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

by Hobson Woodward

  Drought of 1606 to 1612: Blanton, “Drought,” 76, 77; Stahle, “Lost”; Fagan, Ice Age, 96-97; Kelso, Buried, 122-23, 178. Health problems caused by saltwater consumption: Earle, “Environment,” 99-105, 109-11, 116-17, 122-25; Price, Love, 48; Adams, Best, 164-67. “Had not now,” “true it is”: PIL, 4:1751, 1753 (NAR, 425, 430- 31). Concern about water quality: EST, 32-33, 42 (NEW, 254-55, 257). Mosquitoes at Jamestown: Noël Hume, Here Lies, 68-69. Health threats during drought: Rutman and Rutman, “Agues,” 33-34, 38, 50; Kupperman, “Apathy,” 24-25, 28- 34, 36 (prisoner of war comparison), and “Climates,” 213-14, 228-29, 231-33; Blanton, Medicine, 47-55, 62-69; Adams, Best, 164-67; Bernhard, “Men,” 605, 615, and “Bermuda,” 58-59; Price, Love, 55-56 (concentration camp comparison).

  Reunited fleet disobeyed Gates’s Barbuda order: Glover and Smith, Shipwreck , 98. “The Unity,” “having cut her”: PIL, 4:1733-34 (FIR, 2:281, 282). “In the tail”: SMI, 2:219-20. “Houses few”: ANC, 29. Argall’s voyage to Jamestown: SMI, 1:267, 2:216-17; FIR, 2:285; Eaton, “Voyage”; Connor, “Argall,” 163-64. Wounding of John Smith, arrival of the Virginia, Smith’s departure for England: SMI, 1:128, 272-73, 2:223-25, 231-32; FIR, 2:253; REL, 245-46; TRU, 14 (NAR, 365); Bernhard, “Men,” 608-9; Brown, Republic, 109. “Sir Thomas Gates”: NEW, 287. Starving Time details, “famine beginning,” “to do those things”: REL, 247-51. Events during Jamestown famine: EST, 36-43 (NEW, 255-57); Neill, History, 408; ANC, 29; SMI, 2:232-33; Sainsbury, State Papers: Colonial, 1:39; FIR, 1:150; Fausz, “Blood,” 25-27.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Our royal”: 5.1.237, ARD, 279. Pierce family details: Dorman, Purse, 1:30, 31, 2:797-800, 3:24. Reuniting of the Pierces: Bernhard, “Men,” 616-17. “Our much-grieved”: PIL, 4:1748-49 (NAR, 419). “A homely thing”: SMI, 3:295. Church building details: Lounsbury, Church, 3-4. “Viewing the fort”: PIL, 4:1749 (NAR, 419). “Our governor Sir”: NAR, 446. “There was a general”: PIL, 4:1749-52 (NAR, 419- 27). “Every man glad”: ANC, 29. “Most of our men”: REL, 251. Careening of ships: Mainwaring, Dictionary, 117-19.

  Gates’s posting of laws (an editor’s note not reprinted in NAR says they numbered 21): PIL, 4:1749 (NAR, 420). Flaherty in commentary in Strachey, For the Colony (1969), xvi, xviii, xxiii, argues that based on language style the first nineteen laws published later by Strachey may safely be attributed to Gates. Because the language of the nineteenth is ambiguous, I have attributed the first eighteen to him. Laws rooted in military code and more severe than civil law: Flaherty in Strachey, For the Colony (1969), ix, xv, xxvi-xxviii, xxxii; GEN, 2:529; Linebaugh and Rediker, Hydra, 18. “Have a bodkin,” “disgraceful words,” “tied head and feet,” “no man shall ravish”: Strachey, For the Colony (1612), 3, 5, 7 (1969 edition, 10-14).

  Virginia departed in advance for Point Comfort: NAR, 456, 458. Date of departure, “he commanded,” “his own company”: PIL, 4:1752 (NAR, 427). “Quitted Jamestown”: ANC, 29. “About an hour”: PIL, 4:1752 (NAR, 427). Longboat meets Jamestown vessels: NAR, 458; EST, 45-46 (NEW, 257). Delaware in NAR, 466, says Gates intended to wait ten days at Point Comfort for Delaware’s fleet before leaving for Newfoundland. The contention lacks credibility, given Gates’s precarious food supply, and I have attributed it to an attempt by Delaware to deflect criticism from Gates for deciding to abandon the colony. Alternately, Kelso, Buried , 40, 91-92, notes that Point Comfort was rich in shellfish that could have sustained the colonists if they had waited there for Delaware.

