Elizabeth Powell

On June 2, 1609, the Virginia Company of London sent across the Atlantic Ocean the largest fleet England had ever amassed in the West: nine ships, 600 passengers, and livestock and provisions to last a year. The audacious effort was born out of desperation to save Jamestown, and with it the whole idea of an English, Protestant presence in the Americas. Newport, the most experienced mariner of his age, was hired to captain the flagship Sea Venture. He carried the admiral of the fleet, George Somers; the new governor, Sir Thomas Gates; and 150 passengers and crew members.

On July 24 the voyagers were within seven days of landfall when they were hit by a hurricane. The Sea Venture bore the brunt of the storm and was soon separated from the other ships. As thirty-foot waves and violent winds bombarded the ship, it sprung a leak. For three days the passengers and crew fought the rising water, but it was a losing battle. On the fourth morning the exhausted men and women gave up, and "commending our sinful souls to God, committed the ship to the mercy of the gale." But the Sea Venture voyagers did not meet a watery grave. Instead, they were cast away on the uninhabited island chain Bermuda.