| Coat of arms of Bermuda | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Armiger | Bermuda |
| Adopted | 1910; 116 years ago (1910) |
| Shield | An antique shield azure thereon a representation of the wreck of the shipSea Venture proper. |
| Supporters | Argent, a lion sejant affronté Gules. |
| Compartment | A mountvert |
| Motto | Quo Fata Ferunt "Whither the Fates carry (us)" |
| Earlier version(s) | .jpg) (c. 1622) (1817 seal) |
Thecoat of arms ofBermuda depicts a red lion with a shield that has a depiction of a wrecked ship upon it. The red lion is a symbol ofGreat Britain and alludes to Bermuda's relationship with that country. TheLatinmotto under the coat of arms,Quo Fata Ferunt, means "Whither the Fates Carry [Us]".[1] The modern design of the wrecked ship is known to be theSea Venture. The arms were formally granted byRoyal Warrant on 4 October 1910, but had been in use since at least 1624. The arms were formally granted byRoyal Warrant on 4 October 1910, but had been in use since at least 1624. The coat of arms first appears on the cover of the 1624 edition ofThe Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. The "Somers Isles" is another name for Bermuda, named after SirGeorge Somers, the colony's founder.[2]
The heraldicblazon is:Argent, on a mountvert a lion sejant affronté gules supporting between the fore-paws an antique shield azure thereon a representation of the wreck of the shipSea Ventureproper.[citation needed]
On 2 June 1609,Sea Venture set sail from Plymouth, England as the flagship of aseven-ship fleet (towing two additional pinnaces) destined forJamestown, Virginia. On 24 July, the fleet ran into atropical storm, likely ahurricane, and the ships were separated.Sea Venture fought the storm for three days. Admiral SirGeorge Somers, piloting the leaking ship, wedged theSea Venture onto the reefs of eastern Bermuda. This allowed 150 people, and one dog, to be landed safely ashore.
The survivors, including several company officials (Lieutenant-GeneralSir Thomas Gates,[3] CaptainChristopher Newport,George Yeardley,Silvester Jourdain,Stephen Hopkins, andWilliam Strachey, among others), were stranded on Bermuda for approximately nine months. The castaways would build two ships and arrive in Jamestown, Virginia, in May, 1610. Newport and Gates sailed back to England, and arrived in September to report the events to theVirginia Company of London and the public.[4]
In 2009, a paper and documentary were published with evidence that the shipwreck on the original crest (as seen on the 1622Richard Norwood map[5]) was actually a Dutch vessel.[6][7][8] In 1593, an unnamed Dutch ship, with a French crew, wrecked on North Rock, some distance north of the main archipelago. That shipwreck marooned the first Englishman on Bermuda: Henry May. The obvious image of North Rock as it was in the 1600s has been erroneously modified to look like the high "cliffs" visible on the crest today. Henry May and the survivors would leave Bermuda in May, 1594, making the archipelago infamous to English culture, more than 15 years before the tale of theSea Venture was known in Europe.[9][10]
On 4 October 1910, the coat of arms (without the banner holding the motto) was added to theRed ensign to create the currentFlag of Bermuda. The coat of arms replaced a badge which had been in use on the Bermuda red ensign before October 1910. The badge was based on a sketch, made in 1869, of the 1817 seal, which depicted a wet dock of the time showing with some boats in the background. It is assumed that the scene alludes to the fact that the islands were a stopover base for the sailing ships[11] when the badge was approved by the Admiralty.