Quaint 16th Century Islands

Summer vacation season has arrived again, bringing with it warm tropical breezes, long lazy days, and the urge to wander. Since I spend a lot of time looking at the past, I figured this would be a good time to peruse the exotic travel offerings our grandparents and great grandparents might have considered when planning their summer holiday.

I'm kicking things off with a 1920 ad from Travel Magazine. Bermuda had been a British colony since 1609 and in 1920 celebrated the tercentenary of Bermudan parliamentary government. That year also marked the first royal visit to the island when Albert Edwards, Prince of Wales and soon to become King Edward VIII arrived aboard the HMS Renown where he was a serving Royal Navy officer. Prince Edward's official duties during the trip included opening the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, visiting St. Geroge's Island where he was principle guest in celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of the Bermudan State House as well as the completion of St. Peter's Church, and officially opening Somers Gardens.

That same year the UK-based Furness Withy shipping company began investing in Bermuda by taking over the Quebec Steamship Company and renaming it the Furness Bermuda Line. Furness Bermuda ran a three week service, bringing mail, freight, and passengers to the island from New York. Bermuda had a major attraction for American tourists - alcohol. The drought that was prohibition settled over American on January 29, 1920 and would remain in place until December 5, 1933 and during this thirteen-year period American tourists sought the warm waters and cool drinks of the Caribbean as a remedy to their moralistic problem. Furness Withy made the best of the prohibition era, investing in Bermudian holiday facilities such as the Mid Ocean Golf Club, the St. George, Bermudian and Castle Harbor hotels, and two tenders to ferry passengers from ship to hotel.

During the 20's Furness's Bermuda Line consisted of three ships: the Victoria, the St. George, and the Forts Hamilton and the ad featured here focuses on this last ship. It took some digging to unravel the fate of the Forts Hamilton and this is largely due to Furness' poor advertising. In 1923 the Hamilton still appeared on the covers of Furness' sailings brochures, but she no longer was a part of the line's fleet. In 1921 Furness sold her to the Bermuda and West Indies Steamship Company and this began her slow decline. She was sold again in 1926, 1930, 1931, and finally in 1932. In 1933 she was laid up in Trieste Italy where she was was eventually sold for scrap and broke up. Strange to think that the steel which went into building a pleasure vessel for British and American tourists probably went into the war effort which would kill so many of their children.

Let's not leave on that somber note, though. After all, this is a post about vacationing not the cruel ironies of history. So, I'll close with a couple home movies of Bermuda gleaned from the YouTube archives. Note the guy holding up the bottle of booze in the first clip. Spitting in the eye of prohibition, I like his style!

The Owen Magnetic

You may not be aware of the fact, but even back in the early days of automobile there were hybrids. These weren't the fuel pinching, switch from gas to battery cars we're familiar with today.  The early days of the automobile weren't only a time when manufacturers were trying to figure out the best way to fuel an automobile, they were also trying to find the best way to transfer the power from the engine.

Owen Magnetic was one such hybrid, a luxury car manufactured between 1915 and 1922 and notable for its use of an electromagnetic transmission and electric series hybrid drive train. The Owen was powered by a six cylinder engine, with the power transfer using the same kind of electromagnetic principle used to propel the battleship USS New Mexico.

From a quote attributed by Wikipedia to automotive author Henry B. Lent:

"The drive mechanism had no direct connection between the engine and the rear wheels. Instead of a flywheel, a generator and a horseshoe shaped magnet were attached to the rear of the engine's crank shaft. On the forward end of the car's drive shaft, was an electric motor with an armature fitted into an air space inside the whirling magnet. Electrical current, transmitted by the engine's generator and magnet attached to the armature of the electrical motor, providing the energy to turn the drive shaft and propel the engine's rear wheels. Speed for the car was controlled by a small lever adjacent to the steering wheel."

Owen introduced its first vehicle at the 1915 New York automobile show and the company's founder leased a three-story building at the corner of 5th Avenue and 142nd Street to build his new vehicles. The company's clientele included famous names of the time such as Enrico Caruso and John McCormack.

In December of 1915 the R.M. Owen Company moved to Cleveland, OH where it joined forces with Walter Baker of Baker Motor Vehicle as well as Rauch and Lang (another electric car company). Baker would build the automobile while Rauch and Lang would perform coach work. The trio produced cars through 1918 when Baker turned its production toward the American war effort.

Owen Magnetic Motor Car Corporation began manufacturing at a new facility based in Forty Fort, PA in January of 1920. The same year this ad ran, Owen Magnetic produced only 750 vehicles and in spite of an order from Crown Limited of Great Britain, the company soon went into receivership. If you would have ordered an Owen after reading this ad, it's likely you never would have received it.