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The Sea Venture castaways had spent nearly a year trying to get to Jamestown, but when they reached Virginia, starvation had overtaken the settlement. Settlers in Jamestown had resorted to cannibalism to survive, and over two thirds were dead. After reuniting, though, they had to make a decision which would forever alter the course of America.
For indeed, death is accompanied at no time nor place with circumstances every way so uncapable of particularities of goodness and inward comforts as at sea. – William Strachey
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The Sea Venture
The flagship of the Third Supply had crashed in Bermuda, where its passengers were stranded for 10 months. It was paradise, but they had to get to Jamestown to prevent the settlement from descending into chaos. They modified a longboat into a pinnace and sent it to Jamestown, but it sank en route. They built two more ships from scratch, and averted an attempted mutiny. George Somers just left two people in Bermuda to maintain the English right to the islands, and then they left.
The Starving Time
They arrived in Jamestown to see the settlement wrecked. Two thirds of the settlers were dead, and the rest were starving. They had even had to resort to cannibalism. Percy told Gates the story of a Powhatan blockade, a man who murdered and ate his wife, and settlers’ increasingly desperate attempts to survive.
After counting the rations, though, they had less than two weeks worth of food left.
Transcript
“For four and twenty hours, the storm in a restless tumult had blown so exceedingly as we could not apprehend in our imaginations any possibility of greater violence, yet did we still find it not only more terrible, but more constant, fury added to fury, and one storm urging a second more outrageous than the former.”
Introduction
When the Sea Venture set sail in June 1609, it took Argall’s new, faster route with the largest fleet the Virginia Company had ever sent to Jamestown. Off the coast of Bermuda, the sky grew dark, and the wind made the waves so violent that the ship was forced to abandon its pinnace. The crew and passengers couldn’t see, they couldn’t hear each other, and they were so consumed by motion sickness they could barely think.
The rope fibers that sealed the seams of the ship began to come loose, and soon, five feet of water had entered the ship. The mariners went to plug the leak and instead found dozens of small holes and tried to plug as many as they could, with whatever they could – including slices of beef. But the water continued to rise. As they saw thousands of biscuits floating in the water, they knew the food stores were flooded. For three days and four nights every person on board took shifts to pump and pour the water out of the sinking ship, with even the captain and governor taking turns. The only man who didn’t participate was Admiral George Somers, who worked without sleep to steer the ship as smoothly as possible.
When the ship was filled with nine feet of water, and people began to resign themselves to their fate. Some managed to get a drink and toast a meeting in the next world. They threw everything, including their guns, beer, oil, cider, wine and vinegar, overboard, but it was too late to be helpful. They shut the hatches, committed their sinful souls to God, and their ship to the mercy of the sea. At that moment, Somers saw land, and two rocks between which he could lodge the ship. The wind died down, the ship stopped sinking, and peace suddenly replaced the violence. The hurricane had passed. Using a boat, they got all the passengers, all remaining possessions, all livestock, and the dog to shore safely. They were in Bermuda, and the Devil’s Isles seemed to be paradise.
There were no native inhabitants, but plenty of wild hogs from previous Spanish expeditions, as well as fish, birds, eggs, turtles, shellfish, fruits and palmettos to eat. They dubbed a sweet-but-thorny plant the prickle pear. The weather was perfect, the water was beautiful, but they were stranded. They also held the new leadership and instructions for the governing of the colony, and new that the absence of Thomas Gates’ leadership meant that a power vacuum would emerge in Jamestown.
Jamestown would have to wait, though. First, they had to take care of the ship’s crew and passengers. They constructed shelters from palm leaves, and planted muskmelons, peas, radishes, onions and lettuce. They preserved their surplus and remained well fed during autumn and winter.