  Delaware expected to follow Gates fleet with a thousand people in nine ships: Brown, Republic, 101; GEN, 1:358. Delaware actually carried 150 colonists plus crew in three ships: NAR, 465; NEW, 219. Higher estimates of Delaware contingent: Rich, Newes [6] (NAR, 376) (170); ANC, 30 (250); REL, 251-52 (300). Names of Delaware’s ships: NAR, 454-55. “Made our hearts”: NAR, 446. “Revived all”: DIS, 21-22 (VOY, 115). “The great grief”: ANC, 30. I have reconciled conflicting statements about Gates’s location in PIL, 4:1752 (NAR, 427), and ANC, 30, by presuming that Gates sent most of his fleet back to Jamestown immediately and later rode the Virginia up river in convoy with Delaware’s ships. “It was seasoned”: NAR, 456.

  Argall brought news of the loss of the Sea Venture to England by November 9, 1609: FIR, 2:285-86. “Were dashed”: FIR, 2:278. Ships lost off France, “they tell me”: FIR, 2:286, 289. “Unruly youths,” “vile and scandalous,” “color their own,” “cheer themselves,” “these devices infused,” “lascivious sons”: Virginia Company, Publication (GEN, 1:354-55). TRU registered for publication December 14, 1609: Barbour, Three, 284. Sea Venture wreck widely discussed in London: Bristol, Shakespeare, 63. “Ignorant rumor,” “we will call,” “is he fit,” “so small a root,” “blessed and unexpected,” “perhaps bound in,” “the loss of him,” “against some doubt”: TRU, 2, 5, 14, 15, 17 (NAR, 358-59, 365-67). “Some say that”: FIR, 2:288. “Loose, lewd,” “the very excrements,” “such fellows,” “let no wise man”: Crashaw, Sermon [38], [44]-[45]. Delaware’s voyage preparations: Quinn, “Pious,” 554. Departure date, number of ships and passengers: NAR, 465.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Savages and men”: 2.2.57, ARD, 210. Date of Delaware’s arrival in Jamestown, his entry into the palisade, newly appointed officers, “his lordship landing fell”: PIL, 4:1752, 1754 (NAR, 427, 432-33). The rank Strachey attributes to Scot, “ancient” (i.e., bearer of the ancient colors), is “ensign”: Oxford English Dictionary . Weynman is Delaware’s first cousin: Barbour, Pocahontas, 76. “I delivered some”: NAR, 458-59. Delaware’s report home: NAR, 454-64. Strachey calls recipient of his letter “Excellent Lady”: PIL, 4:1734, 1742, 1756 (NAR, 383, 402, 438). Recipient was likely Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford: Wilkinson, Adventurers , plate facing 47; Tucker, Bermuda Today and Yesterday, 35 (see full analysis above in notes to chapter eight).

  “I set the sailors”: NAR, 466. Virginia Company thought colony had livestock: PIL, 4:1754 (NAR, 433). “I dispatched Sir”: NAR, 466-67. Somers’s departure date: NAR, 459-60. Silvester Jourdain in DIS, 23 (VOY, 116), gives the same date. “Now we are”: NAR, 446. Sheltering from a rainstorm, to sea June 23: NEW, 303. Butler’s contention in BER, 15, that Somers had a secret pact with the men left behind to return to Bermuda is not credible. Refurbishing of Jamestown: NAR, 466. “Pretty chapel,” “shall have a chancel”: PIL, 4:1752-53 (NAR, 429). Delaware brought four preachers: FIR, 2:279. Church schedule, “every Sunday when” (Strachey meant that the total number of gentlemen and halberdiers was fifty rather than that there were fifty halberdiers): PIL, 4:1753 (NAR, 429). Jamestown artifact cache probably dates to Delaware’s cleanup: Kelso, Buried, 101, 103.

