Nonsuch Island (originally Nonesuch Island) is part of the chain of islands which make up
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest.
Bermuda is an ...
. It is in
St George's Parish, in the northeast of Bermuda. It is 5.7
ha (14 acres) in area and is at the east entrance to
Castle Harbour, close to the south-easternmost point of
Cooper's Island (cojoined with the much larger
St David's Island by the construction of
Kindley Field by the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
). Among the island's charted features is a bay called Nonsuch Bay.
History
In 1865 it served as a
yellow fever quarantine hospital. On the eastern part of the island there still remains a small cemetery. In 1930 it served as a base for
William Beebe
Charles William Beebe ( ; July 29, 1877 – June 4, 1962) was an American natural history, naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New Y ...
and
Otis Barton
Frederick Otis Barton Jr. (June 5, 1899 – April 15, 1992) was an American deep-sea diver, inventor and actor.
Early life and career
Born in New York, the independently wealthy Barton designed the first bathysphere and made a dive with W ...
's landmark
bathysphere
The ''Bathysphere'' () was a unique spherical deep sea, deep-sea submersible which was unpowered and lowered into the ocean on a cable, and was used to conduct a series of dives off the coast of Bermuda from 1930 to 1934. The ''Bathysphere'' wa ...
dive.
Environment
The island is a wildlife sanctuary. It is wooded and with a small freshwater marsh; access to the public is strictly limited. The
restoration of the once barren island into a 'Living Museum of pre-colonial Bermuda' is the lifetime work of now retired Bermudian
ornithologist
Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...
and
conservationist David B. Wingate, and part of his effort to bring back from near-extinction the once plentiful
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
nocturnal
Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatur ...
seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...
, and
national emblem
A national emblem is an emblem or seal that is reserved for use by a nation state or multi-national state as a symbol of that nation. Many nations have a seal or emblem in addition to a national flag.
Other national symbols, such as national ...
of Bermuda, the
cahow. This project involves the reintroduction of other species, notably the
West Indian topshell.
Chick of a Bermuda petrel on Nonsuch Island, 2009
Accounts written at the time of Bermuda's settlement leave no doubt that herons and egrets of several species were resident and breeding on the island. Diego Ramirez (in Wilkinson 1950) describing the events of his shipwreck on Bermuda in 1603, wrote of "the many very large dark herons" and Sylvanus Jourdain, (in Lefroy 1877), a survivor of the ''
Sea Venture
''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission flotilla to the Jamestown Colony in 1609. She was the 300 ton flagship of the London Company. During the voyage to Virginia, ''Sea Venture'' encount ...
'' shipwreck of 1609 that led to British settlement, reported in 1610 that "there are also great store and plenty of herons and those so familiar and tame that we beat them down from the trees with stones and staves, but such were young herons. Besides many white herons without so much as a black or grey feather on them." Likewise, William Strachey (in Lefroy 1877), another survivor of the ''Sea Venture'' and the official chronicler of the Virginia expedition, wrote of the "white and grey Hernshawes and bittons."
The endemic, and critically endangered
Bermuda skink (''Plestiodon longirostris''), otherwise known as the Bermudian rock lizard, is also known to have a population on Nonsuch Island.
External links
Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve, DNER, BermudaArticleby
David B. Wingate about the Living Museum project
Nonsuch Island homepage
References
Islands of Bermuda
Island restoration
St. George's Parish, Bermuda
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