A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare'sThe Tempest

by Hobson Woodward

  Early Jamestown: NAR, 3-38; Price, Love, 3-13. “We are fallen”: FIR, 1:108. Virginia Company second charter: NEW, 205-12; TRU, 6-7 (NAR, 360). Shift from royal control, mineral profits to king: FIR, 2:270, 272. Charter revision, expanded territory claim: FIR, 2:249-51. Ranks of expedition officers, plan for later expedition: Quinn, “Pious,” 554; FIR, 2:254-55; SMI, 1:268, 2:218. “Earthly paradise,” “ravished with,” “generally very loving,” “most winds”: Johnson, Nova [7]- [12] (NEW, 237-39).

  “Petty commodities”: GEN, 1:205. Natural resources as true treasure: Johnson, Nova [17]-[20], [26]-[27] (NEW, 241-42, 245); HIS, 133 (NAR, 688-89); Rich, Newes [8] (NAR, 378); GEN, 1:384-86. Virginia commodities replace Eastern European goods: TRU, 4, 18 (NAR, 359, 367) (marginal note on TRU, 4, is not in NAR). List of goods sought in Virginia: GEN, 1:384-86. Glassmaking at Jamestown: PIL, 4:1756 (NAR, 437); Harrington, Glassmaking; Kelso, Buried, 51-52, 183. Wine making: HIS, 120 (NAR, 678-79). Virginia furs and the Council of Jamestown: NAR, 121, 450. Medicinal plants: FIR, 1:79, 162. “This little northern”: Johnson, Nova [27] (NEW, 245). Hunt for passage to East Indies: FIR, 1:81; Johnson, Nova [26] (NEW, 245); SMI, 1:49, 102, 165-66; HIS, 34, 104, 126 (NAR, 602, 665, 683). New World trade networks: Adams, Best, 33.

  Preachers as promoters: FIR, 2:259; Wright, Religion, 84-114; Fitzmaurice, Humanism , 64; Horn, Land, 139; Knapp, Empire, 238-39. “If these objectors,” “certainly our objector”: Symonds, Sermon, 14-15. Analysis of Symonds’s sermon: HIS, 17 (NAR, 588). “As for supplanting,” “their children”: Johnson, Nova [13]-[14], [32] (NEW, 239, 247). “To handle them”: Neill, History, 28. Treatment of Powhatans compared to father’s discipline: Symonds, Sermon, 14; HIS, 17 (NAR, 588). Lack of extant publications attacking Virginia Company: M. Fuller, Voyages, 90; Skura, “Discourse,” 55. “Gold is more”: Chapman, Jonson, and Marston: Eastward [36].

  “Three most worthy”: DIS, 3 (VOY, 105). Fleet officers’ ranks: TRU, 12 (NAR, 364). Gates contends in EST, 19-21 (NEW, 252), that the three leaders had permission to ride together. Barbour in SMI, 2:219, rightly questions John Smith’s 1624 statement that the three rode together because they “could not agree” to alternate ship assignments. The Virginia Company was disingenuous on the question of the three sealed boxes: in its instructions to Gates in NEW, 217-18, it says that the boxes should remain with him, but after the loss of the Sea Venture it says in TRU, 12 (NAR, 364), that they should have been placed on separate ships. Price, Love, 17, notes that on the first expedition to Jamestown similar boxes were carried on separate ships. Crashaw, NAR, 704, defends Gates’s actions.

  Somers meets fleet in Plymouth: PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:279); GEN, 1:320. Newport biography: Andrews, “Newport,” 28, 30-32, 37-38, 40; Quinn, “Newport”; Stow, Annales (1632), 1018; Ransome, “Newport,” 354. “A mariner”: SMI, 1:204. Whittingham is cape merchant: PIL, 4:1742 (NAR, 402). “Men of all”: SMI, 3:28. Sailors feared by colonists: Greenblatt, Shakespearean, 149, 196. “Persons of rank”: TRU, 12 (NAR, 364). “Their accustomed dainties”: SMI, 1:175-76. “Common people,” “hot bloods,” “gentlemen of quality,” “the idle,” “the better sort”: PIL, 4:1739, 1742-44 (NAR, 396, 402, 405, 407). Status of elite colonists: Canny, “Permissive,” 37; Kelso, Buried, 186. Virginia Company stock policy, “go in their persons,” “thither to remain”: Johnson, Nova [26]-[30] (NEW, 245-46). Lists of tradesmen wanted: TRU, 26 (NAR, 371); Johnson, Nova [25] (NEW, 244). Established tradesmen reluctant to go: Harrington, Glassmaking, 6. Guilds support Virginia enterprise: NEW, 206, 233-34. Enclosure of farmland: Linebaugh and Rediker, Hydra, 15-20. Population growth in England: Holland in Shakespeare, Tempest (Pelican), vii; Picard, Elizabeth’s, xxii; Adams, Best, 133-34. “Our land abounding”: Johnson, Nova [21]-[22] (NEW, 243). Virginia Company accepts indigent laborers: GEN, 1:252-53; Canny, “Permissive,” 25-27.