They salvaged everything but the ship’s ribs from the Sea Venture. Their shipbuilder, Richard Frobisher, doubtless related to the Elizabethan explorer Martin, attached parts from the ship to the longboat, and added a mast and oars to create a messenger boat sturdy enough to take eight men to Jamestown, which they estimated to be about 450 miles away. That boat would tell Jamestown what had happened, and Jamestown could use its pinnace to pick up the rest. The risks were too great for Gates to go personally, so he sent instructions and appointed people to act as leaders until he arrived. This leadership included one-time Cecil spy, Peter Wynn. Finally, Gates wrote the names of the people who he feared were most likely to try to try to take over Jamestown, but unfortunately we don’t know whose names were on it. We do, however, know that Gates had been the man who had suggested Archer, Martin and Ratcliffe’s return to Virginia, so we can guess. The modified boat made its way through the reefs surrounding the island, and the colonists waited for either Jamestown’s pinnace, or Lord Delaware’s fleet.
It’s worth taking a minute to introduce you to the people on board the Sea Venture, because not only will these people be important in the history of Jamestown (and even Plymouth), they also show the changing face of the colony under the Second Charter. There are some familiar names there, like a demoted Christopher Newport and obviously Peter Wynn, but on the whole, this group of settlers was very different.
Thomas Gates had been chosen as the new Governor of Jamestown by the Virginia Company, until Cecil demoted him to lieutenant governor, and made Lord Delaware governor. He had sailed with Drake and been mentored by Essex, and had intended to go to Virginia in 1607, but went to fight in the Low Country instead. A year later, he requested a leave of absence and went to Virginia.
George Somers, like Gates, was named on the 1606 Virginia Company charter. He was an old Elizabethan privateer, and one of the most respected mariners of his time. At the same time, no one really had anything bad to say about his character. Half a century after his death, he was remembered as “a lamb on the land, so patient that few could anger him, and a lion at sea, so passionate that few could please him.” Even on Bermuda, he consistently worked for the good of the company, charting the land and hunting and fishing every day.
Also on board were Stephen Hopkins who would later sign the Mayflower Compact, Richard Buck, a Cambridge educated Puritan minister. William Strachey, a lawyer-turned-poet, was also on board, and it was he who had learned of the Roanoke settlers’ fate from Wahunsenaca’s brother Machumps. Interestingly, he was also a friend of William Shakespeare, part of the same secret drinking club, the Sirenaicals, and Shakespeare wrote The Tempest based on his account of the Sea Venture’s wreck.
George Yeardley was on board, as was John Rolfe, who was carrying seeds of a Trinidad strain of tobacco someone had given him in London. Tobacco was extremely fashionable in England, popularized by Sir Walter Raleigh. James didn’t approve of it, and because of his regulations and Spanish dominance of the New World, the English had to buy from Spanish producers at high prices.
This was a very different group than had come to Jamestown previously, and followed a major restructuring of the Virginia Company. These colonists were largely members of the same class, children of successful merchants. This fit the Company’s reinvisioning of the colony as largely a trading venture, but it also marked a distinct social change within Virginia, itself. People like Gates and Somers certainly fit the old mold, distinguished adventurers and members of the social elite, but the merchant class had been essentially unrepresented in the early colony. They were a very different, and relatively new class of people. Most came from London, or the port cities, and they tended to live relatively quiet lives. They also tended to be some of the richest people in England, far richer than the struggling aristocrats and unemployed workers who had characterized the early colony. Because they were rich and had gotten rich in part by investing in profitable ventures, they were eager to invest in various colonial projects, whether or not they intended to actually take part in the danger themselves. In addition, King James’ willingness to sell aristocratic titles for a high enough price meant that a fair number of them – like the Earl of Warwick – emerged with titles as well. They were quickly outpacing the other classes in both wealth and influence.
The puritans came largely from this class of people, and indeed the coming era of Jamestown history would be dominated by them, and the colony would have a strong puritan influence for the next few years. There were even Brownist Separatists – the same strain of radical Calvinist that the Mayflower Pilgrims belonged to. Brownists rejected the Puritan idea of reform within the Anglican Church, and wanted to create separate churches which adhered to their theology. Within England, everyone was forced to attend Anglican Churches, so they, like so many dissident religious sects, looked toward the New World. These were the people who had gone to Holland, and now they were looking for a place in America where they could be free from the authority of the English government. One of the leaders of the Virginia Company, Edwin Sandys, actively tried to recruit Brownists to go to Virginia.
