Talk:Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda

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The article states "Bermudian labour proved scarce, and Bermudian attitudes to manual labour were such that the Admiralty soon resorted to using convicts, shipped from Britain and Ireland, to carry out most of the original phase of building at the base". An examination of the Dockyard musters and correspondence suggests that no convicts were brought to Bermuda for the construction works before 1823.

Bermudian labour was scarce because the Bermudian slaves concerned were self-hiring, working autonomously, finding their subsistence out of their earnings and sending remittances back to their masters - a demand for road-building in the islands led to the self-hiring slaves demanding higher wages than the dockyard superintendent was prepared to pay.

The first non-Bermudian labour were men taken from two captured prize of war under the provisions of section 7 of the 1807 Slave Trade Act and entered illicitly in the musters as 'King's Slaves'.

Suggested amendment: Bermudian enslaved labour proved increasingly expensive, and Bermudian attitudes to manual labour were such that the Admiralty later resorted to using convicts, shipped from Britain and Ireland, to carry out most of the original phase of building at the base. In the short term, the first non-Bermudian labour were men taken from two captured prize of war under the provisions of section 7 of the 1807 Slave Trade Act and entered illicitly in the musters as 'King's Slaves'.

Barsle 13:48, 16 July 2007 (UTC)