A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare'sThe Tempest (32 page)

“Many oxen,” “a number”:
FIR
, 1:212. “Some stallions,” “bucks,” “hogs”:
FIR
, 2:277. Hogs and dog on
Sea Venture
:
PIL
, 4:1741 (
NAR
, 399-400). Pens on deck and bones of cows (carried as beef), hogs, sheep, cat, and rats in wreck: Armitage, “Rats,” 145-46, 148-49, 152, 157, and “Victuals,” 8-10.
Sea Venture
dog: Rich,
Newes
[4] (
NAR
, 375). Dog bones found at Jamestown: Kelso,
Buried
, 92-93.
Sea Venture
guns: Mardis,
Wreck
, 29; Wingood, “Report” (1982), 334-35, 339-41, and “Artefacts,” 149-51; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “
Sea Venture
.” Weights of guns:
SMI
, 3:26, 109. Duties of cape merchants:
SMI
, 3:15, 83. “Some superstitious”: Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 163. Sleeping arrangements: Lavery,
Merchantman
, 24-26, 82-85; Baker,
Vessels
, 20, 42; Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 86-87, 138-39, 253-54; Price,
Love
, 16.

“The coming hither,” “Sir George”:
GEN
, 1:320. Second charter dated May 23, 1609:
NEW
, 205-12. Gates at charter signing May 29:
GEN
, 1:316-18. Treaties between Britain, Spain, Netherlands: Davenport,
Treaties
, 246, 258. Delay in departure of fleet:
FIR
, 1:212. Expedition held back to allow soldiers to join:
FIR
, 2:255, 258-59, 261. “A grave”: Stow,
Annales
(1632), 1018. “Very remarkable”:
FIR
, 2:255. Gates’s biography: Prince,
Devon
, 403-5; Horn,
Land
, 132-33;
SMI
, 1:xxxv;
NAR
, 46-47;
GEN
, 2:894-96. Gates stopped at Roanoke: Sheehan “Gates,” 792. Gates’s military record:
FIR
, 1:235, 2:277.

“Upon Friday”:
PIL
, 4:1734 (
NAR
, 383). “Crossed by”:
PIL
, 4:1733 (
FIR
, 2:279). Departure of fleet:
TRU
, 12 (
NAR
, 364);
SMI
, 1:127. Procedure when putting to sea, “yea, yea”:
SMI
, 3:17, 85. “God bless”: Stern,
Powle
, 142. “Kept in friendly”:
PIL
, 4:1734 (
NAR
, 383). Pinnace turns around:
PIL
, 4:1733 (
FIR
, 2:280). Returning pinnace is
Virginia
: Horn,
Land
, 305. Pierce family separated: Dorman,
Purse
, 1:30, 31, 2:797-800, 3:24. “A quarter can,” “a dish,” “a little poor,” “the men leap”:
SMI
, 3:86, 92, 113. Use of gallery balconies: Bermuda Maritime Museum, “
Sea Venture
”; Lavery,
Merchantman
, 19. Smoking pipes: Wingood, “Artefacts,” 152; Bermuda Maritime Museum, “
Sea Venture
”; Kelso,
Buried
, 88-89. Ships’ heads: Lavery,
Merchantman
, 27.

“Prosperous winds”:
REL
, 243.
Sea Venture
route: C. Smith, “Course,” based on
TRU
, 12-13 (
NAR
, 364-65);
EST
, 19-21 (
NEW
, 252);
PIL
, 4:1733 (
FIR
, 2:281);
PIL
, 4:1734-35 (
NAR
, 383);
DIS
, 3-4 (
VOY
, 105);
NAR
, 453. Atlantic currents: Waters,
Navigation
, 2: plate 65. Wind science: Emanuel,
Divine
, 41-47. Log line: Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 181-82. Meeting of officers at sea:
TRU
, 12-13 (
NAR
, 364);
EST
, 19-20 (
NEW
, 252);
FIR
, 2:277-78. Fleet advised to avoid Caribbean:
NEW
, 212. Instructions to meet at Barbuda if separated:
TRU
, 13 (
NAR
, 364). Archer in
PIL
, 4:1733 (
FIR
, 2:280), claims Bermuda was the rendezvous spot, but
FIR
editor Barbour shows that Archer was surely in error: Bermuda was off course, surrounded by dangerous shallows, and feared as the “Devil’s Isle,” while Barbuda was near the planned route and unclaimed by the Spanish. “We ran,” “tracing through”:
PIL
, 4:1733-34 (
FIR
, 2:280-81). Diseases on tropical voyages:
TRU
, 13 (
NAR
, 364);
EST
, 19-21 (
NEW
, 252);
NEW
, 287. “In all hot”: Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 91-92, 191. Calenture is heatstroke: Barbour,
Three
, 272. “But in the
Blessing
,” “in the
Unity
”:
PIL
, 4:1733-34 (
FIR
, 2:280-81).