It was a different group of people living comfortably on a tropical island, but there was no escaping factional conflict. Somers argued that he was in charge of the colony until the crew and passengers reached their destination – Virginia. Gates took the role of governor within Bermuda, because they were on land, not at sea. The two factions split, with Somers taking 20 men to a nearby island, while the rest of people stayed with Gates.
The bigger conflict, however, occurred when no boat arrived at Jamestown. Wynn’s modified longboat had been lost at sea, never to be heard from again.
Frobisher began building another boat, this one from scratch, using some lumber from the ship, some from the local forests, and manufacturing his own pitch and tar.
At this point, six people, including a Brownist named John Want, lead an effort to keep the colonists in Bermuda. Life in Bermuda was good. There was plenty of food, no hostile local people, and they didn’t have to obey the adventurers who came before them, or the rules of some London-based company. Technically, they were outside of the influence of the English government, too. Being outside of an established English company patent was a perfect situation for a Brownist, and it was the situation the Pilgrims would find themselves in almost a decade later. In fact, one of Want’s co-conspirators was Hopkins, the future Mayflower leader. Even Somers tended to want to stay in Bermuda.
Gates, on the other hand, was ever wary of the situation in Jamestown. Everyone in London knew about the factional conflict threatening to tear the colony apart, and the Sea Venture’s supplies and directions were meant to turn a struggling outpost into a thriving colony. Without either, there was no telling what would happen in Virginia. In addition, the Virginia Company had paid their voyage, and they were under contract. This wasn’t just about them, it was about the colonists and the shareholders, too. To prevent the spread of this dissent, Gates banished the agitators to a nearby island and condemned Hopkins to death, only pardoning him after others asked him to be lenient.
He didn’t stop the spread of the dissent, though, and more separatists emerged, and one was even caught stealing supplies to take a group of survivors to a nearby island to stay permanently. He was shot to make it clear: no more separatist talk.
After 10 months on the island, both groups of colonists had completed the construction of their ships, the Deliverance and the Patience, and were ready to set sail for Jamestown, what they believed would be a 450 mile journey. Under Somers’s secret instruction, three men did stay behind, so that England could claim continual inhabitation and therefore have legal claim to Bermuda as a colony. Each group erected a cross, with a description of how they ended up there. They packed enough food for the voyage, and set sail. 10 days later (and about 300 miles further than they expected), they arrived in Virginia.
The first Englishmen they met were at Cape Henry, at a settlement named Ft. Algernon after Percy’s nephew, and there, they exchanged news with the settlement’s leader, James Davies. Jamestown, Davies said, had been doing badly, but he and his men had been living well on some hogs that they’d fattened with an unexpected oyster surplus. They were one of three new settlements that had been established, theirs, one at Nansemond, and one at Point Comfort, but only theirs remained. The others had been abandoned and their inhabitants forced back to Jamestown. A few weeks before, Percy, who had just recovered from a long illness, had visited the fort to tell him that he’d have to take half of Jamestown’s survivors. Davies had protested, saying he had no food or accommodation for them, and was facing increasing hostility from neighboring Kekoughtan Indians. Percy had said he should prepare for an imminent influx of sick and starving men, but Davies had heard nothing from Jamestown since.
The Sea Venture settlers continued to sail up the James River, and finally reached the little wooden fort that had been their destination for nearly a year. They landed, and entered the fort. Strachey was surprised by how substantial a settlement Jamestown was, with buildings, and a nicely furnished church, but it was empty, and a shambles. It looked more like the ruins of an ancient fort than one that was supposed to be inhabited, the church’s things were knocked over and in disarray, and it appeared empty.
They rang the church bell, and a handful of people began to crawl out, some naked, saying simply “we are starved, we are starved.”
George Yeardley recognized his wife, Temperance, and the new Reverend Buck gave a prayer. Gates delivered his commission, and Percy handed in his old commission, tired, and relieved not to be president anymore. The new arrivals quickly fed everyone in the fort, and Percy began to tell Gates what had happened.