  Chapter Three

  “Calm seas”: 5.1.315, ARD, 284. Plymouth details: Gill, Plymouth: Ice, 196, 199, 202, 205, 211, and Plymouth: 1603, 10. “From Woolwich”: PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:279). Somers with two vessels joins at Plymouth: Quinn, “Pious,” 554; PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:279-80). History of the pinnace Virginia: Neill History, 30; GEN, 1:197; Evans, Shipping, 4. “Three score years,” “worthy and valiant”: DIS, 22 (VOY, 115-16). “A man very”: Stow, Annales (1632), 1018. “A gentleman”: PIL, 4:1735 (NAR, 383). “Sir George Somers”: T. Fuller, Worthies, 283. Somers’s biography: Darrell, “Admiral,” and Links, 4-6, 10. “Intending to pass”: Broadley, “Will,” 25. Matthew Somers on the Swallow: PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:280). Life in Plymouth: Gill, Plymouth: Ice, 198, 210, and Plymouth: 1603, 7-8. Names of officers: PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:280). “Expert captains”: Stow, Annales (1632), 1018.

  Number of people on Sea Venture (colonists and mariners): PIL, 4:1747 (NAR, 415); EST, 23 (NEW, 252); SMI, 1:268, 276, 2:219; NAR, 545; Craven, “Hughes,” 57 (claims 140); Stow, Annales (1615), 943 (claims 160). Elizabeth Persons on Sea Venture: PIL, 4:1746 (NAR, 413). Rolfe biography: NAR, 55. Buck biography: Dorman, Purse, 1:427 (a flawed Buck biography in the 1987 3rd ed. of Purse was corrected in the 4th ed.); Chorley, “Planting,” 200. “An able”: NAR, 707. Hopkins biography: Johnson, “Origin,” 164-66, 169-70; Christensen, “Parentage,” 243-46. “A fellow”: PIL, 4:1744 (NAR, 406).

  Ballast characteristics: Mainwaring, Dictionary, 92-93; Wingood, “Report” (1982), 335; Adams, “Report” (1985), 280, 282, 284; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “Sea Venture.” Cargo layout: Lavery, Merchantman, 88. Food storage: Mainwaring, Dictionary, 237; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “Sea Venture.” Cod bones found in wreck likely from Plymouth: Armitage, “Rats,” 145, 159. “Butter, cheese”: Strachey, For the Colony (1612), 9 (1969 ed., 16). Food on voyages, “the juice of lemons,” “suckets,” “comfits”: SMI, 3:28-29. Devonshire pottery in wreck: Wingood, “Report” (1982), 341, and “Artefacts,” 151; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “Sea Venture.” Chinese porcelain: Wingood, “Report” (1982), 341, 344. German casting counter: Wingood, “Artefacts,” 156. Bartmann bottles and Spanish olive jars: Wingood, “Report” (1982), 341-42; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “Sea Venture.” Other items found in wreck: Wingood, “Report” (1982), 337, 341-45, and “Artefacts,” 151-55; Adams, “Report” (1985), 279, 281. “Quarter cans”: SMI, 3:15-17.

  “Many oxen,” “a number”: FIR, 1:212. “Some stallions,” “bucks,” “hogs”: FIR, 2:277. Hogs and dog on Sea Venture: PIL, 4:1741 (NAR, 399-400). Pens on deck and bones of cows (carried as beef), hogs, sheep, cat, and rats in wreck: Armitage, “Rats,” 145-46, 148-49, 152, 157, and “Victuals,” 8-10. Sea Venture dog: Rich, Newes [4] (NAR, 375). Dog bones found at Jamestown: Kelso, Buried, 92-93. Sea Venture guns: Mardis, Wreck, 29; Wingood, “Report” (1982), 334-35, 339-41, and “Artefacts,” 149-51; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “Sea Venture.” Weights of guns: SMI, 3:26, 109. Duties of cape merchants: SMI, 3:15, 83. “Some superstitious”: Mainwaring, Dictionary, 163. Sleeping arrangements: Lavery, Merchantman, 24-26, 82-85; Baker, Vessels, 20, 42; Mainwaring, Dictionary, 86-87, 138-39, 253-54; Price, Love, 16.