“Ride on the curled”: 1.2.191-92,
ARD
, 162. C. Smith, “Course,” estimates that when the hurricane struck the
Sea Venture
was at a point 500 to 600 nautical miles (or 575 to 690 land, or statute, miles) southeast of Virginia and 240 to 300 nautical miles (or 275 to 345 statute miles) southwest of Bermuda, which places it at roughly latitude thirty degrees north, longitude sixty-eight degrees west. At onset of storm
Sea Venture
seven or eight days from Virginia:
PIL
, 4:1735 (
NAR
, 383-84). At onset, ship 100 leagues (300 nautical miles, or 345 statute miles) from Bermuda:
NAR
, 445. At onset, fleet 150 leagues (450 nautical miles or 520 statute miles) from West Indies:
TRU
, 13 (
NAR
, 364). At onset, vessels at latitude thirty degrees north: Stow,
Annales
(1615), 943. At onset, fleet at latitude of Azores (which span thirty-six to thirty-nine degrees north):
BER
, 11.

Identifying the date on which the storm began is complicated by the chroniclers’ reference to St. James Day. Strachey in
PIL
, 4:1734-36 (the punctuation is altered in
NAR
, 383-84, 387), says the ships “unto the twenty-three of July, kept in friendly consort together” and, a few lines later, “When on S.
James
his day, July 24. being Monday (preparing for no less all the black night before) the clouds gathering thick upon us” (the period after “24” marks the completion of the numeral rather than the end of a sentence). Strachey also says the leak was discovered “upon the Tuesday morning.” In another account Somers says the storm began “on St. James’ eve, being the 23 of July,” and adds later that the pumpers and bailers worked “from the 23 of until the 28 of the same July, being Friday” (National Archives of the United Kingdom, co 1/1, No. 21, 84-85;
NAR
, 445-46). Jourdain in
DIS
, 4 (
VOY
, 105), says the storm began “upon the five and twentieth day of July”; Archer in
PIL
, 4:1733 (
FIR
, 2:281), says it began “upon Saint James Day” without giving a date; the Virginia Company in
TRU
, 13 (
NAR
, 364), reiterates that it began “on S.
James
day.” The designation of July 24 as St. James Day by Somers (and seemingly by Strachey as well) is difficult to explain. Chambers,
Book of Days
, 2:120-22, and Blackburn and Holford-Strevens,
Oxford Book of Days
, 306-7, indicate that St. James Day has been firmly anchored to July 25 for centuries. Numerous records of the early seventeenth century confirm that it was observed on July 25, perhaps none more definitively than accounts of the July 25, 1603, coronation of King James on the feast day of the monarch’s namesake saint, see for example Wilbraham,
Journal
, 61. Two instances have been found of St. James Day being marked on July 24: Baker,
Records
, 136 (a paraphrase of a 1584 agricultural journal), and Linschoten,
Voyages
, 179 (a 1598 travel account by a Dutch explorer). Those instances suggest some variability in the date of the feast day and may explain why Somers and Strachey apparently observed it on July 24, 1609. I have thus interpreted the
Sea Venture
sources to mean the following: the fleet was together until the evening of Sunday, July 23, when signs of a storm prompted preparations through that night; the hurricane hit on Monday, July 24; the leak was discovered early on Tuesday, July 25; and the storm lasted until Friday, July 28.

Lashing of guns: Lavery,
Merchantman
, 39, 119. “A dreadful storm”:
PIL
, 4:1735 (
NAR
, 384). Hurricane characteristics:
PIL
, 4:1735, 1737 (
NAR
, 384, 389); Smith, “Course.” African weather patterns spawning hurricanes: Emanuel,
Divine
, 98-100. Scattering of the fleet:
EST
, 34 (
NEW
, 255);
PIL
, 4:1733 (
FIR
, 2:281). Methods of towing small vessels: Harland,
Seamanship
, 207-8. Casting off of the ketch, “Michael Philes”:
PIL
, 4:1735, 1748 (
NAR
, 384, 418). I have used Strachey’s’s spelling of “Philes” instead of Archer’s “Fitch,”
PIL
, 4:1733 (
FIR
, 2:280). Thirty people on ketch: Bernhard, “Men,” 606, based on
FIR
, 2:283, and
PIL
, 4:1747 (
NAR
, 415). Daily rain production of hurricanes: Emanuel,
Divine
, 187. “It works upon,” “the sea swelled,” “the glut of water”:
PIL
, 4:1735 (
NAR
, 384-85).

