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Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of the First English Colony in the New World
In one of the most triumphant high sea stories ever told, Kieran Doherty brings to life the true story of the ship that rescued the Jamestown settlement in 1610 and ensured England's place in the New World. When the Sea Venture left England in 1609, it was flagship in a fleet of nine bound for Jamestown with roughly 600 settlers and badly needed supplies aboard. But after four weeks at sea, as the voyage neared its end, a hurricane devastated the fleet, leaving the Sea Venture shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda. It took Sea Venture's passengers nearly a year and half to reach their destination. Awaiting them was not a thriving colony, but instead the remaining fifty colonists--beleaguered, desperate and hungry. But, the question remains, would the English have lost their place in the New World if the ship never arrived? A story of strife and triumph, but above all, endurance, Sea Venture begins and ends in hope and remains one of the greatest "What Ifs?" in history. With a bravado reminiscent of Patrick O'Brien's legendary sea sagas, Doherty braves the elements, delivering a powerful history willed by a people destined to change the New World forever.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 3, 2007
This book is a general history of the entwined fates of the Bermuda and Jamestown colonies, centered on the shipwrecked ship Sea Venture. The title and description are deceiving, though, as there is not much time spent on naval voyages. The Sea Venture is a unifying element, but an unnecessary one as the twin history have enough in common that there doesn't need to be so much emphasis placed on the ship (the adjectival phrase 'Sea Venture survivor' appears frequently and unnecessarily).
What's also odd is that book starts with the Sea Venture voyage, so the first two years of Jamestown settlement is barely mentioned, and only in passing. Yet considering how thoroughly Jamestown is covered from 1609 on, why not just start with its founding? It doesn't make much sense.
Especially since the book is a scant 250 pages, with way too much padding. There's a lot of foreshadowing and repetition (did you know that the Treasurer was the boat that abducted Pocahontas? If not, the author will remind you enough times that you may never forget it, all within a span of twenty pages) that is completely unnecessary in a book this thin, especially when the foreshadowed event takes place a few paragraphs later. There's also an issue with the frequent suppositions made by the author in what is ostensibly a history book; the phrases 'must have thought' or 'must have known' are thrown about too haphazardly, and the reader ends up with more author opinion than historical fact in some chapters.
The book has some merit, though, as some (many?) Jamestown histories give only passing mention to Bermuda so their mutual dependencies are not properly conveyed. A lot of potential exists for a more comprehensive and less padded history of these two colonies, it's a shame this author couldn't provide it as it wouldn't have taken that much effort (and some stronger editing) to get it there.
What's also odd is that book starts with the Sea Venture voyage, so the first two years of Jamestown settlement is barely mentioned, and only in passing. Yet considering how thoroughly Jamestown is covered from 1609 on, why not just start with its founding? It doesn't make much sense.
Especially since the book is a scant 250 pages, with way too much padding. There's a lot of foreshadowing and repetition (did you know that the Treasurer was the boat that abducted Pocahontas? If not, the author will remind you enough times that you may never forget it, all within a span of twenty pages) that is completely unnecessary in a book this thin, especially when the foreshadowed event takes place a few paragraphs later. There's also an issue with the frequent suppositions made by the author in what is ostensibly a history book; the phrases 'must have thought' or 'must have known' are thrown about too haphazardly, and the reader ends up with more author opinion than historical fact in some chapters.
The book has some merit, though, as some (many?) Jamestown histories give only passing mention to Bermuda so their mutual dependencies are not properly conveyed. A lot of potential exists for a more comprehensive and less padded history of these two colonies, it's a shame this author couldn't provide it as it wouldn't have taken that much effort (and some stronger editing) to get it there.
October 2, 2017
I was very interested in reading about the Sea Venture because my ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, was a famous passenger on the ship. His experiences in Jamestown and on the Bermudas made him a vital addition to a later voyage in 1620 on the Mayflower. I understand piecing history together from bits and pieces is a difficult thing, but much worse when the writings are fraught with propaganda and missing sections.
December 19, 2020
Excellent introduction to the Sea Venture survival of a terrible hurricane at sea tossing the tiny ship from heaven to hell. Finding themselves trapped in a coral reef far from its destination on the hated Spanish claimed 'Isle of Devils', the survivors then have murder and mutiny and executions among their own. They are forced to build ships of the native trees to escape the island and complete their journey to 'Jamestown' only to face starvation and warring natives. Doherty has told quite a story involving kings and queens, pirates, murders, mutinies, Indian raids, famous playwrights and of course Shakespeare's play the 'Tempest' is based on the wreck of the little ship and finally two colonies, Jamestown and Bermuda were the result. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and can't wait for another.
