Kieran Doherty > Quotes

“In exchange, he was given a note “with the armes of Englande testifying the receipt therof.”24 Because of the size of his investment—£50, or roughly $10,000 in modern money, compared with the single share price of £12 10s (12 pounds, 10 shillings), or about $2,500 in modern terms—and because of his legal background, he was also appointed to the Virginia Council, the group of men whose job it would be to oversee operations of the colony from London.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“labored almost without rest to save the ship and who had urged and cajoled his fellow passengers to bail and pump and then pump and bail some more, was ready to concede defeat. He waded out of the flooded hold saying that if he was to die, he did not want to perish in the hold of the ship, but on the deck, under the open sky, in the company of his friends. But the Sea Venture was not sinking—not yet, at least. And, probably at screamed orders from Admiral Somers, Strachey and Gates and the other men who were still able—and women, too, no doubt—went back to the pumps, back to the buckets and pails, and back to the exhausting, ceaseless, lifesaving work.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Sir George, meanwhile, remained on the ship’s poop, conning the vessel. As the morning hours passed, the storm abated slightly. Suddenly, the admiral jumped to his feet. He wiped the driving rain from his face and stared ahead, hoping his tired eyes were not deceiving him. Suddenly, Somers cried a word that brought amazement, and then joy, to all on the struggling ship. “Land!” he cried. “Land!”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“William Strachey and the others who had battled for four days to survive the hurricane threw themselves to the sand above the high-water mark to rest and to dry their sodden clothing.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“During all this time, the ship—without so much as an inch of sail flying—was being driven nine or ten leagues (roughly thirty miles) in each four-hour watch. And all this time, Strachey said, those on board, even those who had never done a hard day’s work in their lives, struggled to keep the sinking ship from slipping beneath the waves.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“It took no time at all for trouble to break out between the colonists sent north with West and the natives living near the falls on the James River, near the site of present-day Richmond. More interested in searching for gold—that nonexistent Virginia gold yet again!—than in planting crops or in peaceful trade, the colonists built a fort of sorts on some low land close to the river and then simply demanded that the natives supply them with food. When the natives resisted, the English took what they wanted. “That disorderlie company so tormented those poore naked soules [the Indians], by stealing their corne, robbing their gardens, beating them, breaking their houses, and keeping some prisoners,”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Of course, he had heard of Virginia. He was obviously fond of the theater, fond enough to put some of his money at risk as a shareholder of the Blackfriars Theatre Company.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“minister who addressed the original Virginia settlers before their departure from London in 1606. Now he praised Smythe and the adventurers for again backing the Virginia Company, and he ended his sermon with a fervent prayer that the company would be successful in its goals.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“In fact, it is unlikely that all the men on the island went in search of food and water. While some went foraging, others would have set about building rough shelters, thatched with palm fronds, above the high-water mark. At the same time, sailors, probably under the watchful eye of Sir George Somers, made repeated trips to the grounded vessel, salvaging anything that might be of service. Planks above the waterline were torn from the ship’s oaken frames and hauled ashore along with hatches and any undamaged spars that could be removed and metal fittings and canvas and cordage and tools and even books and the important charts from Newport’s cabin and, of course, the instructions and a copy of the new Virginia charter given to Gates by the officers of the Virginia Company in London. Somehow the heavy ship’s bell was hauled ashore, as were several heavy cooking kettles and at least one of the smallest cannon. Within days, though, the salvage operation came to an end as the Sea Venture slipped beneath the waves, to rest where her bones still lie, between the two coral outcroppings that trapped her. Even though the survivors must have known the ship was lost once it struck the reef,”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“it was a difficult matter for a private individual to finance the creation of a settlement. And Ralegh’s beloved Virgin Queen was far too cautious with her funds to finance a colonial venture, even if England’s long-running war with Spain had left enough coin in the royal treasury to cover the expense. Then, in 1603, everything changed. Early in the morning of March 24 of that year, Elizabeth I, the queen whose reign was expected to outlast the moon and sun, died in her private chamber in Richmond Palace. The queen’s death and the accession of James VI of Scotland as James I of England brought quick peace between England and Spain; freed private capital that could be used to finance foreign settlements; and made soldiers and sailors available, indeed desperate, for employment. Suddenly, English capitalists were looking hungrily at Virginia as a potential outlet for”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“All any on the flagship could do was hope the other vessels were safe, pray that the other ships and their crews and passengers would survive the storm.