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Wreck of the Sea Venture

July 28, 1609

Every Bermuda schoolchild knows the story—and it happened 398 years ago this month. The Sea Venture was one of a fleet of nine ships that left Plymouth, England in early June 1609, bound for Virginia to deliver supplies to the struggling colony at Jamestown.

On July 24, a hurricane came up from out of nowhere, separating the Sea Venture from the other ships.

Battered by wind and rain, the Sea Venture became a leaky vessel. Its150 passengers spent three days and four nights bailing water around the clock.

On July 28, with the crew and passengers certain they were doomed, Admiral Sir George Somers spotted land. They were off St. George’s, their terrifying ordeal nearly over. By day’s end, everyone had scrambled safely ashore.

Over the next 10 months, the castaways built two ships, Patience and the Deliverance, which sailed to Jamestown on May 10, 1610. Two men, Christopher Carter and Robert Waters, were left behind.

The peopling of Bermuda had begun.

Christopher Carter, who is considered the first Bermudian, remained in Bermuda for the rest of his life. Sir George Somers returned to the Island later in 1610 from Virginia, took sick and died.

On July 11, 1612, Bermuda’s first governor Richard Moore, a former Sea Venture passenger, arrived aboard the Plough with 50 passengers—the first permanent settlers.

Photo: Courtesy of the Bermuda Historical Society.

Born this month
David Critchley July 22, 1925-Sept. 16, 1993 social worker, civil servant
	David Critchley had a keen interest in tackling the ills of society, from racism to drug addiction. He helped establish one of Government’s success stories—the Child Development Project, an early childhood programme that gives parents the tools to interact with their children. He was also instrumental in Government’s decision to bring Canadian David Archibald to Bermuda in the 1980s to head a Royal Commission on drugs. Critchley graduated from Mount Allison University with a BA in 1947 and subsequently received with a master’s in social work from the University of Toronto In 1951, he returned to Bermuda to take up the post of youth organiser for the Social Welfare Board. Around the same time, he teamed up with a group of black social activists to write a paper, ‘An Analysis of Bermuda’s Social Problems.’ He became so frustrated by the racism of many of his white contemporaries that he moved back to Canada. When he returned in 1972 to become Government’s Director of Social Services, Bermuda was a different society—legalised segregation had been consigned to the history books. He remained in the civil service until his retirement as Permanent Secretary for Health and Social Services in 1988. In 1989, he published ‘Shackles of the Past’, where he wrote that Bermuda’s “problems should not be insurmountable if we don’t let the shackles of the past so divide us that we are unable to understand and deal with the realities of the present or prepare for whatever the future holds in store.” Critchley died in 1993 after a three-year bout with kidney disease. Photo: Courtesy of the Bermuda Sun A full biography of David Critchley is coming soon. In the meantime, check out the biography of Millicent Neverson, who worked to address social ills as well, including founding an orphanage.

In the News

Sea Venture candlestick on view

A 400-year-old candlestick salvaged from the wreck of the Sea Venture—and whose permanent home is the Bermuda Maritime Museum— is currently on view at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC as part of its ‘Shakespeare in American Life’ exhibit.
The Sea Venture’s dramatic story of survival, which was recounted by several of its passengers, is believed to have inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Candlesticks were indispensable for the Sea Venture crew. As water poured into the ship, they plugged leaks with anything remotely handy, including beef—by the light of candles. The exhibit closes on August 18.

Stamps commemorate Virginia links

The Bermuda Post Office released a ‘Bermuda to Jamestown’ stamp issue in June to coincide with Jamestown, Virginia’s 400th anniversary celebrations. The two stamps depict the Deliverance at Building Bay, St. George’s.
Stanley Taylor, of the Post Office’s Philatelic Bureau, also went to Washington to attend the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival, whose theme is ‘Roots of Virginia Culture’. He presented Virginia senator John Warner, with a first-day cover of the stamps.

Bermuda joins in Jamestown festivities

A Bermuda delegation of 24, led by St. George’s Mayor Mariea Caisey and St. George’s Foundation chairman Henry Hayward, attended Jamestown, Virginia’s 400th anniversary celebrations in May.

Sir George Somers Remembered

Sir George Somers, who died in 1610 in Bermuda, where he returned after delivering the Patience and Deliverance to Jamestown, was one of several historical figures brought to life at ‘A Somers Evening’, which was presented in June by the St George’s Foundation.
The story of Bermudian slave Mary Prince and her struggle for freedom was also re-enacted. Check out her full biography.