  Physical seasoning of colonists fresh from England: Kupperman, “Climates,” 215, 220, 232. Delaware’s illnesses, “presently after my,” “I was upon”: NEW, 263. Alleged fate of Ravens’s expedition, diplomatic emissaries, “Powhatan returned no”: PIL, 4:1748, 1755-56 (NAR, 418, 435-37). Negotiations with the Powhatans: REL, 253. Strawberries outside the palisade: FIR, 1:161. Colonists killed gathering strawberries, “certain Indians,” “now being startled”: PIL, 4:1755 (NAR, 434-35, 437). Strachey at Kecoughtan attack (I have presumed him to be at Jamestown unless explicit evidence places him outside the palisade): PIL, 4:1755 (NAR, 435). “Being landed he,” “fell in upon”: REL, 252. Kecoughtan attack, construction of English fort: ANC, 30; Fausz, “Blood,” 6, 32. Kecoughtan description, “many pretty copses,” “maracock apple” (editor Major identifies the maracock apple as the passionflower): HIS, 60 (NAR, 626-27). French vintners sent to Jamestown: EST, 58-59 (NEW, 260). “We proposed to set”: PIL, 4:1755 (NAR, 435). “Behold the goodly”: HIS, 120 (NAR, 678-79). Hostage’s hand severed: PIL, 4:1756 (NAR, 437); REL, 255.

  Gates’s return to England: SMI, 1:277, 2:236. Returning ships are Blessing and Hercules: GEN, 1:455. Delaware’s report home: NAR, 454-64. Capture of Tackonekintaco and Tangoit, “the Indians of Warraskoyack”: PIL, 4:1756 (NAR, 437- 38); HIS, 58-59 (NAR, 624-25). Analysis of Strachey’s conflicting accounts of
the incident: Townsend, Pocahontas, 98-99, 196; Vaughan, Transatlantic, 51, 278. Percy’s attack on Paspahegh, participation of “Master Stacy”: SMI, 2:236. “Master Stacy” is Strachey: Culliford, Strachey, 121. “We fell in upon,” “my soldiers did,” “marching about fourteen,” “I replied that,” “although Captain Davis”: REL, 253-54.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “To see a dead”: 2.2.32, ARD, 208. Argall’s Sagadahoc expedition: NEW, 302-7. Argall’s return to Jamestown: REL, 252. Argall names Delaware Bay: Fausz, “Argall,” 588; Barbour, Pocahontas, 83. “Fell upon two”: HIS, 59 (NAR, 625). Warraskoyack raid description: REL, 254-55. Arrival of the Dainty: ANC, 30. Dainty left England soon after arrival of Swallow: GEN, 1:393; Brown, Republic , 125. “The Indians hold,” “thus it looks”: GEN, 1:392. Return of the Swallow, “these are that scum”: EST, 36-38 (NEW, 255-56). “My lord for an,” “the party being thrown”: REL, 255. Expedition upriver, conflict at Appomattox: HIS, 56 (NAR, 622); NAR, 521; ANC, 30; REL, 255-56; NEW, 301.

  Argall’s Patawomeck expedition: NEW, 264-65; HIS, 38-39 (NAR, 606). Spelman biography: NAR, 62; Fausz, “Middlemen,” 45. “With this King”: NAR, 485-86. “About Christmas,” “sitting (the weather),” “we have five,” “a man and,” “after they are dead,” “they find their forefathers” (asides identifying Iopassus as the speaker have been silently removed): HIS, 98-100 (NAR, 658-61). Death of Wowinchopunck: Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, 153-54. Attack on the blockhouse: REL, 256. Blockhouse attack, “overthrew him”: HIS, 59-60 (NAR, 625-26). Expedition upriver: NEW, 264; HIS, 131-32 (NAR, 687-88); ANC, 30. Death of Kemps: HIS, 53 (NAR, 619). Death of Weynman, “death was much”: REL, 252. Weynman biography: GEN, 2:1049. Delaware’s departure and voyage home: NEW, 263-64; SMI, 1:277, 2:237; REL, 257; Stow, Annales (1632), 1018. “At his going”: ANC, 30-31. “Showing more valor,” “where being five,” “Paspahegh, Paspahegh”: REL, 257-58. Second blockhouse battle: Fausz, “Blood,” 6, 36-37.

  Arrival of the Hercules: ANC, 31; NAR, 521. Arrival of the same ship (mistakenly called the Blessing): REL, 258. “I am much grieved,” “I am going”: Scull, Evelyns, 63-65 (GEN, 1:441-42). EST registered for publication November 8, 1610: Stationers’ Company, Registers, 3:202. Virginia Company shifts focus with news of castaways’ survival: Sievers, “Evidence,” 143-44. Rich’s biography: NAR, 54, 372. “Soldier blunt”: Rich, Newes [1] (NAR, 373). “A casicke or son”: Parker, Van Meteren’s, 67. Machumps under suspicion in the disappearance of Namontack: SMI, 2:350. Machumps circulates freely in Jamestown after the Bermuda episode: HIS, 26, 54, 94 (NAR, 596, 619, 655); Whitaker, NAR, 550.

  Elements seemingly transferred from Strachey’s letter to the “Excellent Lady” (later “True Reportory”) to EST include the description of passengers lamenting the pounding of the ship, the statement that two thousand tons of water was bailed and pumped during the storm, the exaggerated suggestion that the bailers nearly drowned as they labored, the phrasing of the description of the landing of the hundred and fifty voyagers, and the account of bellowing castaways attracting cahows and selecting the heaviest for killing: PIL, 4:1735-37, 1741 (NAR, 385, 387, 390, 399); EST, 21-22, 23, 24 (NEW, 252-53). Despite how it may appear to readers of PIL, however, Strachey does not quote EST in “True Reportory” (that would not be possible, since EST was written after “True Reportory” reached England). “True Reportory” ends in PIL at line 55 on 4:1756; the line beginning “after Sir Thomas Gates his arrival” (NAR, 438) is the voice of the editor of PIL introducing a reprint of EST. As Ashe notes in “Strachey,” 509, this misconception has prompted some commentators to exaggerate the echoes of “True Reportory” in EST. Nevertheless, the echoes between the two texts constitute compelling evidence that “True Reportory” was used in crafting EST.

  List of fortuitous events of the Gates expedition: EST, 46-48, 68 (NEW, 257- 58, 262). Martin’s letter to Strachey: Culliford, Strachey, 123-25. Dale’s biography: Rutman, “Historian,” 285, 289-94.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I fear a madness”: 5.1.116, ARD, 270. Dale’s arrival in Virginia: GEN, 1:442- 43; ANC, 31. “The twelfth of May”: NAR, 520-23. “Their daily and usual”: Hamor, Discourse, 26 (NAR, 821) (repeated in SMI, 2:239). “Sir Thomas Dale, at his”: ANC, 35. “Sir Thomas Dale immediately”: ANC, 31. Strachey, For the Colony, 1 (1612) (1969 edition, 9), says Delaware merely “exemplified and approved” the laws of Gates, thereby indicating that Gates and Dale were the only authors. The language shifts distinctly after the first eighteen laws, see Flaherty in Strachey, For the Colony (1969), xvi, xviii, xxiii. Therefore, I have attributed all but the first eighteen published laws to Dale. June 22 date, content of the laws, “to do the necessities,” “be whipped,” “outrage or injure”: Strachey, For the Colony (1612), 1, 10-12, 13, 16-17, 23, 27-28, 29, 44 (1969 edition, 15, 17-19, 22-23, 29, 32-34, 49-50). Passing the pikes defined: Dean, “Polearms,” 111.

  Strachey on close terms with Dale (Strachey carries Dale’s laws and hawks to England): Strachey, For the Colony (1612) [v]-[vi] (1969 edition, 3-4); HIS, 125 (NAR, 682). Dale’s construction projects: REL, 258. Well found by Jamestown archaeologists may date to Dale’s construction period: Kelso, Buried, 116, 119, 123-24. “Severe and strict,” “with all severity”: Hamor, Discourse, 27 (NAR, 822). Strachey participation in upriver expedition: HIS, 124 (NAR, 682). Upriver expedition plans, Namontack’s fate a mystery to Wahunsenacawh: Hamor, Discourse, 26-27, 38 (NAR, 822, 831). “Comes to and fro,” “before their dinners” (with aside silently removed), “the people have houses,” “preserved seven”: HIS, 26, 54, 94 (NAR, 596, 619, 655). Roanoke colony background: Price, Love, 8-9.