They had, as you remember, had only three months worth of food supplies when the last ship left Jamestown in September 1609. Making the absolute most of everything, they’d run out of food in the middle of February. West’s men had been forced to abandon their settlement when it flooded, putting an even greater strain on food supplies.
When they started getting desperate for more supplies, Percy had sent Martin to Nansemond to trade with the Kekoughtan, and Ratcliffe to Cape Comfort to set up a permanent settlement to act as a lookout for shipping, and to support fishing.
It wasn’t long before Martin had returned, having abandoned his post in what was a shocking, though perhaps not entirely surprising, display of cowardice. He’d left a soldier named Michael Sicklemore in charge, a man who was held in much higher regard than he was. Percy immediately sent a search mission and found the lieutenant alive, but alone. His men had fled to Kekoughtan and asked for refuge. When Percy’s men went to Kekoughtan, they found Sicklemore’s men dead, with their mouths stuffed full of bread.
He was relieved when Wahunsenaca sent an envoy led by Thomas Savage bringing venison. Percy told Savage to go back with gifts and ask about buying corn. Savage didn’t want to leave, and only agreed when Spellman agreed to accompany him.
WhenSpellman returned from Orpaks, the new Powhatan capital, he brought Wahunsenaca’s son and daughter, as well as a message saying that the Powhatan would trade copper for corn. John Smith had warned that this type of thing could be a trap, because there was a drought and no one had enough food, but he’d also said that that might have been a lie to gain a trade advantage. The English were desperate, and Percy had no real choice but to try. He sent Spellman with a reply that the Pinnace would shortly be there.
He recalled Ratcliffe from Point Comfort to take the two teenagers and 50 soldiers to Orpaks. They were escorted to the corn, and negotiated a price for it. At this point, the Powhatan left the English to carry the baskets back to their ship. When they found that the baskets had false bottoms and were nearly empty, they were chased back to their boats by the Indians, and right before they reached the river, carrying whatever corn they could, and were ambushed by warriors. Two soldiers managed to escape, and the rest were killed. Ratcliffe was escorted away alive. Spellman and Savage escaped, though. Smith later theorized they were tipped off by Pocahontas.
The soldiers who had escaped watched as a fire was kindled at the foot of a tree, and Ratcliffe was stripped of his clothes and tied to it. A group of women then proceeded to cut his flesh and organs from his body, throwing them piece by piece into the fire, until nothing was left.
Percy’s gamble hadn’t paid off, and the colony collapsed. Fearing no reprisals from Smith, the Paspaheighs lay siege to the fort, shooting anyone who dared to leave it. They also slaughtered the settlers’ livestock, leaving them rotting in the field and shooting anyone who tried to retrieve the bodies. Their only hope was to make contact with groups beyond the Powhatan dominions, either in the northern regions of the Chesapeake, or south toward Chowanoc, the land of the tribes who had taken in the Roanoke settlers.
He sent West out to trade with the Patawomecs in the North of the Chesapeake. West managed to fill hils pinnace with corn, but in some sort of altercation, he had beheaded and cut off the limbs of two people, antagonizing the tribe. While West’s men were sailing back to Jamestown, they ran into Davies’ men at Algernon, and Davies told them how severe the colony’s starvation had become, and told them to get back with the food as fast as possible. West’s men decided that wasn’t a situation they wanted to be in, though, and forced West to sail for England, never taking the corn to Jamestown.They actually went up to Newfoundland, after which some returned to England, and others did in fact join pirate ships.
There was no food at this point. People had finished the food from the ship’s stores, then eaten every animal brought from England, then just walked around picking up anything that looked remotely edible. First horses, then pigs, dogs, cats, rats, mice, vermin, fungi, toadstools. Next, they ate anything made of leather.
Percy, himself, tried to go meet the Chowanocs, but there was no ship remaining. One ship was with Davies at Ft. Algernon. Another was at Cape Comfort. West’s men had stolen another. That left only one ship, the Discovery, and that had gone adrift, floating four miles downstream. With the siege, none of the sailors dared to retrieve it until Percy emerged from his house, sword drawn, and seemingly ready to use it.