Thank you,
Thank you,
June 20, 2024
This was both amazing and disappointing. The story of the Sea Venture itself is not very long. Simply because there isn't much we know. William Stratchey's writings are the best we have and then one other (Jourdain?). They are relied heavily on for the book. The story of the Sea Venture is over around page 100 or a little after. There's a little tying up of loose ends after that but not much.
The story of the Sea Venture and it's wreck and survival is absolutely amazing. I do wonder now, at how much I read was accurate (explained further down) and now am looking for a more accurate writing of the event.
There's the build up, explaining what's going on and such as you would expect, then the journey itself. All-in-all, maybe 100 pages total of this 253 page book deals with the Sea Venture. After that, the author just goes in about Jamestown and Pocahontas.
I would actually like to give the book one star simply because of his **constant** referring to Pocahontas as "princess" and another Native as a "queen" and then suggested that John Smith was her only true love further suggesting that she was disappointed in Rolfe.
If he can't get something so very basic right, what else did he get wrong? The Smith/Pocahontas love affair is a giant myth and "princess?" C'mon, man. At least TRY to get it right! She wasn't a princesses! They didn't have a monarchy! (And no, you were *NEVER* related to a Cherokee princess!)
I feel like people, and this writer does an incredible disservice to the stories of others by attributing incorrect data to them.
I don't know if he is truly disillusioned and thinks they had royalty, or trying to write for some sensational rag or maybe he thinks this is some more inaccurate History Channel show, but he really lost me here. After that, I put a question mark after everything he said. Which is a shame.
Now there were those AT THAT TIME that tried to refer to her as a princess (knowing full well it was bullshit) so they could build their propaganda machine to convince the Virginia Company to continue sinking money and bodies into the venture. The Virginia Co. even got in on the act when Pocahontas went on her tour of London to show off the Savage-turned-Christian and paraded her around like a prize.
Kieran Doherty, in my estimation, proved her was a rag journalist first, historian never.
I won't read anything else by him (is there is anything) and definitely trading this one in.
The story of the Sea Venture and it's wreck and survival is absolutely amazing. I do wonder now, at how much I read was accurate (explained further down) and now am looking for a more accurate writing of the event.
There's the build up, explaining what's going on and such as you would expect, then the journey itself. All-in-all, maybe 100 pages total of this 253 page book deals with the Sea Venture. After that, the author just goes in about Jamestown and Pocahontas.
I would actually like to give the book one star simply because of his **constant** referring to Pocahontas as "princess" and another Native as a "queen" and then suggested that John Smith was her only true love further suggesting that she was disappointed in Rolfe.
If he can't get something so very basic right, what else did he get wrong? The Smith/Pocahontas love affair is a giant myth and "princess?" C'mon, man. At least TRY to get it right! She wasn't a princesses! They didn't have a monarchy! (And no, you were *NEVER* related to a Cherokee princess!)
I feel like people, and this writer does an incredible disservice to the stories of others by attributing incorrect data to them.
I don't know if he is truly disillusioned and thinks they had royalty, or trying to write for some sensational rag or maybe he thinks this is some more inaccurate History Channel show, but he really lost me here. After that, I put a question mark after everything he said. Which is a shame.
Now there were those AT THAT TIME that tried to refer to her as a princess (knowing full well it was bullshit) so they could build their propaganda machine to convince the Virginia Company to continue sinking money and bodies into the venture. The Virginia Co. even got in on the act when Pocahontas went on her tour of London to show off the Savage-turned-Christian and paraded her around like a prize.
Kieran Doherty, in my estimation, proved her was a rag journalist first, historian never.
I won't read anything else by him (is there is anything) and definitely trading this one in.
January 24, 2017
_Sea Venture_ by Kieran Doherty is a book that sheds some interesting light on the establishment of not only the first lasting English colony in the New World (Jamestown), but also on the founding of the first colony in Bermuda. I had no idea that the two were connected nor the interesting if sometimes subtle role played by the titular ship or its crew in early American history.
The _Sea Venture_ was the flagship of a fleet of nine vessels that departed England in 1609, a fleet containing several hundred settlers and much needed supplies for the struggling colony in Virginia. The largest vessel, called the "admiral" because she would carry the commander Sir George Somers, she was sometimes referred to as the _Sea Adventure_ and was believed to have been a three-masted vessel about a hundred feet long built in East Anglia in about 1603.
After nearly four weeks at sea, a hurricane hit and scattered the fleet. When the storm ended, two ships were lost, the fleet's smallest vessel (which apparently no one thought would survive the storm in any event) and the _Sea Venture_ itself. The _Sea Venture_ was not lost with all hands however; it wrecked on some coral reefs surrounding Bermuda - then uninhabited - and everyone on board managed to make it to shore along with a fair number of supplies.
