Winter Islands

BERMUDA-NASSAU

Riches, Royalty and Regalia were all converging upon the British West Indies last week. The visiting season for U. S. tycoons got under way. Preceded by a brand new Puss Moth plane, 27 pieces of luggage (all stamped PW in large white letters), two sets of golf clubs (one reputedly the gift of Bobby Jones), several cases of bright green beer (artificially colored, brewed in Edinburgh), H. R. H. Edward of Wales and Prince George flew to Paris, there entrained for Santander, Spain, where they boarded the S. S. Oropesa for Bermuda, first stop before their whirlwind tour of Latin America. Their frank effort: to drum up more trade for British manufacturers.

Bearing down on Bermuda too was the British Atlantic Fleet led by the world's mightiest battleships, Nelson and Rodney, whose maneuvers in West Indian waters just happen to coincide with the Princes' tour. Operating from three British naval bases in American waters, Bermuda, Jamaica and Barbados, at least one important British ship will call at each of Britain's tiny American islands: Trinidad, Dominica, Antigua, St. Kitts, Tobagov etc. etc.

Anxious to be present at the impending royal and naval functions in Bermuda, many a U. S. tycoon & wife opened their white-roofed cottage last week. Humbler citizens took hotel rooms. Bermudian landlords, shopkeepers, bartenders rubbed their hands appreciatively. But not many U. S. vacationers who have gone to warmer, quieter Nassau in previous winters changed their custom for Royalty's sake. Between Bermuda and Nassau exists a gentle rivalry shared loyally by those who cause it.

