limits of St. George's Town, Bermuda. It lies close to the shore opposite the town square (King's Square), in St. George's Harbour. History The only island in the town, it covers just and was created ...

. The bay was part of the a

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base in Bermuda, which was at St. George's from 1795 through the

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, pending construction of the Royal Naval Dockyard. It was subsequently part of

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until the 1950s, with HMCS Somers Isles, a

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training base, established there during the

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History

Convicts' Bay was named after the use of the area as a prison. The

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administration used obsolete warships as floating prisons,

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, in

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during the

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and applied them to use on the island. In 1799, a hulk was towed to

Somerset Island, Bermuda Somerset Island is one of the main islands of the chain that makes up Bermuda. It lies in the far west of the territory, and covers 2.84 square kilometres. Description Somerset Island comprises about half of the parish of Sandys, and is the l ...

and one more by 1824. Several would be used at the Royal Naval Dockyard and one at Convict Bay. Convict Bay was transferred to the Army in the 1860s (along with other Admiralty properties at the East End and in the Central parishes), and the army merged the facility with the adjacent St. George's Garrison, which overlooked it, and used the bay for various purposes (initially as a Royal Engineers yard) until the Second World War. The military detachments housed there were withdrawn to make way for the Royal Canadian Navy's HMCS Somers Isles for the duration of the war. It was part of the War Office and Admiralty lands slated for disposal in the 1950s.

Today

After the departure of the military from Convict Bay and the rest of St. George's Garrison, the area is now a residential neighbourhood. Streets in the area reflect the neighbourhood's past: * Convict's Bay Lane * Barrack Hill * Barrack Street * Old Military Road * Grenadier Lane * Red Coat Lane

External links

Bermuda's St. George's Parish
Bays of Bermuda St. George's, Bermuda {{Bermuda-geo-stub