A good portion of the book can be read as an engaging story of survival, with Doherty providing vivid descriptions of the crew and passengers of the _Sea Venture_ trying to keep the ship afloat during the storm, the shipwreck itself, struggling to shore, and their ten months or so on the islands of Bermuda along with their eventual decision to leave the Bermuda islands, built two makeshift craft, and then sail to Virginia. Even when they got to Virginia their trials and tribulations were hardly over as the _Sea Venture_ survivors found instead of the five hundred or so settlers that they expected to greet them a mere fifty starving, wretched, desperate people remaining alive.
A good bit of the book reads like an action-adventure story of sorts, much of the narrative based on the writings of one of the _Sea Venture_ passengers, William Strachey, who would publish upon his return to England in 1616 his _True Reportory_ of the Sea Venture wreck and later his history of the Virginia colony, _The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia_. There were aspects of history not recorded, such as what certain people thought at certain times or the final fates of individuals lost to history, and in these events the author does admits he does speculate as to the answer. In any event, as I knew nothing of the early days of the English on Bermuda nor the eventual fates of any of the _Sea Venture_ passengers and crew, it made for engaging reading.
When the survivors reach Virginia the narrative expands a great deal to include the history of the Jamestown settlement and its satellite colonies as well as additional events in Bermuda when the Virginia Company of London (a.k.a. the London Company) decided to settle Bermuda as well, the common threads in both histories the role of various _Sea Venture_ survivors. The book ends with a brief description of the first meetings of the House of Burgesses on Virginia soil (in 1619), an event attended by several _Sea Venture_ survivors, notably John Rolfe, an individual described by the author as "the man most responsible for the first Virginia colony's ultimate survival," and the end game with the conflict between the Tidewater native peoples (notably the Powhatan) and the English settlers (referred to by the locals as the Tassantassas).
I was surprised just how important the role of the _Sea Venture_ was in the history of Jamestown. I will admit I thought the book jacket's description of "the remarkable true story of the ship that rescued the struggling Jamestown settlement in 1610 and single-handedly ensured England's place in the New World" was a bit of an exaggeration, but in truth the crew of the ship did play a pivotal role. Even after having wrecked in the Bermudas, the eventual arrival of the _Sea Venture_ survivors and their much needed supplies accumulated in Bermuda were absolutely essential to the continued existence of Jamestown. The author argued that had they not arrived when they did, the few remaining inhabitants of Jamestown would have either perished due to illness, starvation, or native attack or fled, possibly burning the settlement to the ground, something that would have been devastating to the arrival of Thomas West, Lord De La Warre who arrived after the _Sea Venture_ people did with many settlers and still more supplies. Though the _Sea Venture_ did not possess enough people or material to save Jamestown single-handedly indefinitely, their arrival was crucial as it bridged the time between the "starving time" before they got there and the arrival of De La Warre.
In addition to ensuring the continued survival of Jamestown, it was the _Sea Venture_ survivor's experiences in Bermuda that were to transform the islands "in the English imagination from a dangerous and frightening place to an Edenic spot, ripe and ready for profitable English settlement." Their experiences in the place once known as the Isle of Devils so captivated William Shakespeare that by 1611 he was writing _The Tempest_. The author showed now only how the experience inspired Shakespeare but that many of the descriptions in _The Tempest_ very closely parallel what Strachey had written in his account.
Towards the end of the book we learn that the _Sea Venture_ survivor John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas, a marriage that arguably produced the vital Peace of Pocahontas that lasted for a vital period of time between the Powhatan Confederacy and the English, was also important in another way to the colony; his early experiments with cultivating tobacco went a very long way into establishing the economic underpinnings of Virginia.
The _Sea Venture_ was the flagship of a fleet of nine vessels that departed England in 1609, a fleet containing several hundred settlers and much needed supplies for the struggling colony in Virginia. The largest vessel, called the "admiral" because she would carry the commander Sir George Somers, she was sometimes referred to as the _Sea Adventure_ and was believed to have been a three-masted vessel about a hundred feet long built in East Anglia in about 1603.
After nearly four weeks at sea, a hurricane hit and scattered the fleet. When the storm ended, two ships were lost, the fleet's smallest vessel (which apparently no one thought would survive the storm in any event) and the _Sea Venture_ itself. The _Sea Venture_ was not lost with all hands however; it wrecked on some coral reefs surrounding Bermuda - then uninhabited - and everyone on board managed to make it to shore along with a fair number of supplies.
A good portion of the book can be read as an engaging story of survival, with Doherty providing vivid descriptions of the crew and passengers of the _Sea Venture_ trying to keep the ship afloat during the storm, the shipwreck itself, struggling to shore, and their ten months or so on the islands of Bermuda along with their eventual decision to leave the Bermuda islands, built two makeshift craft, and then sail to Virginia. Even when they got to Virginia their trials and tribulations were hardly over as the _Sea Venture_ survivors found instead of the five hundred or so settlers that they expected to greet them a mere fifty starving, wretched, desperate people remaining alive.
