The Jamestown Experiment (17 page)

Even the typically irreverent sailors commended themselves into “the mercy of their mighty God and redeemer.” They lost all hope of rescue and “inevitable danger, which ever man had proposed and digested to himself, of present sinking.”
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As they faced their deaths, a few opened up the barrels of rum and other spirits and drank themselves into a stupor. “Some of them, having some good and comfortable waters in the ship, fetched them and drunk the one to the other, taking their last leave one of the
other, until their more joyful and happy meeting in a more blessed world.” Luckily for the nearly 150 people aboard, most of the crew had an instinct for survival, and they had excellent leaders.
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Somehow they found the will to press on for just a little bit longer with their final reserves of energy. Sylvester Jourdain believed he saw God working through the efforts of the men to help themselves by bailing out the water: “Through which weak means it pleased God to work so strongly as the water was stayed for that little time (which, as we all much feared, was the last period of our breathing).”
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Just when all hope was lost and “no man dreamed of such happiness,” Somers cried “Land!” when he spotted a large island chain in the distance. The ship was completely at the mercy of the elements, when Jourdain wrote, “It pleased God out of his most gracious and merciful providence, so to direct and guide our ship (being left to the mercy of the sea) for her most advantage.”
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The spent men, who had been lying down in every corner of the ship, suddenly revived and renewed their efforts to bail out the water. “Every man bustled up and gathered his strength and feeble spirits together to perform as much as their weak force would permit him.”
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Somers ordered the boatswain to take a sounding to measure their depth. He dropped the knotted line and discovered that they were floating in thirteen fathoms of water as they approached the island with its dangerous reefs. Another sounding recorded the water’s depth at seven fathoms and then only four. Since they could not safely drop their anchor and disembark, Somers ordered the crew to “run her ashore as near the land as we could.”
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Although it was a highly dangerous maneuver, the sight of land cheered everyone’s souls, and they braced for impact. The island loomed larger in their sight as they came within a mile of the beautiful beaches.

The
Sea Venture
struggled over the last leg of her final, desperate
journey. The passengers and crew lurched forward as the ship ground over a reef and then shuddered to a stop between two massive rocks. The ship was lodged firmly and not going any farther.

The
Sea Venture
had massive tears rent into the bottom of the hull from the collision with the coral reef below. Normally, such a position would have been a horrible predicament. But in this case, the ship was fortunately stuck and gave the crew sufficient time to load as many passengers as they could safely aboard the skiffs and rowed them through the crystal-clear waters to the beaches before going back for the rest.

The weary sailors saved every person on the
Sea Venture
and even brought ashore the mastiff and several pigs. But as the mariners soon realized and the passengers would soon discover, they had landed on Bermuda, the “Isle of Devils.” They were castaways who had survived the horrific ordeal of the sinking of the
Sea Venture
only to drift to an island that would surely seal their doom. This new discovery frightened them as much as the tempest had.

Chapter Eleven

T
he condition of the rest of the fleet bound for Jamestown was only marginally better than its lost flagship
Sea Venture.
The hurricane had nightmarishly held the fleet in its grips for forty-eight hours before finally swirling off, leaving the weather-beaten and scattered fleet on the wide Atlantic.

The first thing each of the captains did was to check on his crew and passengers. Some were lost in the storm, and many were injured with bruises and broken bones. All were waterlogged and seasick.

All hands assessed the damage to the ships; some were in a terrible state. Masts were damaged or blown down, sails were torn and in need of mending, rigging was broken, and leaks had to be patched as best as possible to keep the boats seaworthy.

Meanwhile, the captains sent boys up any safe masts to scan the horizon for any sign of the other ships. Within a few days, four ships sighted one another and managed to sail together.

The sailors were eager to help out their fellow jack-tars. Some boarded the
Unity
to aid her because many of her crew were
incapable of doing their jobs. “The
Lion
first, and after the
Falcon
and the
Unity,
got sight of our ship [the
Blessing
]…The
Unity
was sore distressed when she came up with us, for of seventy land men, she had not ten sound, and all her seamen were down, but only the master and his boy with one poor sailor, but we relieved them.”
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The
Sea Venture
remained separated from the four ships, but that was hardly surprising due to the severity of the hurricane. It was certainly troubling that the governor, admiral, vice admiral, and the instructions for the colony were missing. “Four ships came together again, but they heard nothing of the admiral.”
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The captains assumed the others were sunk or on their way to Virginia. Either way, in their condition, they decided it was safer to sail directly for the colony rather than rendezvousing in the West Indies. Perhaps the
Sea Venture
and the rest of the fleet would be waiting there when they arrived. It was not unprecedented for a separated fleet to meet at their destination. A favorable wind pushed the injured ships over the waves. “So we lay a way directly for Virginia, finding neither current nor wind opposite.”
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Capt. John Ratcliffe of the
Diamond
was not heard from either by the larger remnant of the fleet. But the
Diamond
linked up with the
Swallow,
and the captains made the same decision to sail toward Virginia.

