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On July 28th, 1910 – 100 years ago this month – the last Bermudabuilt pilot boat was launched at Burchell’s Cove in St. David’s. On August 2nd the Royal Gazette commented on the launch:

According to Jane Downing of the Bermuda Maritime Museum the Swastika met an untimely end when she was abandoned at sea by her crew. Perhaps her name was a bad omen, even though the Swastika was launched years before that iconic Hindu symbol representing the cycle of birth, suffering, death and rebirth was made infamous in Nazi Germany. The other curious fact is that, according to Jane Downing, no plans or photographs are known to exist of the Swastika. That is until I looked through some old Bermuda postcards of mine and found a rather unusual cyanotype card showing a boat being built. On closer examination I realized that the image was taken in March 1910 in St. David’s by the famous photographer Marriott C. Morris. Although Marriott Morris is best known for his fabulous black-andwhite images, he also made cyanotypes, a process invented in the 1840’s using a combination of ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate. This mildly photosensitive solution is then applied to paper and allowed to dry in a dark place. A positive image is then produced by exposing it to sunlight through a negative and afterwards rinsing away the unexposed solution with running water, leaving the non-water-soluble Prussian blue. This is what gives cyanotypes their typical blue colour. Marriott Morris, from a wealthy Philadelphia family related to Bermuda’s Perot family, visited Bermuda on several occasions. When here in March 1910, he made the postcard showing the Swastika four months before being launched and mailed it to his 11-year-old son Elliston Perot Morris. This was his message:

Obviously Marriott Morris made several cyanotypes on that trip and it would be great to discover some of the others.