A good bit of the book reads like an action-adventure story of sorts, much of the narrative based on the writings of one of the _Sea Venture_ passengers, William Strachey, who would publish upon his return to England in 1616 his _True Reportory_ of the Sea Venture wreck and later his history of the Virginia colony, _The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia_. There were aspects of history not recorded, such as what certain people thought at certain times or the final fates of individuals lost to history, and in these events the author does admits he does speculate as to the answer. In any event, as I knew nothing of the early days of the English on Bermuda nor the eventual fates of any of the _Sea Venture_ passengers and crew, it made for engaging reading.
When the survivors reach Virginia the narrative expands a great deal to include the history of the Jamestown settlement and its satellite colonies as well as additional events in Bermuda when the Virginia Company of London (a.k.a. the London Company) decided to settle Bermuda as well, the common threads in both histories the role of various _Sea Venture_ survivors. The book ends with a brief description of the first meetings of the House of Burgesses on Virginia soil (in 1619), an event attended by several _Sea Venture_ survivors, notably John Rolfe, an individual described by the author as "the man most responsible for the first Virginia colony's ultimate survival," and the end game with the conflict between the Tidewater native peoples (notably the Powhatan) and the English settlers (referred to by the locals as the Tassantassas).
I was surprised just how important the role of the _Sea Venture_ was in the history of Jamestown. I will admit I thought the book jacket's description of "the remarkable true story of the ship that rescued the struggling Jamestown settlement in 1610 and single-handedly ensured England's place in the New World" was a bit of an exaggeration, but in truth the crew of the ship did play a pivotal role. Even after having wrecked in the Bermudas, the eventual arrival of the _Sea Venture_ survivors and their much needed supplies accumulated in Bermuda were absolutely essential to the continued existence of Jamestown. The author argued that had they not arrived when they did, the few remaining inhabitants of Jamestown would have either perished due to illness, starvation, or native attack or fled, possibly burning the settlement to the ground, something that would have been devastating to the arrival of Thomas West, Lord De La Warre who arrived after the _Sea Venture_ people did with many settlers and still more supplies. Though the _Sea Venture_ did not possess enough people or material to save Jamestown single-handedly indefinitely, their arrival was crucial as it bridged the time between the "starving time" before they got there and the arrival of De La Warre.
In addition to ensuring the continued survival of Jamestown, it was the _Sea Venture_ survivor's experiences in Bermuda that were to transform the islands "in the English imagination from a dangerous and frightening place to an Edenic spot, ripe and ready for profitable English settlement." Their experiences in the place once known as the Isle of Devils so captivated William Shakespeare that by 1611 he was writing _The Tempest_. The author showed now only how the experience inspired Shakespeare but that many of the descriptions in _The Tempest_ very closely parallel what Strachey had written in his account.
Towards the end of the book we learn that the _Sea Venture_ survivor John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas, a marriage that arguably produced the vital Peace of Pocahontas that lasted for a vital period of time between the Powhatan Confederacy and the English, was also important in another way to the colony; his early experiments with cultivating tobacco went a very long way into establishing the economic underpinnings of Virginia.
February 1, 2024
Interesting subject, kept me engaged throughout.
Struggled with the author’s tendency to say someone “would have” or “must have” felt, or saw, or done something. Might as well have said “I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that.. yadda yadda.”
Obviously there’s no way to know with certainty all those things, but the constant hedging felt awkward and distracting.
Oh, and my pages 142 and 143 were in the wrong order.. it “must have” been a mistake in the printing/editing. Never saw that before.
Struggled with the author’s tendency to say someone “would have” or “must have” felt, or saw, or done something. Might as well have said “I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that.. yadda yadda.”
Obviously there’s no way to know with certainty all those things, but the constant hedging felt awkward and distracting.
Oh, and my pages 142 and 143 were in the wrong order.. it “must have” been a mistake in the printing/editing. Never saw that before.
February 13, 2020
Well written book, telling the somewhat forgotten story of the Sea Venture – a boat whose shipwreck on and subsequent escape was a foundational for both the survival of the Jamestown colony and the permanent settlement of Bermuda. After reading this book, was surprised that this story is not more well known.
November 5, 2023
Well written and researched but more than a tad dry. I did learn some things.
March 6, 2025
I appreciated a book solely about the sea venture and Bermuda. I found a lot of errors unfortunately. I finished it and enjoyed it but can’t necessarily recommend it.
November 11, 2025
Enjoyable historical account of the early founding of Jamestown and Bermuda with stories of Pocahontas woven in.
July 24, 2010
Amazing story of an unintended shipwreck that ended leading to the saving of the Jamestown colony. Very interesting historically, though it only takes up about half the book. . .. the rest is more about what happened eventually to the Jamestown colony itself.
November 7, 2014
Great background on the early survival of Jamestown.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews