Sunday, July 31, 2011

Seafaring Sunday: In the Triangle

July 28, 1609: Survivors of the wreck of the English ship Sea Venture, bound for Virginia, become the first Europeans to settle on the island of Bermuda (shown above). 

4 comments:

  1. Ahoy, Pauline! I still have a little bottle of pink sand from Bermuda somewhere around here...

    ReplyDelete
  2. They were the first settlers, actually, not just the first European ones. Although many others had visited the archipelago before them, usually not by choice (and not all Europeans, in the sense of being lightly complected), no attempt was made to settle before the arrival of the Sea Venture. Most of her passengers and crew continued on to Jamestown the following year, in two newly built ships (the Deliverance and the Patience). Two living men and a number of corpses did not travel with them, including several men sent to sea in the Sea Venture's longboat with the mission to find Jamestown, but who were never seen again. The Patience returned to Bermuda in 1610, then sailed for England, leaving a third man behind. The "three kings" who occupied the archipelago alone 'til the arrival of the Plough in 1612 were Carter, Chard, and Waters. Among those of the Sea Venture who died in Bermuda before the departure of the Deliverance and the Patience were the first wife and child of John Rolfe, who later married Pocahontas.

    ReplyDelete