colony. The outcome of the venture would
determine the fate of the English colony
in Virginia.
By mid-February, King James granted
the company a new charter and reorganized the company to achieve better
results than the prior two years. Unfortunately, the government was given greater
power and the laws were made more
severe under “one able and absolute governor” with total authority to rule the colony, including the power to declare martial law. The company launched a massive
public relations campaign from the pulpit
and London printing presses. The message
of the blitz equated the Jamestown colony
with the grand national mission of England for imperial greatness that was providentially inspired. With an infusion of
money from hundreds of patriotic investors, the company organized a massive
fleet to sail to Virginia and win its national
destiny through sheer force of will.
Sir George Somers was the admiral of
the fleet and took his rightful place aboard
the flagship, the Sea Venture, as did Governor Thomas Gates. Christopher Newport, too, was accustomed to command
and would not tolerate being consigned to
a lesser vessel. Gates stowed the colony’s
sealed instructions in a locked box in his
cabin on the Sea Venture. Having the
leaders of the fleet and of the colony all
on one ship, along with the instructions
for the governance of the colony, was
imprudently risky and foolish. It would
prove to be a fateful decision that would
determine the course of the Jamestown
colony. The three men agreed that they
would sail along the new path far north of
the equator to avoid any trouble with the
Spanish in the West Indies — and they set
sail during hurricane season.
On June 25, the feast of St. James,
patron saint of fishermen and Spain, a
ferocious tempest dispersed the fleet. Day
turned to night in the inky darkness of
the swirling storm. The hurricane “beat
all light from heaven, which like a hell of
darkness turned black upon us” for three
days of “perpetual horror.” The imperiled
ships rocked violently in the thrashing
seas, barely recovering from one wave
when another struck. The ships struggled
to remain seaworthy and regroup with
each other. It seemed that God’s worst
affliction was sent against the flagship and
the colony’s leaders.
The Sea Venture leaked for three days
as the exhausted crew barely staved off her
sinking until the ship drifted to Bermuda,
what frightened sailors labeled the “isle of
devils.” But the island paradise actually
provided all the sustenance the castaways
needed for a year. Meanwhile, the other
ships limped to Jamestown and brought
400 hungry settlers but no supplies and no
leaders or instructions. Chaos reigned in
the colony as John Smith was nearly assassinated and dozens died during the “Starving Time” when the colonists resorted to
eating roots, leather shoes and even other
humans.
When Governor Gates miraculously
sailed into Jamestown in a fleet of two
ships ingeniously made from Sea Venture
salvage and local materials in May 1610,
he was shocked at the condition of the
settlers and their colony. Gates unsympathetically assembled the colonists who had
the strength and reproached them for the
“sloth, riot and vanity” that he believed led
to the “Starving Time.” He laid down strict
laws and regulations but soon realized that
the prospects for survival were dim. He
decided to abandon Jamestown and sailed
down the James making for England.
At that moment, the new governor,
Lord De La Warr, ar