Hamilton Harbour, Bermuda

The approaches to the harbour are protected by a chain of islands (notably Hinson's, Marshall's, Long, and Hawkins), and by the small Salt Kettle Peninsula.

The eastern end of the Harbour, the narrow corner of an isosceles triangle, is a small mangrove grown bay used for mooring smaller pleasure boats.

Although superior in many ways to St. George's Harbour at the east of the archipelago, no easy route of access to Hamilton Harbour for large vessels from the open ocean through the reefline which surrounded Bermuda was known until the narrows was located by a Royal Naval hydrographer, Thomas Hurd, who spent twelve years charting Bermuda's reefs following US independence.

Although very large vessels, such as the ships delivering cars and other motor vehicles from factories in Asia, call at Hamilton, recent years have seen an increase in the size of the cruise ships which visit Bermuda to the point that none can fit through the channel into Hamilton Harbour (in past, only the very largest ocean liners, like the QE2 and the Canberra, were unable to enter, being forced to use an anchorage beyond the Great Sound).

Today, most cruise ships must moor at the former Royal Naval Dockyard, their passengers using tenders and ferries to reach Hamilton.