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The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America (John MacRae Books) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Lorri Glover, Daniel Blake Smith
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $15.00
You Save: $11.00 (42%)
New (26) Used (5) from $15.00
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 85233
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0805086544
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.21
EAN: 9780805086546
ASIN: 0805086544
Publication Date: August 5, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new. Cover included.
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Product Description
A freshly researched account of the dramatic rescue of the Jamestown settlers The English had long dreamed of colonizing America, especially after Sir Francis Drake brought home Spanish treasure and dramatic tales from his raids in the Caribbean. Ambitions of finding gold and planting a New World colony seemed within reach when in 1606 Thomas Smythe extended overseas trade with the launch of the Virginia Company. But from the beginning the American enterprise was a disaster. Within two years warfare with Indians and dissent among the settlers threatened to destroy Smythe’s Jamestown just as it had Raleigh’s Roanoke a generation earlier. To rescue the doomed colonists and restore order, the company chose a new leader, Thomas Gates. Nine ships left Plymouth in the summer of 1609—the largest fleet England had ever assembled—and sailed into the teeth of a storm so violent that “it beat all light from Heaven.” The inspiration for Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the hurricane separated the flagship from the fleet, driving it onto reefs off the coast of Bermuda—a lucky shipwreck (all hands survived) which proved the turning point in the colony’s fortune.
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| Customer Reviews:
An incredible story. August 15, 2008
L.A. in CA
This is an interesting history of the settling of Jamestown that gives equal time to the ships that successfully reached Virginia in 1609, and the one ship that did not (the Sea Venture) which was shipwrecked off the coast of Bermuda. Those aboard the former ships found themselves in dire straights after arriving in Virginia. Those who sailed on the Sea Venture found themselves in a land of milk and honey. The contrast could not have been greater. Eventually the two groups were reunited, but any joy was short lived.
The book begins with the chartering of the Virginia Company in London, whose mission it was to find funding for the expeditions. When the Company had difficulty raising money or finding Londoners willing to settle in Virginia, they had to get creative. Colonizing Virginia became "God's calling". Most of the time, though, it must have seemed to the settlers that God had forsaken them.
I thought that the writing was a little repetitive in the early chapters, but once I got deeper in the story, I couldn't put it down. This is not your sugar-coated, school book version of events at Jamestown. I was stunned over and over again at the brutality and the suffering that took place.
Definitely recommended.
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