The first group of ships limped into Jamestown on August 11, and the second arrived a few days later. Their tumultuous journey was finally over.

The first fleet was likely met with much fanfare. The colonists were hungry and relieved to see the relief fleet arrive. After viewing the distressed condition of the newcomers, however, the colonists ran to help the seafarers disembark and inquired into their well-being. As they unloaded belongings and supplies from the ships, ate a meal,
and took a well-deserved rest, the travelers told of their terrifying encounter with the hurricane. The arrival of the second group of boats raised expectations that the flagship might also have survived and would be sailing for Virginia. But these hopes faded and tensions grew with every passing day.

It quickly became apparent that each group—the newcomers and the existing colonists—was profoundly disappointed with the other. The ships brought precious few supplies; most of these had been aboard the
Sea Venture.
All the fleet had really brought were four hundred hungry mouths to feed at a time when there was little food. On the other hand, the newcomers quickly discovered that they had been duped. Virginia was not exactly the land flowing with milk and honey as they expected. What they found instead was shocking and frightening.

The Virginia Company intended for the new settlers in Gates’s fleet to swell the population of Jamestown to ensure the colony’s survival. It did not foresee that rather than contributing to the colony’s success, the new settlers would significantly add to its woes.

Virginia had experienced a terrible drought all summer. The settlers had been able to store very few provisions for the winter, so their larders stood virtually empty. “Those provisions at a small allowance of biscuit, cake, and a small measure of wine or beer to each person for a day” was all they had to eat. The hundreds of new colonists rapidly ravished the supply of corn. “They fell upon that small quantity of corn…and in three days at the most wholly devoured it.”
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The outlook for the coming year was bleak.

With Gates and the instructions for the colony missing, plus the return of President John Smith’s greatest enemies, the colony broke into factions and anarchy. John Ratcliffe, Gabriel Archer, George Percy, and other newly arrived gentlemen fiercely contested Smith’s right to continue as president of the colony. They asserted their
rightful authority to rule the colony, because the fleet had received a patent from the king and had been sent by the Virginia Company. Gates and the instructions may have been lost, but they averred that those were a mere technicality. Archer complained that Smith was an ambitious tyrant who sought to “strengthen his authority…and gave not any due respect to many worthy gentlemen that came in our ships.”
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Ratcliffe agreed, writing that Smith “reigned [as] sole governor without assistants, and would at first admit of no council but himself.”
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John Smith hotly contested their right to rule the colony. Smith believed that he had single-handedly saved the colony by engaging in tough trade with the Indians for corn, setting the men to work, placing the settlement’s pigs on Hog Island, and thwarting Indian attacks. In his mind, only he understood what was needed to survive. He viewed his foes as “factious spirits” who tried to “strengthen themselves with those new companies so railing and exclaiming against him” and conspiring in any number of plots against him. Smith believed they were attempting to “usurp the government” with their rebellious and ambitious nature. In this struggle of wills, the only losers were the colonists. Factionalism divided them and left them without any form of government when it was never more sorely needed.
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Amid the chaos, and with so many new colonists and few provisions to feed them, Smith dispersed the colonists in several groups to other locations. He removed them from Jamestown to relieve the demand for food among the 250 settlers who remained. Some of the gentlemen who contended with him for power were sent away as well. He sent Francis West (Lord De La Warr’s younger brother) to the falls with 140 colonists, while John Martin and George Percy took 60 settlers to Nansemond near the mouth of the James.

