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

by Hobson Woodward

  Chapter Six

  “The still-vexed”: 1.2.229, ARD, 165 (editors Vaughan and Vaughan modernize “Bermoothes” to “Bermudas”). Temperate air of Bermuda: Burrage, Lost, 16- 17. “Gushings and soft”: PIL, 4:1740 (NAR, 396). Early history of Bermuda: Jones, Bermuda, 12, 14. “We found it,” “because they be”: PIL, 4:1737 (NAR, 390-91). “As they would shun,” “the islands of”: DIS, 8-9 (VOY, 108). Powell identification, “fens, marshes”: PIL, 4:1740, 1746 (NAR, 398, 413). Fear of contagion from marshes: Kupperman, “Climates,” 224. Tradition that well dug by castaways still exists as Lunn’s Well: Hayward, Bermuda, 177; Kennedy, Isle, 37, 258. “Drinks always sweet”: Hughes, Letter [6].

  “We saved all”: NAR, 445. Salvage brought to island, “nothing but bared ribs”: PIL, 4:1741 (NAR, 399); DIS, 7-8 (VOY, 107); EST, 23 (NEW, 252). “Many kind of fishes”: DIS, 11-12 (VOY, 109-10). Fish caught near camp: PIL, 4:1740 (NAR, 396-98). Bermuda fish species: Hughes, Letter [6]. “We had knowledge,” “at night was watched,” Oviedo quoted on Spanish leaving hogs on Bermuda: PIL, 4:1738, 1741 (NAR, 391-92, 399-400). Diego Ramirez’s visit: Wilkinson, Adventurers, 22; Jones, Bermuda, 11, 16. Bermuda hogs compared to modern breeds: Armitage, “Rats,” 147. “Our people would go”: PIL, 4:1741 (NAR, 400).

  Palmetto fronds described: Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 120. “With these leaves,” “so broad are”: PIL, 4:1739 (NAR, 396). Consumption of palmetto berries and leaf heads: DIS, 15-16 (VOY, 112). “Roasting the palmetto,” “a kind of peas,” prickly pear description: PIL, 4:1739-40 (NAR, 396); HIS, 119 (NAR, 678). The Oxford English Dictionary says the first published use of “prickle pear” is EST (1610), 24 (NEW, 253). Bermuda a defensive stronghold: DIS, 17-18 (VOY, 113). “Desolate and not inhabited”: PIL, 4:1739 (NAR, 394). “The best of it was”: Beverly, History, 33. “They were long”: PIL, 4:1739 (NAR, 394). “They are here”: BER, 6. “Sir George Somers in” (with parenthetical aside silently omitted): PIL, 4:1739 (NAR, 394). “The mosquitoes”: BER, 6. “Whereas it is reported,” “no, nor any”: Jourdain, Plaine, 19. “My opinion sincerely”: DIS, 10 (VOY, 109). “I hope to deliver,” Samuel murder described, “disdain that justice,” “afterward by the mediation”: PIL, 4:1737-38, 1746 (NAR, 391, 412, 413).

  Chapter Seven

  “Had I plantation”: 2.1.144, ARD, 193. Migration of birds and insects, monthly temperatures: Amos, Birds, 18-19, 22, 23. “Many an ancient,” “a round blue”: PIL, 4:1739-40 (NAR, 396). Strachey’s blue berry is bay grape: Sterrer and Cavaliere, Seashore, 22-24. Palmetto bibby: Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 119; Collett, Plants, 78. “The berries whereof”: PIL, 4:1739 (NAR, 395). Strachey’s “corynthes” are currants: Oxford English Dictionary. “There are an infinite”: DIS, 16 (VOY, 112). Tobacco found on Bermuda: DIS, 18 (VOY, 113); Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 120. Olives and pawpaws introduced circa 1593: Collett Plants, 96. Mulberries and silkworms found: DIS, 15 (VOY, 111-12).

