High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMD Bermuda (Her/His Majesty`s Dockyard, Bermuda) was the principal base of the Royal Navy in the Western Atlantic between American independence and the Cold War. Bermuda had occupied a useful position astride the homeward leg taken by many European vessels from the New World since before its settlement by England in 1609. French privateers may have used the Islands as a staging place for operations against Spanish galleons in the 16th Century. Bermudian privateers certainly played a role in many Imperial wars following settlement. Despite this, it wasn`t until the loss of bases on most of the North American seaboard (following US independence) threatened Britain`s supremacy in the Western Atlantic, however, that the Island assumed great importance as a naval base (the attendant Bermuda Garrison of the British Army existed primarily to protect the naval base).