  “The coming hither,” “Sir George”: GEN, 1:320. Second charter dated May 23, 1609: NEW, 205-12. Gates at charter signing May 29: GEN, 1:316-18. Treaties between Britain, Spain, Netherlands: Davenport, Treaties, 246, 258. Delay in departure of fleet: FIR, 1:212. Expedition held back to allow soldiers to join: FIR, 2:255, 258-59, 261. “A grave”: Stow, Annales (1632), 1018. “Very remarkable”: FIR, 2:255. Gates’s biography: Prince, Devon, 403-5; Horn, Land, 132-33; SMI, 1:xxxv; NAR, 46-47; GEN, 2:894-96. Gates stopped at Roanoke: Sheehan “Gates,” 792. Gates’s military record: FIR, 1:235, 2:277.

  “Upon Friday”: PIL, 4:1734 (NAR, 383). “Crossed by”: PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:279). Departure of fleet: TRU, 12 (NAR, 364); SMI, 1:127. Procedure when putting to sea, “yea, yea”: SMI, 3:17, 85. “God bless”: Stern, Powle, 142. “Kept in friendly”: PIL, 4:1734 (NAR, 383). Pinnace turns around: PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:280). Returning pinnace is Virginia: Horn, Land, 305. Pierce family separated: Dorman, Purse, 1:30, 31, 2:797-800, 3:24. “A quarter can,�
� “a dish,” “a little poor,” “the men leap”: SMI, 3:86, 92, 113. Use of gallery balconies: Bermuda Maritime Museum, “Sea Venture”; Lavery, Merchantman, 19. Smoking pipes: Wingood, “Artefacts,” 152; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “Sea Venture”; Kelso, Buried, 88-89. Ships’ heads: Lavery, Merchantman, 27.

  “Prosperous winds”: REL, 243. Sea Venture route: C. Smith, “Course,” based on TRU, 12-13 (NAR, 364-65); EST, 19-21 (NEW, 252); PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:281); PIL, 4:1734-35 (NAR, 383); DIS, 3-4 (VOY, 105); NAR, 453. Atlantic currents: Waters, Navigation, 2: plate 65. Wind science: Emanuel, Divine, 41-47. Log line: Mainwaring, Dictionary, 181-82. Meeting of officers at sea: TRU, 12-13 (NAR, 364); EST, 19-20 (NEW, 252); FIR, 2:277-78. Fleet advised to avoid Caribbean: NEW, 212. Instructions to meet at Barbuda if separated: TRU, 13 (NAR, 364). Archer in PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:280), claims Bermuda was the rendezvous spot, but FIR editor Barbour shows that Archer was surely in error: Bermuda was off course, surrounded by dangerous shallows, and feared as the “Devil’s Isle,” while Barbuda was near the planned route and unclaimed by the Spanish. “We ran,” “tracing through”: PIL, 4:1733-34 (FIR, 2:280-81). Diseases on tropical voyages: TRU, 13 (NAR, 364); EST, 19-21 (NEW, 252); NEW, 287. “In all hot”: Mainwaring, Dictionary , 91-92, 191. Calenture is heatstroke: Barbour, Three, 272. “But in the Blessing,” “in the Unity”: PIL, 4:1733-34 (FIR, 2:280-81).

  Chapter Four

  “Ride on the curled”: 1.2.191-92, ARD, 162. C. Smith, “Course,” estimates that when the hurricane struck the Sea Venture was at a point 500 to 600 nautical miles (or 575 to 690 land, or statute, miles) southeast of Virginia and 240 to 300 nautical miles (or 275 to 345 statute miles) southwest of Bermuda, which places it at roughly latitude thirty degrees north, longitude sixty-eight degrees west. At onset of storm Sea Venture seven or eight days from Virginia: PIL, 4:1735 (NAR, 383-84). At onset, ship 100 leagues (300 nautical miles, or 345 statute miles) from Bermuda: NAR, 445. At onset, fleet 150 leagues (450 nautical miles or 520 statute miles) from West Indies: TRU, 13 (NAR, 364). At onset, vessels at latitude thirty degrees north: Stow, Annales (1615), 943. At onset, fleet at latitude of Azores (which span thirty-six to thirty-nine degrees north): BER, 11.