The werowance at Nansemond refused to trade with the English and declined any offer to sell a small island so that they would settle
there. Martin sent two messengers to negotiate a price, including copper hatchets and other useful items. They were not heard from for some time, and the Indians informed the English that “they were sacrificed, and that their brains were cut and scraped out of their heads with mussel shells.” The Englishmen responded savagely to the violence, driving the Indians from the island, burning their homes, ransacking their sacred areas, and carrying away bracelets, copper, and pearls. They also took the chief’s son and another Indian hostage. A boy accidentally shot the chief’s son, who escaped wounded and bleeding. Percy wanted to plunder the Indians’ supply of corn, but Martin refused because of the hazard to his men. Percy returned to Jamestown to deal with the political struggle.
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At the falls, several of West’s men were killed or wounded when they straggled from the fort. Smith visited the garrison a few times and argued with West about where best to situate the men. Smith wanted West to settle in the village of Powhatan, recently acquired from Wahunsonacock’s son, Parahunt, because it was a more defensible location. After West refused to do so, some Powhatan warriors killed several Englishmen outside of the protection of the fort and then assaulted the fort itself. “They slew many and so frightened the rest as their prisoners escaped, and they retired with the swords and cloaks of those who had been slain.”
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George Percy and others accused Smith of betraying his countrymen in his lust for power. They charged that he had “incensed and animated” the Indians against the English settlers, even informing the enemy that “our men had no more powder left them than would serve for one volley of shot.” Although the accusations were false, Smith returned to the falls a third time while West went to Jamestown. Smith ordered the settlers to relocate to the village of Powhatan, which West bitterly resented when he returned and discovered what Smith had done.

While Smith was sailing back to Jamestown, he had a terrible accident that may have been perpetrated by his enemies: his powder bag exploded. It burned “his flesh from his body and thighs nine or ten inches square in a most pitiful manner.” With his clothes aflame and his skin bubbling, Smith screamed and desperately leaped into the river “to quench the tormenting fire frying him in his clothes.” The people aboard fished his nearly lifeless body out of the river “nearly bereft of his senses by reason of his torment.” Without any medical attention, he traveled the rest of the way to Jamestown in excruciating pain. He was carried from the ship to his bed when they disembarked.
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As if that were not enough, Smith reported that the conspirators—Martin, Ratcliffe, Archer, and their confederates—plotted to dispatch him while he was sleeping “in his bed.” The would-be assassins apparently lost heart, but they settled for deposing him and seizing the reins of government while he lay dying.
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Smith saw that he was defeated and needed a doctor, and he resolved to sail for England. His enemies decided to follow up the attempt on his life by discrediting him before the company. His longtime enemy, John Ratcliffe, informed Lord Salisbury, “This man is sent home to answer some misdemeanors whereof I am persuaded he can scarcely clear himself from great imputation of blame.” In October, John Smith left Jamestown in disgrace, despite his best efforts for more than two years to help the colony succeed.
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Since they were rid of Smith, the gentlemen of the colony elected a new president. Not surprisingly, Martin, Ratcliffe, and West, along with a few allies, formed the governing council. They selected George Percy, the twenty-nine-year-old son of an earl, to be the new president. He, like many other gentlemen adventurers, had been educated at Oxford and the Middle Temple. Percy may have sought
adventure in Virginia, but he was a dandy and was a very weak leader to select in Smith’s or Gates’s absence.

When Wahunsonacock learned of Smith’s departure, he concluded that his most formidable foe among the English no longer presented a challenge to his desire to be rid of the infernal invaders. Moreover, he understood how short of provisions the English were. He launched an all-out war to drive them out of Virginia, using his warriors to besiege the Jamestown settlement and banning trade among the Indians to starve them out.

President Percy sent Ratcliffe to Point Comfort to build a fort and fish for food, the latter to relieve some of the pressure on the dwindling food supply. Meanwhile, when Martin left Nansemond for Jamestown to escape an impending mutiny, seventeen men stole a boat, pretending to be departing on a trade mission. As they attempted to flee from the colony, they were slaughtered by Indians. The president thought that they “were served according to their just deserts, for not any of them were heard of after, and in all likelihood were cut off and slain by the savages.”
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A few days later, Martin’s subordinate, Michael Sicklemore, and his desperately hungry men went to the Indians to “seek for bread and relief among them.” They were killed, and their mouths were scornfully “stopped full of bread” as a sign of what would happen to any Englishmen who sought food from the Indians. The remaining men decided that staying at Nansemond was suicidal and sailed back to Jamestown. Unfortunately, their return further strained the settlement’s dwindling food supplies, as they “[fed] upon the poor store we had left us.” Indian attacks claimed several of West’s men and forced him to abandon the falls and return to Jamestown.
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