The Bermuda or Somers Islands are a group of small coral islands situated in the North Atlantic Ocean in approximately 32° 20' North latitude and 64° 45' West longitude, about 600 miles due East of Charleston, South Carolina. The chief islands in the group are St. Georges, St. David’s, the main island, Somerset and Ireland, of which the main island is by far the largest, and they are arranged in the general shape of a fish-hook, running north-east to south-west. Completing the oval on the west and north is a wide bank of coral reefs, and a thin line of reefs also follows the coast on the east and south, often only a few hundred feet from the shore. The greatest land distance is about 25 miles from St. Georges to Ireland Island, the average width about 1 mile and the total area approximately 22 square miles. The land is low-lying but hilly, with the highest point, Gibbs Hill, Southampton Parish, rising to 260 feet above sea-level. It is composed of soft sandy limestone, with a top-soil of either coral sand or, in sheltered areas, a red earth formed from the indigenous cedars. About two hundred feet below the surface is volcanic rode, indicating that the islands were formed on an extinct volcano, and soundings taken off the islands confirm that this submarine mountain rises nearly 15,000 feet above the surrounding ocean bed. The climate is sub-tropical, the temperature rarely exceeding 90° or falling below 45°, but is humid, averaging about 75% throughout the year, with considerable rainfall, mostly in the form of heavy showers, usually of short duration. Hurricanes from the West Indies sometimes strike the islands in late summer, and gales from the north are not infrequent in the winter months.

The islands were probably discovered in the first few years of the 16th Century, their name "La Bermuda” being marked on a map in a rare book "Legatio Babylonica”, published in 1511. A Spanish navigator, Juan de Bermudez, is known to have visited the islands before 1515, and it is assumed that he is the same man as the original discoverer, and the one after whom the islands are named. No permanent settlement was made by the Spaniards, and for many years the islands were avoided as being storm-swept and inhabited by devils! Bermudez or some shipwrecked mariners released a number of hogs, which multiplied and became a century later a useful source of food.

On July 28th, 1609, the “Sea Venture”, a 300 ton caravel carrying on board Sir George Somers, as Admiral, and Sir Thomas Gates, the newly appointed Governor of Virginia, and about 150 other persons, was wrecked on the reefs off St. Georges Island. The vessel had been separated by a storm from the remainder of a fleet of seven ships and two pinnaces carrying settlers from England to the new colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The shipwrecked party stayed in Bermuda until the following May, when they completed the building of two pinnaces and proceeded to Virginia. A few months later Sir George Somers returned to the islands to obtain a supply of food, especially hogs, to relieve a severe famine at Jamestown. He died on November 9th, 1610, soon after his arrival, and his heart was buried in what is now Somers Gardens in St. Georges. His companions brought his body back to his native Dorsetshire for burial, and their accounts of Bermuda aroused the interest of members of the Virginia Company. Two years later, on July 11th, 1612, a group of fifty settlers arrived in Bermuda under the auspices of the Virginia Company and founded the first permanent settlement, which they named St. Georges, after Sir George Somers and the patron saint of England. On June 29th, 1615, the Virginia Company renounced all claims to the islands, and a charter was granted to a newlv formed Company, officially designated the “Govenour and Company of the City of London for the Plantacon of the Somer Islands”, but more usually