History of the coast isn't all pirates
This past month, my family spent a week in Beaufort. Our daughter and her family joined us, and we immensely enjoyed the boat ride out to Cape Lookout.
At these moments, I am always made aware of the culture and life of the people who live on the coast. The history of the coast is intriguing, through stories of Blackbeard and other pirates who sailed the high sea.
Other people who sailed the high seas were anything but pirates. They were our ancestors who came to the Americas to seek a new life.
Such were the people who set sail from Plymouth, England, June 2, 1609, on the Sea Venture, the flagship of the Virginia Company. The ship, built for this mission, was a part of a nine-ship fleet headed to Jamestown, Va., with 600 new settlers on board under the command of Sir George Somers.
The mission was not only to bring new settlers to Jamestown, Va., but to bring much-needed supplies for the families there.
Despite the delivery of supplies in 1608 on the first and second supply missions of Captain Christopher Newport, it seemed certain that without a major relief effort, the colony would meet the same fate as two earlier failed English attempts to settle in North America - the Roanoke Colony in North Carolina and the Popham Colony in Maine.
A letter written by Captain John Smith pleaded for supplies.
On July 24, the fleet ran into a strong storm, and the ships were separated.
The Sea Venture fought the storm for three days. Comparably-sized ships had survived such weather, but the new Sea Venture's timbers had not set. The caulking was forced from between them, and the ship began to leak rapidly.
All hands were applied to bailing, but the water continued to rise. The ship's guns were reportedly cast overboard (though two were salvaged from the wreck in 1612) to raise her buoyancy, but this only delayed the inevitable.
The admiral of the company, Somers himself, was at the helm through the storm. When he spied land on the morning of July 25, the water in the hold had risen to 9 feet, and crew and passengers had been driven past the point of exhaustion.
Somers deliberately sailed the ship onto the reefs of Bermuda to prevent its foundering. This allowed all 150 people and one dog aboard to land safely ashore.
The survivors, including several company officials (Lt. Gen. Sir Thomas Gates, the ship's Captain Christopher Newport, Sylvester Jordain and secretary William Strachey), were stranded on Bermuda for about nine months.
During that time, they built two new ships, the Deliverance and Patience, from Bermuda cedar and parts salvaged from the Sea Venture, especially her rigging.
They had intended to build only one vessel, but it soon became evident that she would not be large enough to carry the settlers and all of the food (salted pork) that was being sourced on the islands.
Among those left buried in Bermuda were the wife and child of John Rolfe, who would found Virginia's tobacco industry and find a new wife in Powhatan princess Pocahontas.
Carter and Waters were left behind to maintain the claim of the islands for England, but the remainder arrived in Jamestown on May 23.
The state regent for the N.C. Daughters of the American Revolution, Diana Woods of New Bern, is a descendant of John Proctor, a member on board the Sea Venture.
She has placed great importance on this event and is using it as a fundraiser for her state regent's project to erect a Revolutionary War Memorial in New Bern, the colonial capitol and second oldest town in North Carolina. It will be at the new North Carolina History Education Center being constructed adjacent to Tryon Palace, the brick mansion named after William Tryon, the British Colonial governor for whom it was built in 1770.
I appreciate this project endeavor to provide a visual in promoting American history in North Carolina.
Etta Reid, a local historian and educator, lives in Summerfield. She can be reached at etreid@aol.com.
