A QUIRKY piece of maritime history has been lost with the continuing redevelopment of the old Royal Naval Dockyard site in Bermuda – but has at least been preserved in photographic form.

Around 200 hand-painted ship’s badges which adorned walls and buildings have been destroyed as the area is cleared.

The badges – some more accurate and artistic than others – date back over 50 years and were created by sailors from visiting RN and allied warships, and have been added to and cleaned up right up to the present day.

As recently as April, HMS Montrose left their mark in Bermuda, sprucing up a crest left by their forebears when the frigate visited in the 1990s.

In days of yore, ships visiting yards around the world left their mark by painting their badges on the walls (in the same way that commanding officers today present mounted badges to local dignitaries).

That tradition has all but died out – but the historic dockyard at Bermuda is one place where it persists.

The yard dates back to the early 19th Century, but when it closed as a Royal Navy base (HMS Malabar) at the beginning of the 50s the tradition continued – thanks not least to many visiting warships from other nations.

The crests pepper walls in the southern part of South Yard of the Royal Naval Dockyard, half of them on concrete walls erected after WW2, the rest on soft Bermuda limestone blocks.

Edward Harris, executive director of the National Museum of Bermuda – which incorporates the British territory’s maritime museum – said it was almost impossible to dismantle the walls or blocks without destroying at least parts of the crest, but as an important piece of Bermudan history, they deserved to be preserved in some form.

“The crests have been professionally photographed on behalf of the National Museum and thus as historical data, they have been preserved for posterity,” he explained. “That is perhaps all that can be sensibly done with this particular set of heritage objects.”