November 2015 - The Cemetery Detective™

St. Paul’s Cemetery – Bermuda – Finding a Zinc Monument on Bermuda

As a cemetery enthusiast, I am always excited to find Zinc Monuments.

St. Paul’s Cemetery contains a Zinc (White Bronze) grave marker from the Monumental Bronze Company.

As a cemetery enthusiast, I am always excited to find Zinc Monuments. My casual tour of St. Paul’s Cemetery turned into excitement as I found a zinc marker.

Zinc Monuments are fairly common in United States’ Cemeteries. However, I did not expect to find a zinc monument on Bermuda. Zinc monuments were sold by the Monumental Bronze Company between 1875 and 1912. They were sold under the name of White Bronze as a marketing gimmick to make them more appealing than using the word “zinc.”

A rare find of a Zinc grave marker from the Monumental Bronze Company.

I always love finding Zinc grave markers in cemeteries. To the trained eye, they are easy to spot. It’s fun “showing off” to people interested in cemeteries. “See that grave stone? If I rap it with my knuckles, it will ring out like metal.” And when they realize it’s hollow, they love exploring the inscriptions and removable panels (never remove a panel unless you have permission of the owner. Here’s a short video I made of zinc markers in the snow:

Christ Church Presbyterian Church of Scotland – Bermuda

Christ Presbyterian Church – along Middle Road Warwick, Bermuda

Christ Church
Presbyterian Church of Scotland

With all the beautiful bays and vistas on South Road, it certainly is a fantastic drive. However, Bermuda’s Middle Road should not be overlooked.
On my motor scooter, tooling along Middle Road toward Somerset, I almost missed Christ Church in Warwick Parish. With brakes locked up, gravel beneath my 10″ wheels, and clouds of shrapnel embedded dust, I slid to a dramatic stop directly in front the church sign.

The original Christ Church was built in 1719. With three hundred years of history, Christ church has a long Presbyterian tradition on Bermuda and its cemetery shows the traditional way the church family cares for those who have passed on. The cemetery contains over three hundred grave sites. Many of these sites are several hundred years old. A brief walk through the cemetery shows traditional style grave site construction.

St. Peter’s Church and Cemetery – St. Georges Bermuda

The preeminent cemetery in St. Georges Bermuda is the cemetery that surrounds St. Peter’s Church.

St. Peter’s Cemetery – St. Georges Bermuda

My tours of Cemeteries are always eventful. There’s always something exciting to see either within the cemetery or on the journey there.
This latest adventure trumps all previous cemetery hunting trips. I would like to give a special THANKS to everyone who sent well wishes. I would also like to thank everyone who has sent notes after my arrival in Bermuda. We sailed through a Category 1 Hurricane in the North Atlantic. Winds topped 70knts and our sailboat crested waves 30 feet high. We are currently compiling all my records, pictures, and video. In the coming weeks we will release a documentary on the trip to Bermuda and my study of the cemeteries there. Until the documentary is complete, I will begin posting pictures and recaps from the cemeteries I visited on the island. Please check back regularly and please let me know if there is anything special you would like to see or hear about.

The preeminent cemetery in St. Georges Bermuda is the cemetery that surrounds St. Peter’s Church. Located 2 blocks from the Customs Agency in St. Georges, St Peter’s occupies its place on a hill overlooking York Street. St. Peter’s is within a blink of an eye from St. George’s Town Hall, the famous dunking chair, and the Whitehorse Saloon where I drank my fair share of Dark ‘n’ Stormys. Let’s talk about Dark and Stormys for a moment; this is the traditional drink for sailors coming to Bermuda. Over a table full of dark and stormys overlooking St. George’s Harbor, sailors recount their stories of mammoth waves, gale force winds, and the tentacles of sea monsters dragging their ships down to Davy Jones’ Locker. The camaraderie of sailors sharing stories is a bonding experience…my favorite part of arriving in port. And if your stomach is not yet up to a Dark and Stormy, GoJo’s Restaurant serves the traditional Codfish Dinner.

Ah….back to St. Peter’s. A bricked pathway leads through the cemetery. The burial ground is filled to capacity and, except for very rare occasions, no new burials are allowed. A walled off section includes burial plots of slaves prior to slave emancipation in 1834. The stones are old but in mostly good condition within the neatly manicured cemetery.

A Bermuda Cedar tree toppled during a storm in 2003 distinguishes the rear section of the graveyard.

Map of St. Georges, Bermuda with St. Peter’s at the center.

Cemeteries of Bermuda (Revisited)

My tours of Cemeteries are always eventful. There’s always something exciting to see either within the cemetery or on the journey there.

Cemeteries Of Bermuda – Part 2

We would like to thank everyone for keeping Keith in your thoughts this past week. Keith has just finished helping deliver a sailboat from Newport, Rhode Island to St. Georges, Bermuda. Readers of this blog know this is his second sailing trip to Bermuda this year. This latest voyage was VERY EVENTFUL as his ship sailed directly through Hurricane Kate. The sailboat sailed through 70+mph winds and 30+foot seas. It was treacherous weather. Other than a little seasickness, Keith and the rest of the crew pulled through safely. He is safe, on land, and has spent several days exploring most of the cemeteries of Bermuda.

Please subscribe to this blog and keep checking back with us for a full write-up of this latest cemetery exploration adventure. Until then, be sure to read about his other cemetery adventures.

“My tours of Cemeteries are always eventful. There’s always something exciting to see either within the cemetery or on the journey there.
This latest adventure trumps all previous cemetery hunting trips. I would like to give a special THANKS to everyone who sent well wishes. I would also like to thank everyone who has sent notes after my arrival in Bermuda. We sailed through a Category 1 Hurricane in the North Atlantic. Winds topped 70knts and our sailboat crested waves 30 feet high. We are currently compiling all my records, pictures, and video. In the coming weeks we will release a documentary on the trip to Bermuda and my study of the cemeteries there. Until the documentary is complete, I will begin posting pictures and recaps from the cemeteries I visited on the island. Please check back regularly and please let me know if you have special interests in cemetery exploration.”

Thank you all, again. – Keith