The Sea Venture’s pre-sinking history is shrouded in uncertainty. What is known was the ship being purchased by the Virginia Company and being made into the flagship of the second supply fleet to the Jamestown’s colony in modern-day Virginia. When the ship left Plymouth harbor on June 2, 1609, six fully rigged ships and two pinnaces joined it under the name, the ‘“Third Supply.”’The commander of the Sea Venturewas Captain Christopher Newport, while others onboard included “the fleet’s admiral, Sir George Somers, and the new Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Gates,” and 150 new settlers.
However, on July 23, the fleet ran into a hurricane. During the hurricane, the Sea Venturebecame separated from the rest of the fleet.In the process, the Sea Venturehad to cast off the pinnace vessel it towed up to that point.Then on “Friday, July 28, 1609,” when the ship had reached the point of sinking, Admiral Somers spotted land. This land happened to be modern-day Bermuda, known back then as the “the Ille of Devils.When the crew of the Sea Venture tried to get there, “the ship lodged fast between two reefs about three-quarters of a mile from land” “off the northeast corner of” the island. However, it stayed afloat long enough for all 150 people aboard to row ashore and for the crew to salvage most of its cargo.By sunset on July 28, all that remained of the Sea Venture were “bared ribs” and a few days later, it sank below the water’s surface.
Sources:
Glover, Lorri & Daniel Blake Smith. The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown: The Sea
Venture Castaways and the Fate of America. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
LLC, 2008.
Konstam, Angus. The History of Shipwrecks. New York: The Lyon Press, 1999.
Paine, Lincoln P. Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1997. Accessed February 28, 2018. Retrieved
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eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Peterson, M.L.R. “The Sea Venture.” The Mariner’s Mirror74, no.1 (Spring 1988): 37-
- Accessed February 28, 2018. Retrieved from
doi: 10. 1080/00253359. 1988. 10656178.