  Summer food storage difficult: Jourdain, Plaine, 19. “Kept three or four”: PIL, 4:1740 (NAR, 397). Salt making on Bermuda: HIS, 61 (NAR, 626); DIS, 19 (VOY, 119); Craven, “Hughes,” 75-76. Volume of wood to make sea salt: LeConte, Salt, 10. Continuous fires: PIL, 4:1740 (NAR, 397). Spanish use of Bermuda cedar: Jones, Bermuda, 12. Size of largest cedars: Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 117. Island-built gondola: DIS, 12-13 (VOY, 110). Gondola construction, “we have taken”: PIL, 4:1740 (NAR, 397). Strachey’s “gundall” and “skulles” are gondola and schools: Oxford English Dictionary. Canoes used on Bermuda: PIL, 4:1741, 1747 (NAR, 400, 416). Namontack and Machumps were on Bermuda: SMI, 2:350; Parker, Van Meteren’s, 67. I have assumed that only Powhatans would have exerted the time and effort necessary to construct canoes. Powhatan canoe construction and fishing: SMI, 1:163-64. “A kind of boat”: NAR, 494. “Enclosures made”: HIS, 68 (NAR, 633).

  Typical length of longboats: Lavery, Merchantman, 23. Outfitting of longboat, pinnace construction, naming of Frobisher’s Building Bay, “a painful,” “we made up” (with a parenthetical aside silently omitted), “the twenty-eighth,” “promising if he”: PIL, 4:1740, 1742-43 (NAR, 397, 401-4). Frobisher’s Building Bay is universally identified with the modern Building Bay on St. George’s Island just north of Town Cut. The Somers map in the Bermuda Archives, however, places Frobisher’s Building Bay farther north, at a notch in the shoreline at the modern intersection of Coot Pond and Barry roads. That notch, however, is too small and its sides too steep (at least in its present configuration) to be used as a site for the construction of a pinnace. Also, Strachey’s description of fishing in Frobisher’s Building Bay seems to better match the configuration of the modern Building Bay. The persistence of the name on continuously occupied Bermuda is additional evidence that the two are one and the same. Therefore, despite the label on the map, I have located Frobisher’s Building Bay at the modern Building Bay. Date of laying of keel, pinnace specifications: PIL, 4:1746-47 (NAR, 413-15). Boat-building methods, “first lay the keel,” “the lengths”: SMI, 3:17-18, 57-58. “The governor dispensed”: PIL, 4:1743 (NAR, 403-4).

  “I am persuaded,” “some dangerous,” “in Virginia nothing,” “there being neither” (with a parenthetical aside silently omitted), “a mutinous,” “they were condemned”: PIL, 4:1743 (NAR, 404-5). Mutineers’ desire to stay: BER, 13. Conflicting motivations of Gates and the mutineers: Greenblatt, Shakespearean, 151-53. Early autumn weather conditions: Amos, Birds, 25. “Our governor (not easy)”: PIL, 4:1743 (NAR, 406).

  Strachey’s interviews with Machumps and other Powhatans (in Jamestown; there is no record of Bermuda interviews, but I have assumed they occurred): HIS, 26, 53-54, 94 (NAR, 596, 619-20, 655). Namontack’s knowledge of English: Vaughan, Transatlantic, 47. Strachey’s record of Powhatan words: HIS, 183-96; Strachey, Dictionary. Powhatan bows and hunting methods: Rountree, Powhatan Indians, 39-40, 42. Bermuda’s cave system: Sterrer and Iliffe, “Mesonerilla,” 509. “Some such differences”: SMI, 2:350. Smith, and Van Meteren in Parker, Van Meteren’s, 67, allege that Machumps murdered Namontack on Bermuda. Because there is no indication that the English punished Machumps, I have assumed that Namontack disappeared, the English were suspicious but could not prove murder, and the story of the disappearance was exaggerated by returning voyagers.

  Chapter Eight

  “’Twas a sweet”: 2.1.73 ARD, 189. Autumn weather conditions, cahow arrival and laying timetable: Amos, Birds, 25, 28, 31, 40. “At dusk, such”: Wilkinson, Adventurers, 23; Jones, Bermuda, 10, 16. “Birds Ilands” are labeled on the Somers map in the Bermuda Archives (now Cooper’s Island and Castle Islands nature reserves south of Bermuda International Airport). “A kind of web-footed,” “there are thousands”: PIL, 4:1740-41 (NAR, 398-99). Oviedo use of “sea-mew” (a possible source for Strachey): Jones, Bermuda, 13.

  Naming of features, identifications of Gates Bay and Somers Creek, description (without naming) of Strachey’s Watch: PIL, 4:1738-39, 1742 (NAR, 391-92, 394, 402). Strachey’s Watch is named on the Somers map in the Bermuda Archives. Strachey’s Watch is probably the bluff where St. David’s Lighthouse now stands: Zuill, “Cast Away,” 55.

