Sir George Somers(before 24 April 1554 – 9 November 1610) was an English privateer and naval hero, knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of theVirginia Company of London.He achieved renown aspart of an expeditionled by SirAmyas Prestonthat plunderedCaracasandSanta Ana de Coroin 1595, during the undeclaredAnglo-Spanish War.He is remembered today as the founder of the English colony ofBermuda,also known as the Somers Isles.
Sir George Somers | |
|---|---|
 Portrait believed to be of Somers | |
| Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis | |
| In office 19 March 1604 – 10 February 1610 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | before24 April 1554 Lyme Regis,Dorset,England |
| Died | 9 November 1610(aged 56) Bermuda |
| Resting place | Whitchurch Canonicorum |
| Occupation | Privateer,sea captain |
| Awards | Knight Bachelor(1603) |
| Employer | Virginia Company of London |
| Military service | |
| Branch |  Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1595–1606 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Wars | Anglo-Spanish War |
Career
editSomers was born inLyme Regis,Dorset,in 1554, the son of John Somers and his wife. From a young age he became a skilled and well-known seaman and owned at least one ship, theJulian,whose home port was Lyme Regis. Somers' first venture in command of theFlibcote,in company of three other vessels during the undeclaredAnglo-Spanish War,on a raid to Spain; he brought home Spanish prizes worth more than £8,000.[1]
Preston Somers Expedition
editSomers then joined up with another seamanAmyas Prestonwho had fought against theSpanish Armada.Both agreed to take part inWalter Raleigh'sEl Dorado expeditiontoTrinidadandGuianain 1595 in search of the mythical city of gold, as well as to commit to amphibious descents throughout the Spanish Main with them. However, after failing to meet, theSomers Expeditionwent on their own venture along the coast of the SpanishProvince of Venezuelaand captured the fort atLa Guairabefore they headed South inland. After making an arduous trek through the mountains ofpico Naiguatathe English led by Preston and Somers were able to outmanoeuvre the waiting Spanish force and captured the colonial city of Santiago de Leon deCaracas.[2][3]
After the failure of aransomthey plundered and torched the city and then went to captureSanta Ana de Corobefore they made a brief excursion to theSpanish West Indies.Despite the challenges they faced the expedition was a success for the English who were able to return unmolested with some profit having set out as only a supporting expedition.[4]Between 1600 and 1602, Somers commanded several English ships, includingHMSVanguard,HMSSwiftsureandHMSWarspite.He was knighted in 1603, and becameMember of Parliament for Lyme Regisin March 1604.
Virginia Company
editIn 1609, Somers was appointed as admiral of theVirginia Company'sThird Supplyrelief fleet, organized to provide relief to theJamestowncolony settled in North America two years before. On 2 June 1609, he set sail fromPlymouthon theSea Venture,the flagship of the seven-ship fleet, (towing two additionalpinnaces) destined for Jamestown, Virginia. The fleet carried a total of 500–600 colonists bound for Jamestown.
On 25 July, the fleet ran into a strong storm, probably ahurricane,and the ships were separated. TheSea Venturefought the storm for three days. Comparably-sized ships had survived such weather, but theSea Venturehad a critical flaw; she had recently been constructed and her timbers had not set. Thecaulkingwas forced from between them, and the ship began to leak rapidly. All hands were applied to bailing, but the water continued to rise in the hold. The ship's guns were reportedly jettisoned—though two were salvaged from the wreck in 1612, to arm Bermuda's first fort—to raise her buoyancy, but this only delayed the inevitable. Sir George Somers was at the helm through the storm.
When the piloting Somers spied land on the morning of 28 July, the water in the ship's hold had risen to 9 feet (2.7 m), and crew and passengers had been driven past the point of exhaustion. Somers (either deliberately or accidentally) drove the ship onto the reefs in order to prevent theSea Venturefoundering. This allowed all hands (150 people and a dog aboard) to reach shore safely using boats.[5]Those in the flotilla who continued on to Virginia presumed that Somers and the others had died in the storm, which had battered the relief fleet and damaged its supplies.
Somers and his company remained in Bermuda for 10 months, living on food they could gather on the island and fish from the sea. Some commentators believe that this incident inspiredWilliam Shakespeare's playThe Tempest.[6]During their time on the islands, the crew and passengers built a church and houses, the start of the Bermuda colony. Somers and SirThomas Gatesoversaw the construction of two small ships, theDeliveranceand thePatience.They were built from local timber (Bermuda Cedar) and the salvaged spars and rigging of the wreckedSea Venture.
In May 1610, the ships set sail for Jamestown, with the surviving 142 castaways on board taking food from the island. When they reached the settlement, they found it nearly destroyed by famine and disease of what has been called theStarving Time.Few of the supplies from the Supply Relief Fleet had arrived (the same tropical storm which caught theSea Venturehad damaged some of the rest of the fleet), and only 60 settlers survived. Only the food and help offered by those on the two small ships from Bermuda, followed by a relief fleet in July 1610, commanded byLord Delaware,enabled the colony to survive and avoided the abandonment of Jamestown.
Return to Bermuda
editSomers returned to Bermuda in thePatienceto collect more food (such as feral hogs), but he became ill on the journey. He died in Bermuda on November 9, 1610, at age 56. It is likely that George Somers died from exhaustion or an overexertion-related illness.[7]
It is recorded that his nephew, Matthew Somers, buried George's heart and organs somewhere near what is now Somers Garden, andpreservedthe rest of body in a cask of whiskey.[8]The preserved remains were taken back to England and buried in his home hamlet ofWhitchurch Canonicorumnear to the town ofLyme Regis.
References
editFootnotes
edit- ^Shorto, Gavin (13 June 2013)."George Somers, Amyas Preston and the Burning of Caracas".The Bermudian.Archived fromthe originalon 13 May 2016.Retrieved28 April2016.
- ^.Dictionary of National Biography.London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.p 305
- ^John Lombardi,Venezuela,Oxford, England, 1982, p 72
- ^Navy and Army Illustrated, Volume 15.Hudson & Kearns. 1902. p. 409.
- ^Doherty, Kieran (2007).Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of the First English Colony in the New World.Macmillan. p. 47.ISBN9780312354534.
- ^Hobson Woodward.A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest.Viking (2009)ISBN978-0-670-02096-6
- ^Nicholls, Mark."Sir George Somers (1554–1610)".Encyclopedia Virginia.
- ^Jarvis, Michael (22 October 2023)."Searching for Sir George Part 1".The Bermudian Magazine.
Bibliography
edit- Dwyer, Jack. 2009.Dorset Pioneers,The History PressISBN978-0-7524-5346-0
- Glover, Lorri and Daniel Blake Smith.The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America,New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2008
- Mayden, David. 1998.Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present.Editorial ABC-CLIO.
- Raine, David.Sir George Somers: A Man and his Times
External links
edit
Media related toSir George Somersat Wikimedia Commons