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Passengers were crowded together, forced to live and sleep and eat in intolerably cramped conditions. There was almost no privacy, no water for washing, no break in the tedium as the ship rolled and pitched, hour after hour, day after day, even in fine weather.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Sometime around mid-August, the ship’s carpenter, Richard Frobisher—described by Strachey as “a painful and well-experienced shipwright and skillful workman”—set about making the ship’s boat ready for a sea voyage.22 Using hatches salvaged from the wreck, he built a deck and made the longboat “so close that no water could go in her.”23 He fitted the little vessel with sails and checked its caulking and made the boat—probably about twenty-four feet in length and unballasted—as ready as he could for a voyage across almost six hundred miles of dangerous, open ocean.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Remarkably, all 150 men, women, and children on the ship were eventually brought safely to shore. Even the ship’s dog was saved.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“In exchange for the parcel of land, Smith promised copper and “gave” Parahunt a teenaged English boy named Henry Spelman to serve as a translator. With the deal closed, Smith ordered West to move into the Indian village with his men and then made his way back to the ship for his journey downriver to Jamestown.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Miraculously, though, the same coral heads that split the ship’s sides held the wounded vessel fast, upright as if she were in the jaws of a vise.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“By 1609 Strachey, like other Englishmen, knew that Seagull’s words were not true. He knew that no diamonds had been found on Virginia’s beaches, that no golden chamber pots had been discovered. But he also knew that the land across the Atlantic still held hope for men like himself who wanted to flee their problems in search of a new opportunity. And so, in the spring of 1609, William Strachey decided that Virginia was the answer to his troubles.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Evangelista Torricelli, the Italian physicist who invented the barometer, the instrument used to forecast storms by registering fluctuations in air pressure, was an infant in mid-1609. The instrument he invented would not be in common use at sea for another hundred years. Without science to guide them, Somers and Newport and the other Sea Venture mariners were forced to rely largely on signs and portents to warn of bad weather.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“By the spring of 1609, Strachey—he was aged thirty-six or thirty-seven by then—was so deep in debt that he feared imprisonment. Sometime that spring, a friend who had been jailed as a debtor wrote a letter to Strachey pleading with him for aid. Strachey replied that he was “haretly sorrie” he was unable to help, adding that he was himself in danger of being sent to prison “for want of present money.”5 In fact, Strachey’s situation was perilous. As the weather warmed that spring and the Thames thawed and began flowing again after one of the coldest winters ever, he knew that each time he dared to quit his lodgings for even a brief foray into the street, he ran the risk of an unpleasant scene with a creditor or—worse—arrest and a stint in the Clink or one of London’s other infamous gaols.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“John Smith, for one, knew the value of good food during an ocean voyage. The want of good food, he said, “occasions the losse of more men, then in any English fleet hath bin slaine in any fight since 1588.”8 Smith was not exaggerating. Scurvy, a terrible wasting disease caused by a lack of vitamin C, wreaked havoc on crews during long ocean voyages. Symptoms often appeared within weeks of leaving port as men complained of weakness and a feeling of general malaise. Soon bleeding was seen around hair follicles on the arms and legs and around rapidly loosening teeth. As the illness progressed, skin was discolored by large purple bruises that often became open sores. In the worst cases, old wounds that seemed to be healed reopened. Eventually sufferers died screaming in agony.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“After a moment, Jourdain reported, Somers urged the men on the ship not to give up. He urged them to get back to the pumps and continue bailing. The men, “spent with long fasting and continuance of their labor,” were stretched out “in corners and wheresoever they chanced first to sit or lie,” Jourdain said, “but hearing news of land, wherewith they grew to be somewhat revived. Every man bustled up and gathered his strength and feeble spirits together to perform as much as their weak force would permit him.”18”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“the Virginia Company had floated an idea that all English pirates might be pardoned if they agreed to move to Virginia.