Painting by Christopher Grimes
Immigrants to America encountered dysentery, diseases, stale food, and rats. Still, the most dangerous threats to immigrant’s life lay in the seas of the Bermuda Islands, where storms wreaked havoc and misery and sank many vessels. Ship repairs were forthcoming if wrecked vessels could land on one of the islands.
On June 7, 1609, a fleet of seven ships and two pinnaces left Plymouth, England, with immigrants bound for Jamestown, Virginia. After only a few days out, one of the pinnaces returned to England. The Sea Venture carried Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant Governor; Sir George Somers, Admiral of the fleet; and Captain Christopher Newport, Vice Admiral. These three men were leaders of the expedition, and to avoid any dispute as to precedence, they agreed to sail on the same vessel. The idea turned out to be an unwise decision! On July 28, a violent storm, the tail of a West Indies hurricane, separated the Sea Venture from the rest of the fleet. In 1610, William Strachery, a passenger on the ship, wrote about this storm. It was later said that his description influenced Shakespeare’s writing of “The Tempest.”
“The clouds gathered thick upon us, and the wind singing and whistling made us cast off our pinnace. A dreadful storm began to blow from out the northeast, swelling and roaring, beat all light from Heaven, which, like a hell of darkness, turned black upon us.” For four and twenty hours, the tumultuous storm had blown so exceedingly, fury added to fury, made us look one upon the other with troubled hearts and panting bosoms. Prayers might well be in the heart and lips but drowned in the outcries of the officers; nothing was heard that could give comfort or encourage hope. The sea swelled above the clouds and gave battle unto Heaven. The waters, like whole rivers, flooded the air. The winds spake more loud and grew more tumultuous and malignant. Before they realized it, the ship was five feet deep with water about her ballast, and we almost drowned. Every man came duly on this watch for three days and four nights, working with tired bodies and wasted spirits. The storm drove the ship toward the islands of Bermuda and wedged between rocks. All 150 persons were safely put ashore. Meanwhile, the crew fitted a deck to the long boat crafted from the hatches of the wrecked ship, and six persons sailed for Virginia.
The crew of the long boat hoped that when news reached Jamestown of the safe landing of the passengers from the wrecked Sea Venture on Bermuda, a ship or pinnace from the fleet in Virginia would be sent to take them home, but, according to Strachery, the long boat with its six crew members was never heard from again!
On May 10, 1610, 137 passengers and crew (including William Strachery) boarded the Deliverance and Patience to continue the voyage to Jamestown, arriving in Jamestown on May 23. Interestingly, only 60 of the original 500 survivors were discovered in Jamestown. Such were the rigors of immigration and settlements in the Virginia Colony!
Source: Some Notes on Shipbuilding and Shipping in Colonial Virginia by Cerinda W. Evans