The Sea Venture
Infomation from: The Sea Venture
By Kieran Doherty
Passengers on the Sea Venture, the largest sea vessel in their fleet in 1609:
The Sea Venture carried the most supplies of all the ships that left England in a fleet of six vessels:
There were 800 people on 6 ships:
The ships all traveled down the Thames River, then south and west past the Downs and the Isle of Wright and then into Plymouth Harbor. By May 20, 1609, all six ships were gathered at Plymouth. By the end of May the ships were loaded with both their passengers and supplies. On June 2, 1609, friends and relatives gathered to bid them farewell. From the first there were strong winds which forced the captain to travel from Falmouth on the Cornish coast. Here they remained until the water calmed. By June 8, 1609 they were heading out into the Atlantic Ocean. They were to go to Barbuda and wait seven days before traveling to Virginia.
By mid-July the Sea Venture, and the other ships, sailed about as slow as a man could walk. However, this would change as they got closer to the southern Atlantic location. Hurricanes were common in these waters. In fact, the name hurricane was originally used by the Taino Indians of Central America. Their god Huracan was a god of evil and destruction and he was thought to bring the deadly hurricanes.
On Sunday, July 24, 1609, the sea would become a tempest. There was the unusual calm before the storm, and then they saw what looked to be menacing clouds. It would be a long night and some passengers became frightened while others prayed.
By the next morning there was little sun. On July 25th, it was St. James Day, according to the Church of England. On this day the storm continued to worsen. Waves were ten to fifteen feet high. In the storm, the ships were tossed about at the will of the sea, and they were no longer grouped together. This meant that they could not help each other if the storm damaged their ships. As might be expected everything that wasn’t tied down went overboard, and below the decks slop bucket spilled all the human waste and garbage everywhere.
The ships caulking began to come off the wooden decks and the water was soon going below decks since the ship was no longer waterproof. The passengers in both classed united together with the crew in an attempt to save the ship and thus their own lives. Their pumps could not keep up with the water that was coming in the ship, and eventually it was clogged with bread.
Their struggle to keep alive took three days and four nights. Then a huge wave put the Sea Venture on her side. When they thought all was lost, they suddenly saw a light in the storm. Land soon presented itself, however, a reef blocked them from getting to land. The Sea Venture was broken in a V shape off shore on Bermudas reef.
Written and Researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewski, B.F.A.
This page was last updated on June 25, 2007
