Wrecking (or "wracking") was an important activity in the Bahamas from its first settlement in 1648. A company of religious dissidents from Bermuda, the Eleutheran Adventurers, established a colony on Eleutheria. Their governing document, the "Articles and Orders", included regulations of wrecking, providing that any salvaged ordnance would be held in common for the defense of the colony, and all other salvaged goods would be delivered to designated agents, "made fit for sale" and then sold, with one-third of the proceeds going to the wreckers.