  Somers’s mapping of Bermuda, “Sir George Somers, who coasted,” Strachey sending the map and a report to the “Excellent Lady”: PIL, 4:1738, 1742 (NAR, 391, 403). A map identified as Somers’s map is owned by the Bermuda National Trust and on deposit in the collection of the Bermuda Archives, and an incomplete duplicate of that map is in the British Library (Cotton Charter XIII.45). The outline of the island in the two versions differs minutely, as if one is a freehand copy of the other. The two versions share illustrations that also vary in small ways—a whale, a depiction of two hunters and a dog chasing hogs, a compass rose, and the Harrington family coat of arms. On the Bermuda Archives copy a cherub on the back of a sea turtle carries a banner identifying the Bermuda archipelago as the “Sumer Iles” (i.e., Summer or Somers Islands), a name not coined until 1612, evidence that dates the illustration to that year or later. The Bermuda Archives version also has unique labels that identify
features of the Sea Venture era: Gates Bay, Frobisher’s Building Bay, Somers Creek, the Bird Islands, Strachey’s Watch, and Ravens Sound (the map is the only known source of the last two names). The named features closely match those described by Strachey, demonstrating that the author of the labels was familiar with the geography of the Sea Venture era. A complication is that while the notch of Frobisher’s Building Bay is accurately depicted on the map, the label naming it is placed too far north. Thus, it seems the author of the labels may have had a degraded memory or imperfect knowledge of the early geography of the island. Two other named features on the Bermuda Archives version, “Baylysses house” and “Waltons house,” certainly date to the settlement period following 1612. Wilkinson, Adventurers , plate facing 47, calls the Bermuda Archives document “an early map, probably a copy of Sir George Somers’s map.” While it is possible that both maps are copies of a lost original, a perhaps more likely scenario is that one of the two is the original (with added information of a later date) and one is a copy. Quinn, “Bermuda in the Age,” 22-23, suggests that the British Library map is more likely the original, but definitive evidence is lacking.

  Both maps also carry the coat of arms of the Harrington family, as noted in the British Library catalog entry for Cotton Charter XIII.45; Wilkinson, Adventurers , plate facing 47; and Tucker, Bermuda Today and Yesterday, 35. As Wilkinson and Tucker note, the presence of the Harrington coat of arms on the maps suggests they were once owned by the daughter of the first Lord Harrington, Lucy, Countess of Bedford, and that therefore she was probably the anonymous “Excellent Lady” to whom Strachey sent the map and his report of the wreck. Wingood, Wingood, and Adams, Tempest Wreck, 10, and Rowse, Southampton, 239, also argue that the countess was Strachey’s “Excellent Lady” without noting the evidence of the coat of arms on the maps. The countess was a shareholder in the Virginia Company, a patron of the literary arts, close to Strachey’s friend John Donne, and later an owner of large landholdings on Bermuda (the island’s Harrington Sound was named after her). Those factors all support the identification of her as the likely recipient of Strachey’s letter. Furthermore, her continuing interest in Bermuda from the early years of the Virginia Company through the post-settlement era explains why a map in her possession would carry labels from both eras. The Countess of Bedford’s post-settlement real estate activities are described in Craven, “Introduction,” 338-40. Her friendship with Donne is detailed in Lawson Shadows, 74, 86-111; Thomson, “Donne”; Stubbs, Donne, 221-24, 240-47, 300-306. Several other “Excellent Lady” candidates have been proposed: Culliford, Strachey, 152-54, and Foster Elegy, 279, suggest she was Sara Blount Smith; Gayley, Shakespeare, 231-32, argues that she was Elizabeth Hume Howard.

  Gayley, Shakespeare, 18-20, 70-76, recounts what is known about Strachey’s “True Reportory” manuscript, which is no longer extant. Noël Hume in “Unrecorded First Draft” proposes that a late nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century transcript discovered on Bermuda reflects the existence of a second variant of Strachey’s letter. My reading of the evidence is that the transcript is more likely a rough and selective transcription of the PIL text. Vaughan, “Evidence,” 256-59, agrees with Noël Hume.