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Somers and Newport, too, knew there was no way to bring the Sea Venture to anchor. Her hull was so open, her planks so sprung, that the ship would sink like one of the cannon they’d already jettisoned if they tried to anchor in deep water. Their only hope was to run on until the battered ship took the ground. Closer and closer to land the vessel inched. By this time, Somers and the others could see a beach ahead. Sir George may have wanted to try to run the ship up on the beach. He surely wanted to get as close to terra firma as possible. For a few moments, as the ship wallowed toward land, the old salt may have thought he would be able to drive the ship high and dry on the beach. Suddenly, though, Somers would have seen white water ahead and probably heard the sound of waves breaking on what he would have instantly known was a reef. Even if the old admiral had wanted to, there was no way to turn the vessel—barely time, in fact, to shout a warning to the passengers and crew on the deck. Then the Sea Venture struck, driving into a V-shaped opening in the reef that surrounds the Bermudas like a ship-killing necklace. She plunged like a wedge between massive coral heads that tore at the vessel’s hull like the claws of a huge beast.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“There was little of the religious idealism or of the search for personal freedom that motivated the Pilgrims in 1620 and none of the search to create a “City on a Hill” that spurred the Puritans to take ships for Boston in 1630. To these financial backers, the settlement of Virginia was primarily about trade and money.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Men were recruited—no women, for this initial attempt at colonization—and ships and supplies were obtained. In December of that year, a fleet of three vessels dropped down the Thames from London. For long weeks, the ships lay anchored in the Downs, just off the southeast coast of England, battered by terrible storms, waiting for favorable weather. Finally, in February 1607, the three ships set out across the wintry Atlantic. After crossing from England to the West Indies and then north along the Atlantic coast, the ships—the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed—dropped anchor in the Chesapeake on April 26, 1607.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“the settlers in the little fort on the banks of the James must have been dismayed when they discovered that the “admiral” bearing Sir Thomas and Sir George was missing in action along with the lion’s share of provisions meant to help the colony survive the winter, when food was scarce at best. Of course, the seven ships that survived the hurricane did carry at least some food and other supplies, but nowhere near enough to satisfy the growling bellies inside the fort. Then, too, there was the fact that the ships carried all those new settlers whose presence could only add to the colony’s seemingly endless food shortages.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Even in the best of times, meals were rough affairs. Once their private stores ran out, not long after the voyage began, Gates and Somers and all the other important men and women on the vessel were forced to eat the same bad food as the lowliest of the deckhands: a hard biscuit and perhaps some cold porridge, washed down by sour beer or foul water.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Sir George Somers, an experienced mariner, was put in charge of the fleet. Roughly sixty years of age, Somers, from the town of Lyme on England’s southwest coast, had a resume that included service under Essex, Sir Francis Drake, and the privateering Sir John Hawkins.30 A member of parliament, he was an accomplished mariner and navigator. His second in command as master of the fleet’s flagship was Captain Christopher Newport, whose maritime pedigree was every bit as impressive as Somers’s. About forty-nine years of age in 1609, Newport had gone to sea as a young man, sailing to South America and the Caribbean as a privateer. In 1590, when he was about thirty years of age, Newport had been in a sea battle with two Spanish treasure ships off the coast of Cuba. In that battle, Newport lost his right arm but persevered. For the next thirteen years, he was an active Caribbean privateer and was a leading participant in the capture, in 1592, of the Spanish treasure ship the Madre de Dios, a prize that carried about half a million pounds in gems, spices, silks, and other goods. Newport’s long experience as a privateer helped him establish strong links with English merchants. He was also known to King James I, having presented the monarch with two live crocodiles and a wild boar following one of his New World voyages. In 1606, he was named commander of the first Virginia expedition and sailed as captain of the Susan Constant, flagship of the first Virginia fleet.31 By the time he was named sailing master of the flagship of the 1609 fleet, he had made three crossings between England and Jamestown.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“it is unlikely that any of the ships’ captains seriously considered steering their damaged and undermanned vessels to either Barbuda or the Bermudas in search of the Sea Venture. Instead, the storm would have convinced all the captains to steer for Virginia and what they hoped and prayed would be safety.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers and one-armed Captain Newport were certainly among the first to board the Sea Venture, followed by mariners hauling the officers’ sea chests, heavy with clothes, books, charts, weapons, nautical instruments, and, it is safe to say, special food to supplement the shipboard diet as well as some aqua vitae and wines to liven the table and conversation in the admiral’s quarters. Gates also brought on board some fruit and vegetable seeds he hoped to plant in Jamestown.”
― Kieran Doherty, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown