Nonsuch Island (originally Nonesuch Island) is part of the chain of islands which make up

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. 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 (now ostensibly part of the much larger St David's Island). Among the island's charted features is a bay called Nonsuch Bay.

History

In 1865 it served as a

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

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 naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New York Zoological ...

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 (Greek: , , "deep" and , , "sphere") was a unique spherical 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 ...

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 Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

of the once barren island into a 'Living Museum of pre-colonial Bermuda' is the lifetime work of now retired Bermudian ornithologist 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 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 found else ...

nocturnal

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

, 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 A national flag is a flag that represents ...

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 to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual ...

'' 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."

External links

Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve, DNER, Bermuda

Article
by David B. Wingate about the Living Museum project
Nonsuch Island homepage
Islands of Bermuda Island restoration St. George's Parish, Bermuda {{Bermuda-geo-stub