  The editor of PIL, 4:1738 (NAR, 391), in a 1625 marginal note next to Strachey’s discussion of Somers’s map, says “Sir George Summer’s diligent survey; his draught which we have not. M. Norgate hath since published an exact Map.” As editor, Wright notes in VOY, 17, the allusion to an “M. Norgate” map is likely a misspelled reference to “Mr.” Richard Norwood’s later map of Bermuda that was published in 1622.

  Powell and Persons wedding: PIL, 4:1746 (NAR, 413); DIS, 17 (VOY, 113). English wedding traditions: Monger, Marriage, 34, 38, 46, 53, 98, 115, 293. “Amongst all those”: SMI, 2:349. “There is great”: DIS, 16-17 (VOY, 112). Pearls on Bermuda: PIL, 4:1738, 1745 (NAR, 393-94, 410). “In the bottom”: SMI, 2:341. “There is one”: Jourdain, Plaine, 21.

  Strachey in PIL, 4:1742-43 (NAR, 403-4), and Jourdain in DIS, 13 (VOY, 110- 11), note the fractured relationship between Gates and Somers. Butler (who was not among the castaways) in BER, 14, followed by Smith, in SMI, 2:349, and Irving in Wolfert’s, 66, exaggerate the antagonism between the two leaders. I have followed Jones, Bermuda, 25, who characterizes the split as the two leaders “demonstrating traditional rivalry, Somers, the sailor, and Gates, the soldier.”

  Indentured castaways fear abandonment, leaders communicate by letter, Communion on Christmas eve, “two moons ,” “the seven and twentieth,” “twenty of the ablest”: PIL, 4:1742, 1745-46 (NAR, 402-3, 410-13). No frost on Bermuda: Phillips-Watlington, Botanical, 15. Breakwater construction, “at Christmas,” “these islands are often,” “the three winter”: PIL, 4:1738, 1747 (NAR, 392-93, 414). Hopkins biography: Johnson, “Origin,” 164-66, 169-70; Christensen, “Parentage,” 243-46. Hopkins’s arguments justifying mutiny, “full of sorrow” “so penitent”: PIL, 4:1744 (NAR, 406-7).

  Births of babies: PIL, 4:1746 (NAR, 413); DIS, 17 (VOY, 113); Rich, Newes [5] (NAR, 375); Hughes, Letter [4]; SMI, 2:349. Only married women assist with childbirth: Picard, Elizabeth’s, 182-83. Childbirth methods, “the time of delivery,” “sometimes the midwife,” “to give her women,” “the child being”: Sermon, Companion (1671), 92-95, 99-101, 106-8, 120. Sermon’s “mummy” is human remains used as medicine: Oxford English Dictionary. Cedar compress on cord stump: Stamers-Smith, “Flora,” 117; Collett, Plants, 57. “The eleventh”: PIL, 4:1746 (NAR, 413). “All intents and purposes”: NEW, 210. “Young children”: Hughes, Letter [7].

  Cahows’ and hens’ eggs similar: PIL, 4:1741 (NAR, 399). Sea turtle nursery, average weight of green sea turtle: Bermuda Turtle Project, “Species.” Palmetto berry season, sea turtle hunting: PIL, 4:1741 (NAR, 400). Sea turtle hunting, “we take them,” “they will live,” “the flesh that cleaveth”: Burrage, Lost, 20, 22. Use of turtle oil: DIS, 15 (VOY, 111). Bermuda birds, “the mornings,” “fowl there”: PIL, 4:1738, 1740 (NAR, 393, 398).

  Chapter Nine

  “I do begin”: 4.1.220-21, ARD, 258. “Deadly and bloody,” “the life of our,” “pass the act,” “evil language,” “Paine replied,” “with the omitted,” “our governor who,” “whether mere rage,” “so weak and unworthy,” “of that ancient love,” “Sir George Somers did,” “of a mighty compass,” “the mightiest blast”: PIL, 4: 1738, 1744-46 (NAR, 393, 408-12). “A place heretofore”: Prince, Devon, 403-4. Death of Bermuda Rolfe, “the five and twentieth”: PIL, 4:1746 (NAR, 413). Pierce family information: Dorman, Purse, 1:30, 31, 2:797-800, 3:24.