  Identifying the date on which the storm began is complicated by the chroniclers’ reference to St. James Day. Strachey in PIL, 4:1734-36 (the punctuation is altered in NAR, 383-84, 387), says the ships “unto the twenty-three of July, kept in friendly consort together” and, a few lines later, “When on S. James his day, July 24. being Monday (preparing for no less all the black night before) the clouds gathering thick upon us” (the period after “24” marks the completion of the numeral rather than the end of a sentence). Strachey also says the leak was discovered “upon the Tuesday morning.” In another account Somers says the storm began “on St. James’ eve, being the 23 of July,” and adds later that the pumpers and bailers worked “from the 23 of until the 28 of the same July, being Friday” (National Archives of the United Kingdom, co 1/1, No. 21, 84-85; NAR, 445-46). Jourdain in DIS, 4 (VOY, 105), says the storm began “upon the five and twentieth day of July”; Archer in PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:281), says it began “upon Saint James Day” without giving a date; the Virginia Company in TRU, 13 (NAR, 364), reiterates that it began “on S. James day.” The designation of July 24 as St. James Day by Somers (and seemingly by Strachey as well) is difficult to explain. Chambers, Book of Days, 2:120-22, and Blackburn and Holford-Strevens, Oxford Book of Days, 306-7, indicate that St. James Day has been firmly anchored to July 25 for centuries. Numerous records of the early seventeenth century confirm that it was observed on July 25, perhaps none more definitively than accounts of the July 25, 1603, coronation of King James on the feast day of the monarch’s namesake saint, see for example Wilbraham, Journal, 61. Two instances have been found of St. James Day being marked on July 24: Baker, Records, 136 (a paraphrase of a 1584 agricultural journal), and Linschoten, Voyages, 179 (a 1598 travel account by a Dutch explorer). Those instances suggest some variability in the date of the feast day and may explain why Somers and Strachey apparently observed it on July 24, 1609. I have thus interpreted the Sea Venture sources to mean the following: the fleet was together until the evening of Sunday, July 23, when signs of a storm prompted preparations through that night; the hurricane hit on Monday, July 24; the leak was discovered early on Tuesday, July 25; and the storm lasted until Friday, July 28.

  Lashing of guns: Lavery, Merchantman, 39, 119. “A dreadful storm”: PIL, 4:1735 (NAR, 384). Hurricane characteristics: PIL, 4:1735, 1737 (NAR, 384, 389); Smith, “Course.” African weather patterns spawning hurricanes: Emanuel, Divine , 98-100. Scattering of the fleet: EST, 34 (NEW, 255); PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:281). Methods of towing small vessels: Harland, Seamanship, 207-8. Casting off of the ketch, “Michael Philes”: PIL, 4:1735, 1748 (NAR, 384, 418). I have used Strachey’s’s spelling of “Philes” instead of Archer’s “Fitch,” PIL, 4:1733 (FIR, 2:280). Thirty people on ketch: Bernhard, “Men,” 606, based on FIR, 2:283, and PIL, 4:1747 (NAR, 415). Daily rain production of hurricanes: Emanuel, Divine, 187. “It works upon,” “the sea swelled,” “the glut of water”: PIL, 4:1735 (NAR, 384-85).

  Heavy-weather steering options: Mainwaring, Dictionary, 169, 179-80, 232, 249, 255; SMI, 3:88; Harland, Seamanship, 209-20. Somers’s decision to “run before” the storm or “spoon afore”: C. Smith, “Course,” based on Strachey’s statements that the wind came from northern points and Somers steered toward southern points, PIL, 4:1735, 1737 (NAR, 384, 389), and the stern (rather than the bow) of the ship was hit by a breaking sea, PIL, 4:1736 (NAR, 387). “Sir George Somers sitting”: DIS, 5-6 (VOY, 106).

  Causes of leaks: Harland, Seamanship, 303. “It pleased God,” “this imparting,” “there might be seen”: PIL, 4:1735-36 (NAR, 386-87). Empty pots used to find leaks, traditional use of beef plugs, “in some cases”: Butler, Dialogues, 22-23; Mainwaring, Dictionary, 177. Candlestick found still wedged between boards of wreck: Wingood, “Report” (1982), 337, 343, 345. “Many a weeping leak”: PIL, 4:1736 (NAR, 386). Depth of water in hold: NAR, 445 (nine feet); Burrage, Lost, 3 (seven to eight feet). Keel most dangerous place for leak: Mainwaring, Dictionary , 154. “The waters still”: PIL, 4:1736 (NAR, 386-87). Improvised pump-intake strainer found in wreck: Wingood, “Artefacts,” 156. Pump technology: Harland, Seamanship, 304-5.