Tucker built another, large fishing boat by hand, but there were no fish in the river. It was still useful enough and boosted morale just enough to keep the people from killing each other.
Hugh Price broke under the strain of the now-unbearable hunger. He wandered the streets uttering blasphemies and left the fort with a butcher, only for the two to be shot to death by Indians. They found his body torn apart by wolves, though oddly the butcher’s remained intact except for the arrow wounds.
Other colonists turned to cannibalism. They had recently buried a slain Indian, and they dug him up and butchered him.
When the pregnant wife of a man named Collins disappeared, colonists searched his cabin and found her preserved remains. Under an increasingly-stressed Percy’s torture, he confessed to the murder and was burned at the stake.
Percy, himself, was dealing with a bout of his illness, but as soon as he was well enough, he went to Fort Algernon to see how the people there were doing and see if he could revenge the killing of his men by the Kekoughtans.
At Algernon, he found the men enjoying such plentiful food that they were feeding the surplus to their pigs. Davies’ pleas that he didn’t have enough food or security from Indian attack to take on additional settlers had rung pretty hollow given what Percy had just experienced. He felt that Davies had concealed his plenty from Jamestown, and noted that even the food they’d given the hogs could have saved multiple people’s lives. He felt that they had left Jamestown to fend for itself, and wondered if they weren’t preparing to return to England alone. He told Davis that he would be sending half of his men to Fort Algernon to get some food, and then the other half, and that if that wasn’t fast enough to save people’s lives, he would bring everyone from Jamestown to Algernon at the same time. “Another fort might be erected and built, but men’s lives once lost could never be recovered.”
While they were waiting for the tide to take the first wave of settlers to Fort Algernon, Gates’ two pinnaces arrived. Thus ended the starving time.
Archer had died during the Starving time. In all, only 60 of 200 settlers remained in Jamestown. Not all of them had died, a fair number went to live with the local Indians. They never returned to Jamestown, but later settlers recalled seeing them there.
It had been the most gruesome and trying ordeal the colony had yet faced, and believe me when I say I left out some of the more appalling stories. Smith blamed the colony’s leadership, and a lot of people since have taken that approach, saying Percy’s lack of leadership skills allowed the situation to get as bad as it did. Others have blamed the colonists for their laziness, but recent scholars have noted that despair can push people to inactivity, when they see no escape they don’t work toward one. I have my opinions on this, but instead of saying them now, I’ll leave it up to you. What do you think?
Finally, though, the Sea Venture settlers and Jamestown survivors were together. After six months of starvation, they had relief. The Powhatan lifted the siege to do their spring planting.
Gates and Somers had arrived on homemade pinnaces, though. They had been able to create bounty in Bermuda, but their ships were just big enough to get them to Jamestown, not them and excess supplies. So, Gates counted his supplies, and calculated, and figured out that even stretching what they had to the absolute maximum, they had only 16 days worth of food left, and with that news it was time to make a decision.
To leave Jamestown would not just mean abandoning a tiny wooden fort on the Chesapeake Bay. It would mean letting all of North America fall into Spanish hands, and most likely giving up the dream of a Protestant Empire. It would mean letting down the shareholders who had invested so much in the venture. With a second major failure, it would be years before investors decided to fund another American colony. By that time, France and Spain would inevitably have asserted their dominance, and England wouldn’t have another chance.
It wasn’t a light decision, but the survivors simply couldn’t endure anymore, so Gates decided that the colonists should leave. They would go to Newfoundland, and there, they’d make arrangements to transport passengers with other ships passing through the area.
Everyone celebrated, and some wanted to burn the Fort to keep it from falling into Spanish hands, but Gates prevented them, saying that “people as honest as us might come to inhabit here.” They buried the cannons and ordinance, packed any remaining supplies or valuables onto the ships, and by noon they were on their way. Gates was the last to leave the island, just to make sure no one decided to burn the fort. They fired a farewell salute, and the two homemade pinnaces started to sail back up the James.