  Five hundred salted fish put on ships: PIL, 4:1740 (NAR, 397). Live turtles and salted birds, pork, and fish taken: Craven, “Hughes,” 75-76; BER, 14. Bermuda grouper, snapper, sea turtle, cahow, and pork remains in Jamestown digs: Kelso, Buried, 89-90; Bowen and Andrews, “Starving,” 48-50, 58-59, 72-73. “They come and lay,” “very fat and sweet”: DIS, 13 (VOY, 110-11). “Egg bird” described: BER, 4; SMI, 2:342. Egg bird probably common tern: Verrill, Bermuda, 254-56. Common tern described: Amos, Birds, 33. Spring weather, April humpback whale migration: Amos, Birds, 33. Whales seen and heard off shore: DIS, 17 (VOY, 112- 13). Strachey (citing Oviedo) on thresher and swordfish attacks on whales: PIL, 4:1740 (NAR, 398). Similar passages by Percy and an anonymous early colonist of Bermuda: NAR, 86; Jourdain, Plaine, 22. Barbour, “Honorable,” 10-11, proposes Strachey copied the passage from Percy, but the similarity is more likely due to the common use of Oviedo. Donne’s use of the same image in 1601: Donne, Poems, 188; Stubbs, Donne, 151-52. Historical confusion between swordfish and threshers and killer whales: Martin, “Thresher.” Tropic birds and pimlicos on Bermuda: BER, 4-5; SMI, 2:343. Tropic bird behavior: Amos, Birds, 31, 41. Pimlico is Audubon’s shearwater: Verrill, Bermuda, 265-67.

  Caulking of Bermuda vessels: PIL, 4:1746-47 (NAR, 414). Hull sealing methods: SMI, 3:66-67. Launch of Deliverance, vessel specifications, “when she began,” “the thirtieth of March,” “we launched her,” “the most part,” “her
beams”: PIL, 4:1747 (NAR, 414-15). Deliverance specifications: Hardy, Voyage [vi]; Sams, Conquest, 717-18. Bermuda limestone ballast in Jamestown digs: Kelso, Buried, 90, 107. “God in the”: DIS, 20 (VOY, 114). Launch of Patience, vessel specifications: PIL, 4:1747 (NAR, 415-16). Somers’s work on Patience, single bolt in vessel: DIS, 23 (VOY, 116). Frobisher’s inscription in Latin: Hardy, Voyage [vi]. Frobisher translated as “there was built”: Sams, Conquest, 717-18. “In memory of our” (memorial is no longer extant), “from this time,” “about ten of”: PIL, 4:1747-48 (NAR, 415-16).

  Chapter Ten

  “O brave new”: 5.1.183, ARD, 275. “Had it not been,” “we buried five”: PIL, 4:1746, 1748 (NAR, 413, 416-17). Rich, Newes [5] (NAR, 375), says two died, apparently understating the number to exactly offset the two births. Machumps suspected in Namontack’s disappearance: Parker, Van Meteren’s, 67; SMI, 2:350. Machumps circulated freely among the English after Namontack’s disappearance: HIS, 26, 54, 94 (NAR, 596, 619, 655); NAR, 550. “The body of ”: PIL, 4:1746 (NAR, 412).

  Voyage to Virginia: PIL, 4:1748 (NAR, 417). Speed of pinnaces: Smith, “Course.” “The twentieth about”: PIL, 4:1748 (NAR, 417). “A well-bowed”: SMI, 3:64. “In the morning,” “about seven,” “the one and,” “being Monday”: PIL, 4:1748 (NAR, 417-18). “We espied two”: REL, 250. “The good news,” “from hence”: PIL, 4:1748 (NAR, 418-19). Soldiers at fort report famine: NAR, 445-46. Deep water off Jamestown: NAR, 94. Jamestown description: PIL, 4:1752-53 (NAR, 429-30). Sixty survived famine in Jamestown palisade: SMI, 1:275-76, 2:232; DIS, 20-21 (VOY, 114-15); ANC, 29; REL, 271. Twenty-five to forty more survived at Point Comfort fort: Bernhard, “Men,” 599, 612, 613; Camfield, “Worms,” 659. Two hundred forty-five total were reduced to ninety: Kelso, Buried, 90. Women were among the starving: Bernhard, “Men,” 614. “Great pain”: NEW, 210. “Sloth, riot,” “factionaries,” “their ignoble,” “no story can remember”: PIL, 4:1749 (NAR, 420). “Tempest of dissension”: EST, 34 (NEW, 255). “The happiest day”: Neill, History , 408.