Bermuda. Unlike Nassau, Bermuda is not in the West Indies, is not tropical. It lies full in the Atlantic, 779 mi. south-east of New York. But the Gulf Stream makes Bermuda swimming, tennis, golf possible the year round. It is occasionally chilly, foggy in winter, and sometimes uncomfortably hot and mosquitoey in summer. But Bermudians insist that the average temperature does not vary 20DEG the year round, that the climate is far more equable than any place in the world. Its greatest advantage over Nassau as a U. S. resort: it is 20 hr. nearer New York. Venerable is the Crown Colony of Bermuda. It is not one island but a close group of some 300 forming a sort of fishhook about 14 mi. long. The islands were discovered in the 15th Century by one Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard who had the misfortune to be wrecked there with a cargo of hogs. Most of Bermuda's earliest visitations were forcible. In 1609 Sir George Somers was shipwrecked there, established the first permanent settlement and gave the little archipelago its alternate name of Somers Islands. The town of St. George, first capital of Bermuda, is named not for Britain's patron saint but for Sir George Somers. In 1612 the islands were granted by charter to an offshoot of the Virginia Company. William Shakespeare had heard enough about them to make "The Still-vexed Bermoothes'' the scene of The Tempest. Bermuda today has a population of 30,884 of whom about half are white, half Negro. A sizable section of the white population is not Anglo-Saxon but Portuguese--fishermen, farmers, laborers who migrated there comparatively recently. It is ruled by a Crown Governor who must be an officer in the British Army, by a legislative council and a native representative assembly. Bermuda's last governor was Lieut. General Sir Louis Jean Bols, who died four months ago. London politicians were still debating his successor last week. The tourist's first, most vivid impressions of Bermuda are white roofs and bicycles. Bermudian houses, particularly the newer ones, are pink, white, green, yellow, blue, but their roofs, even those on the Anglican Cathedral at Hamilton are uniformly of brilliant white limestone coral. Reason: there are no potable wells on the islands; all drinking water is rain water, collected in cisterns from the unpainted roofs. Fortunately it rains nearly every day or night. Roads are white, too, for the islands are made of the white coral. Above the coral foundation is a thin layer of rich red earth in which grow the aromatic Bermuda cedars, the cultivated acres of caster lilies, potatoes and kale, but few onions. "Bermuda onions" for U. S. markets are grown in Texas, Florida. Bicycles are essential to the Bermudians and to all but the richest visitors, because no automobiles are allowed on the islands.* Carriage horses are expensive to rent or keep (oats and hay must be imported from New York). Nowhere outside of Holland is the population so cycle-minded. Largest town is Hamilton where stands the Sessions House, Bermuda's parliament; the Cathedral; the cinema (Mechanics Hall). Here dock the liners from New York and Liverpool and here are the great hotels: the Hamilton, the patrician Princess, the gaudy Bermudiana. And here are Bermuda's chief emporia: Gosling Bros., for groceries, foodstuffs, wines & liquors; and Trimingham Bros, department store. Trimingham's does a land-office business every sailing day in white muslin aprons to be worn under ladies' dresses past U. S. customs officers. Each apron has five pockets, holds five pints. Brother Eldon Trimingham out of hours is a leading Bermuda socialite and yachtsman, was urged by Bermudians as skipper for Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock V. In yacht races when Brother Eldon holds the wheel, Brother Kenneth tends the sheet. Smartest town is Tucker's Town, five miles away. Here is the expensive, exclusive Mid-Ocean Club, with the best golf course in the islands. Here are the "cottages" of U. S. tycoons. Largest private house on the island is that of Manhattan's C. Ledyard Blair containing a marble staircase transported from his Fifth Avenue home. Nearby are the houses of Clifford V. Brokaw Jr., Philip Gardiner, Morgan J. O'Brien, Samuel Riker. Just beyond Tucker's Town are Bermuda's two literary shrines: Tom Moore's House, where the Irish author of Lalla Rookh, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" lived for one year; and Prospero's Cave, a spectacular grotto that is traditionally the site of the magic banquet in The Tempest, actually where aquatic Cinemactress Annette Kellerman made Neptune's Daughter and used to give-- shapely exhibitions of swimming and diving. Nassau. Bermuda is the name of an island. Nassau is a town. Nassau's island is called New Providence. It lies 933 mi. southwest of Bermuda, less than 200 mi. from Miami, whence it is a 15-hr. trip on the S. S. Northland. From New York the S. S. Munargo takes 60 hr. U. S. tycoons flocked to Nassau too last week, for the huge terra cotta New Colonial Hotel ($16 to $44 per day) was opening its winter season. On the site of the elegant New Colonial once stood old Fort Nassau where the pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, used to water his ships, count his loot. A wily ruffian, he wore his luxurious whiskers in fine points, braided them with gay ribbons in peace, with smouldering slow matches in war. Bootleggers load their ships at Nassau today. Not far from the New Colonial Hotel is the Bahamian Club, a discreet drinking, gambling resort that used to be operated by the late "Honest John" Kelly of New York. Here, shortly before Chicago's famed Valentine Day Massacre of 1929, Alphonse ("Scarface Al") Capone & friends were entertained at a memorable party by a prominent New York Jew and his Chicago countess. Jews, incidentally, are not welcome at the New Colonial Hotel. Less race-conscious is the Fort Montagu, at the eastern end of the town, diagonally opposite Quarantine (where James Simpson of Chicago & friends were once quarantined on a yacht for many days). Like the New Colonial's "Lighthouse" is the Fort Montagu's "Jungle," a place removed from sleepy guests where the gay and wakeful may dance and drink long after midnight. Smartest part of Nassau (except for Government House) is Hog Island, the long narrow sandspit that turns its elegant back on the harbor, the odorous sponge and market docks. On Hog Island is the Porcupine Club, for swanky and exclusive food, drink and bathing. Nearby is also the home of Nassau's greatest dowager, Lady Williams Taylor. Beyond her estate is the public beach where incautious first-timers usually eat too many peeled oranges off sharpened sticks. Beyond Hog Island lies the palm-broidered key called Treasure Island by its fun-loving owner Cartoonist John Tinney McCutcheon of the Chicago Tribune. Fishing is finer in Nassau than at Bermuda. There is good trolling for sharks, king fish, barracuda, Spanish mackerel, grouper, amberjack right off the mouth of Nassau Harbor. Only 20 mi. away is Andros Island which boasts the world's best bonefishing. Seldom over 2 ft. in length, the bonefish ranks among the world's gamiest. It feeds in extremely shallow water with its tail in the air, has two large bony plates in its mouth instead of teeth, with which it hungrily crushes hardshell crabs.* Potent and numerous are Nassau's habitues. They include: Publisher Nelson Doubleday, Publisher Conde Nast and his editor of Vanity Fair, Frank Crownin-shield. Bankers Thomas W. Lamont and Seward Prosser, Lady Diana Manners. Knowlton L. Ames Jr. of Chicago is not only a visitor but co-owner of the quaint Nassau Guardian, one of the world's few newspapers to be composed on inverted tombstones from old graveyards. Publisher Ames's partner is Miss Mary Moseley, spry member of one of the proudest "conch" (native) families. Other outstanding "conches": Sandses and Solomons, merchants; Fred Armbrister, able, artistic photographer who in summertime snaps his shutters at Banff.

*Only motors are ambulances, a few official cars for government use. Last week one Willoughby Wright, Bermudian railway employe, was fined severely for driving a tractor in Southampton Parish, one of Bermuda's nine legislative districts, had his tractor confiscated.

*Irrepressible Count Felix ("Sea Devil") von Luckner last week set out with friends on his schooner Mophelia to cruise and shark-fish in the Bahamas. His shark-tackle: A 100-ft. rubber rope which, he solemnly declared, would snap sharks out of the water when they finished their rushes.

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