by Bar de Ness

Created on: June 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 14, 2009

When the world thinks of Jamestown, it should also think of Bermuda. At first glance they would both appear as historically remote as Tuvalu is from Trieste, yet both are interlinked, and neither may have survived without the other.

Bermuda was settled by accident rather than desire, unlike Jamestown which had a settlement plan based on economics, English enterprise, and sailing expertise.

The ship Sea Venture, the van of an English fleet of seven, carrying settlers and supplies on route to the fledgling and failing colony of Jamestown, Virginia, became separated by a hurricane just a week from destination in July 1609.

Suffering extensive damage, and with almost all hope lost, salvation hove into view. Unbeknown to the forlorn crew and passengers, they were to find refuge on an uninhabited island, a mere 22 miles long and one mile wide, which would eventually become Great Britain's oldest colony.

2009 celebrates Bermuda's 400th anniversary and Jamestown's 403rd.

The story of the survivors is fodder for a Hollywood movie and equally enthralling. One of them was non other than the future husband of Pocahontas, as immortalised by the Disney movie of the same name.

John Rolfe, later to become Jamestown's original cultivator of tobacco as an export crop, left a wife and child buried in Bermuda, but along with many other survivors managed to reach Virginia a year after the shipwreck.

Bermuda, also known by early seaman as the "Isle of Devils" due to the dangerous reefs around it, and "Somers Isle" after the commander of the original fleet, Sir George Somers - was originally named after the Spaniard Juan de Bermudez, after a passing visit in 1503.

It was subsequently to be visited several times by the Spanish and Portuguese, but superstitious legends prevented them from making a settlement. This has been accredited in part to a bird, the Bermuda petrel, whose diabolical callings invoked images of spirits and devils. It was factors like these, however strange, which would allow the English to plant their flag without conflict and have far reaching impact.

Another survivor of the ill-fated venture was William Strachey, an English writer noted as a primary source of the early history of English colonisation in North America.

Along with Rolfe, he too succeeded in reaching Virginia, and it is his account of the expedition's plight, which is accredited to influencing William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".

Together with Admiral Somers and Sir Thomas Gates

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>