 |
The Bermuda Post Office has issued two sets of stamps regarding the ‘Sea Venture’. Shown here is the fleet of nine ships leaving Plymouth, England, and the flagship ‘Sea Venture’
wrecked on Bermuda’s reefs. |
The arrival at Jamestown and the two leaders of the third supply mission, Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates are shown on these two stamps. |
|
Following two failed English attempts to establish settlements in North America – the Roanoke Colony in Virginia and the Popham Colony in Maine – the Jamestown settlement was established in Virginia in 1607. The following year two supply missions were sent from England, however, due to a lack of experience and resources, the colony was threatened by disease, starvation and warfare with Native Americans.
Captain John Smith implored the Virginia Company in London to “…send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers up of trees, roots, well provided; than a thousand of such awe have: for except wee be able to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries before they can be made good for anything.”
London obviously took note of Captain Smith’s plea and decided that the third supply mission would be larger and better equipped than the two previous missions. They even decided to construct a new purpose-built emigrant ship – the ‘Sea Venture’ – at a cost of £1,500. Displacing 300 tons, the ‘Sea Venture’ differed substantially from contemporary ships – her guns were placed on the main deck rather than below, which was then the norm.
This meant that the ‘Sea Venture’ did not have double-timbering and her hold could be sheathed and equipped for passengers. When the ship was launched in 1609 and sent on her maiden voyage to Jamestown on June 2, she may have had a critical flaw: her timbers had not yet set. This proved disastrous when on July 24, the fleet of nine ships ran into a strong storm – probably a hurricane – and the ships were separated.
After fighting the storm for three days, the caulking of the ‘Sea Venture’ was forced from between her timbers and the ship began to leak rapidly. Although everyone aboard was bailing, the water in the hold had risen to nine feet and both passengers and crew gave up all hope of survival. It was at that point when Admiral Sir George Somers, at the helm of the ship, saw land and deliberately sailed the ‘Sea Venture’ onto the reefs to prevent her from foundering and allowing all 150 people aboard to get on land safely.
|
The arrival at Jamestown and the two leaders of the third supply mission, Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates are shown on these two stamps. |
|
|
| ‘Ventura ad Marem’, the figure head of the ‘Sea Venture’, was the symbol of venture at sea. A mythical animal with the head of a hound and the scales of a fish, this ancient Sea Dog was used as a talisman by Phoenicians as early as 700 B.C. |
Officially the Coat of Arms of Bermuda features a red lion holding a shield showing an earlier shipwreck. I’d like to think that is a Sea Dog and the ‘Sea Venture’ that are featured on Bermuda’s Coat of Arms.
‘Quo Fata Ferunt’ appropriately translates as ‘Whither the Fates Carry Us’. |
|
|
– E-mail comments to netlink@cwbda.bm
|