  “To me this leakage,” “the men might”: PIL, 4:1736 (NAR, 387). Pierce family details: Dorman, Purse, 1:30, 31, 2:797-800, 3:24. Number, location, volume of pumps and bailing lines: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390). Strachey’s “gallon” predates Britain’s imperial gallon and is roughly equivalent to today’s U.S. gallon. I have relied on Strachey’s count of three pumps over Somers’s use of two hash marks to indicate two pumps in NAR, 445. Pumping and bailing methods and technology: Mainwaring, Dictionary, 92, 203-4, 218, 229-30; Lavery, Merchantman, 22- 23. “We kept one hundred”: NAR, 445. “Sharp and cruel,” “with the violent”: DIS, 4 (VOY, 105). Lack of food during storm, “we much unrigged”: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 389-90). Wright, Story, 22, interprets Strachey’s “heaved away all our ordnance on the starboard side” to mean that all guns on the ship went over the starboard side, but guns remained on the ship, as indicated by Wingood, “Report” (1982), 334-35 (gun found at the wreck site); PIL, 4:1747 (NAR, 414) (guns from Sea Venture placed on Bermuda-built ships); BER, 26, 290, and SMI, 2:355, 387 (guns salvaged from Sea Venture wreck by Bermuda colonists). “Sometimes strikes”: PIL, 4:1735 (NAR, 385). Powhatan canoes carry forty people: HIS, 75 (NAR, 638-39). Sea Venture probably passed through eye of hurricane: Smith, “Course.” Characteristics of hurricane eyes: Emanuel, Divine, 8-13, 165; Elsner, Hurricanes, 3-4. Clouds block sun and stars from navigators, “for four and twenty,” “ran now”: PIL, 4:1735-37 (NAR, 385, 388-89).

  Chapter Five

  “We all were”: 2.1.251, ARD, 202. Remora story, “so huge a sea,” “it struck him,” “it so stunned”: PIL, 4:1736 (NAR, 387-88). Science of overtaking wave: Harland, Seamanship, 214-15. Canvas hatch cover
s: Baker, Vessels, 43. Sea Venture incident a rogue wave: Mountford, “Storms,” 22-23. Contemporary source for remora tale: Deacon and Walker, Discourses (1601), 204-5. “There was not,” “upon the Thursday,” “towards the morning,” “purposed to have cut,” “it being now Friday”: PIL, 4:1736-37 (NAR, 388-90). “They were so overwearied,” “some of them having”: DIS, 5-6 (VOY, 106-7).

  Date and time of Bermuda landing, lack of food and drink during storm: PIL, 4:1737, 1747 (NAR, 390, 415); DIS, 5-6, 10-11 (VOY, 106, 109). “See the goodness,” “it being better surveyed”: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390). “Most wishedly”: DIS, 6 (VOY, 106). Precolonial history of Bermuda: Jones, Bermuda, 10, 12, 14. Bermuda has most early shipwrecks in Western Hemisphere: Armitage, “Rats,” 155. Gates rather than Somers gives order to ground ship: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390). Danger of overthrowing in shallows: Mainwaring: Dictionary, 194. Call for continued bailing, “hearing news”: DIS, 6-7 (VOY, 106-7).

  “The morning now,” “we had somewhat”: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390). “It pleased God”: DIS, 7 (VOY, 107). “The boatswain”: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390). Dimensions of ship based on wreck: Wright, Story, 24, 27. “Neither did”: DIS, 7 (VOY, 107). Location of wreck: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390); Wingood, “Report” (1982), 346. Single point of entry to Bermuda: PIL, 4:1739 (NAR, 394). Use of longboat and skiff: DIS, 7 (VOY, 107). Use of boats, description of bay, “under a point,” “a goodly bay”: PIL, 4:1737-40, 1747 (NAR, 390-91, 394, 397, 415). Commanding officer last to leave distressed ship: Harland, Seamanship, 310. “By the mercy”: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390). Palmetto leaves as blankets: Jourdain, Plaine, 22; Collett, Plants, 78.