A forgotten man in the history of Jamestown and early Virginia is George Somers, who was born this day on April 24, 1554—a long, long time ago—but who during his lifetime was a celebrated military hero in England, then an Admiral who led a fleet of ships that sailed to the Jamestown settlement in 1609. This particular voyage became famous, and still is, for having been the basis of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, The Tempest. In July 1609, Somers’ vessel, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked off the coast of Bermuda on its way to Virginia, and the passengers & crew spent the next ten months as castaways. They spent their time building two new ships that would take them the rest of the way to Virginia, but life on the island was difficult, and the people experienced many threats to their health and safety. Their adventures on the island of Bermuda were later recounted in a published story that found its way to Shakespeare, and he turned it into a play. Notably, it was George Somers who had been at the helm of the Sea Venture when it encountered a violent storm, and in order to save his people he drove the ship onto the rocks; in doing so, he saved the lives of some 150 passengers and crew on board the ship.
What happened next was incredible. The castaways finished building their two small ships and set sail for Virginia in May 1610. When they finally arrived, they found that Jamestown had been devasted by death and disease, and few of the original settlers were still alive. This was the so-called “Starving Time,” when life became so unbearable that a few of the colonists resorted to cannibalism. With little food or other provisions to go around, the settlers were about to attempt sailing back to England. Just then, a relief fleet arrived in Chesapeake Bay, carrying desperately needed. They were all saved!
The rest of Somers’ life was sad and brief. After the arrival of the relief ships from England, Somers decided that he should return to Bermuda to gather more food, so he sailed back, only to become ill on the way. Shortly after he arrived, he died on the island in November 1610 at the age of 56. Some historians suggest that he died from the sheer exhaustion and stress of all that he had suffered through in that prior sixteen months. He left behind a life story that was already impressive before he ever sailed to Virginia. He was a naval hero in the Anglo-Spanish War; he sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh on the famous “El Dorado Expedition” to South America in 1595; he was knighted by King James I in 1603; and be became a Member of Parliament in 1604. For someone who did not come from a noble family, his many accomplishments bespeak a man of extraordinary talent, drive, and self-sacrifice.
Somers was revered by his fellow crew and passengers on the Jamestown voyage, so much so that the islands which form today’s Bermuda were renamed the “Somers Isles.” The territory ultimately became a Crown Colony in 1684, fifty years after King James I had made Virginia a Crown Colony in 1624.
And so today we honor the memory of George Somers, a forgotten hero whose efforts helped establish the first permanent English settlement in North America.