  “In these conflicts”: REL, 258-59. “As our men,” “otherwise he threatened,” “one night our men,” “thanks be to God”: NAR, 549-50. General use of poisons and drugs by Powhatans: NAR, 110, 121; Barbour, Three, 256; Fausz, “Middlemen,” 55. “A fantasy possessed” (despite Percy’s placement of the episode “in an Indian’s house,” it is clear he is describing the same event): REL, 259. Episode probably is jimsonweed poisoning: Noël Hume, Adventure, 301-5. New World use of jimsonweed as hallucinogen: Cichoke, “Herbal,” 85. “I found in an,” “they are assured”: HIS, 124 (NAR, 682).

  Background on Spanish claims: Wright, “Spanish,” 452-55, 458, 470; FIR, 1:114-16. Details of Spanish ship episode, “Don Diego said”: NAR, 534-37. “One of the mariners”: NAR, 546. “Their intent was”: REL, 259-60. “Are here so few”: NAR, 558. Background on Gates’s arrival: REL, 260-61; SMI, 1:277, 2:241; ANC, 31; NEW, 264. War preparations, “it was an English”: Hamor, Discourse, 28-29 (NAR, 823-24). “The choicest persons,” “it is not intended”: GEN, 1:445, 463. Delaware’s stop in the Azores: NAR, 525-26. “I found help”: NAW, 264. Death of Gates’s wife, names of his daughters: GEN, 2:895. “His lady died”: GEN, 2:532. Dale’s departure upriver, Gates’s plans to develop Jamestown: Hamor, Discourse, 29-30 (NAR, 823-25).

  Strachey probably returned to England on Prosperous: Culliford, Strachey, 126. Last record of Strachey in Virginia (interrogation of Spanish prisoners, June or July 1611): REL, 259-60; Wright, “Spanish,” 455, 473. First record of Strachey back in England (registering For the Colony for publication, December 13, 1611): Culliford, Strachey, 126. Only one ship known to have gone from Jamestown to England during period departed after August 17 date of Dale report to England (NAR, 552-58) and arrived before November 5 when Velasco reported it at port (GEN, 1:523-24, 527). Ship identified as Prosperous (GEN, 1:497; Brown, Republic, 161). Brown mistakenly places Strachey aboard a ship that left before the Spanish interrogation: Brown, Republic, 154-55, 160-61. Brown tacitly acknowledges error by stating elsewhere Strachey arrived home late October or early November 1611: GEN, 1:529, 2:1024. Letters dated August 9 and 17, 1611, likely carried home by Strachey: NAR, 548-59. Strachey carried the laws to England: ANC, 31. “I brought home,” Strachey finds cat’s claws: HIS, 124, 125 (NAR, 682).

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Carry this island”: 2.1.91-92, ARD, 190.
Virginia ship arrived during week previous to November 5 (i.e., a few days before or after November 1): GEN, 1:523- 24, 527. Ship was Prosperous: GEN, 1:497; Brown, Republic, 161. Strachey lodging in Blackfriars, “during the time”: For the Colony (1612) [v]-[viii] (1969 edition, 3-7). For the Colony registered for publication December 13, 1611, Tien lawsuit: Culliford, Strachey, 126, 128, 132-33. Donne’s new patron, death of Countess of Bedford’s infant: Lawson, Shadows, 110-13. Strachey carries hawks from Virginia: HIS, 125 (NAR, 682).

  Documentary evidence of Whitehall debut of Tempest: Cunningham, Extracts , 210; ARD, 1, 6; Bullough, Sources, 8:237; Demaray, Spectacles, 4. Nineteenth-century charge that the record of the debut is a forgery is false: Bender, “Day,” 254; Law, “Produced,” 151-52. Cunningham, Extracts, 225-26; Law, “Produced,” 153-54; Marshall, “Imperium,” 376, argue that Tempest would have appeared before the public in advance of a royal performance, but no documentary evidence supports this view, which runs counter to theatrical tradition that places great value on debuts. Demaray, Spectacles, 76-79, 81-83, 88-91, argues convincingly that the stage directions in Tempest were written for the Masquing House rather than the Blackfriars Theater—evidence that Shakespeare expected a Masquing House debut.