Heavy-weather steering options: Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 169, 179-80, 232, 249, 255;
SMI
, 3:88; Harland,
Seamanship
, 209-20. Somers’s decision to “run before” the storm or “spoon afore”: C. Smith, “Course,” based on Strachey’s statements that the wind came from northern points and Somers steered toward southern points,
PIL
, 4:1735, 1737 (
NAR
, 384, 389), and the stern (rather than the bow) of the ship was hit by a breaking sea,
PIL
, 4:1736 (
NAR
, 387). “Sir George Somers sitting”:
DIS
, 5-6 (
VOY
, 106).

Causes of leaks: Harland,
Seamanship
, 303. “It pleased God,” “this imparting,” “there might be seen”:
PIL
, 4:1735-36 (
NAR
, 386-87). Empty pots used to find leaks, traditional use of beef plugs, “in some cases”: Butler,
Dialogues
, 22-23; Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 177. Candlestick found still wedged between boards of wreck: Wingood, “Report” (1982), 337, 343, 345. “Many a weeping leak”:
PIL
, 4:1736 (
NAR
, 386). Depth of water in hold:
NAR
, 445 (nine feet); Burrage,
Lost
, 3 (seven to eight feet). Keel most dangerous place for leak: Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 154. “The waters still”:
PIL
, 4:1736 (
NAR
, 386-87). Improvised pump-intake strainer found in wreck: Wingood, “Artefacts,” 156. Pump technology: Harland,
Seamanship
, 304-5.

“To me this leakage,” “the men might”:
PIL
, 4:1736 (
NAR
, 387). Pierce family details: Dorman,
Purse
, 1:30, 31, 2:797-800, 3:24. Number, location, volume of pumps and bailing lines:
PIL
, 4:1737 (
NAR
, 390). Strachey’s “gallon” predates Britain’s imperial gallon and is roughly equivalent to today’s U.S. gallon. I have relied on Strachey’s count of three pumps over Somers’s use of two hash marks to indicate two pumps in
NAR
, 445. Pumping and bailing methods and technology: Mainwaring,
Dictionary
, 92, 203-4, 218, 229-30; Lavery,
Merchantman
, 22- 23. “We kept one hundred”:
NAR
, 445. “Sharp and cruel,” “with the violent”:
DIS
, 4 (
VOY
, 105). Lack of food during storm, “we much unrigged”:
PIL
, 4:1737 (
NAR
, 389-90). Wright,
Story
, 22, interprets Strachey’s “heaved away all our ordnance on the starboard side” to mean that
all
guns on the ship went over the starboard side, but guns remained on the ship, as indicated by Wingood, “Report” (1982), 334-35 (gun found at the wreck site);
PIL
, 4:1747 (
NAR
, 414) (guns from
Sea Venture
placed on Bermuda-built ships);
BER
, 26, 290, and
SMI
, 2:355, 387 (guns salvaged from
Sea Venture
wreck by Bermuda colonists). “Sometimes strikes”:
PIL
, 4:1735 (
NAR
, 385). Powhatan canoes carry forty people:
HIS
, 75 (
NAR
, 638-39).
Sea Venture
probably passed through eye of hurricane: Smith, “Course.” Characteristics of hurricane eyes: Emanuel,
Divine
, 8-13, 165; Elsner,
Hurricanes
, 3-4. Clouds block sun and stars from navigators, “for four and twenty,” “ran now”:
PIL
, 4:1735-37 (
NAR
, 385, 388-89).

“We all were”: 2.1.251,
ARD
, 202. Remora story, “so huge a sea,” “it struck him,” “it so stunned”:
PIL
, 4:1736 (
NAR
, 387-88). Science of overtaking wave: Harland,
Seamanship
, 214-15. Canvas hatch covers: Baker,
Vessels
, 43.
Sea Venture
incident a rogue wave: Mountford, “Storms,” 22-23. Contemporary source for remora tale: Deacon and Walker,
Discourses
(1601), 204-5. “There was not,” “upon the Thursday,” “towards the morning,” “purposed to have cut,” “it being now Friday”:
PIL
, 4:1736-37 (
NAR
, 388-90). “They were so overwearied,” “some of them having”:
DIS
, 5-6 (
VOY
, 106-7).

Date and time of Bermuda landing, lack of food and drink during storm:
PIL
, 4:1737, 1747 (
NAR
, 390, 415);
DIS
, 5-6, 10-11 (
VOY
, 106, 109). “See the goodness,” “it being better surveyed”:
PIL
, 4:1737 (
NAR
, 390). “Most wishedly”:
DIS
, 6 (
VOY
, 106). Precolonial history of Bermuda: Jones,
Bermuda
, 10, 12, 14. Bermuda has most early shipwrecks in Western Hemisphere: Armitage, “Rats,” 155. Gates rather than Somers gives order to ground ship:
PIL
, 4:1737 (
NAR
, 390). Danger of overthrowing in shallows: Mainwaring:
Dictionary
, 194. Call for continued bailing, “hearing news”:
DIS
, 6-7 (
VOY
, 106-7).