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the islands remained uninhabited and unpeopled, visited only by sailors under duress.
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Kieran Doherty |
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According to Oviedo's history, a Portuguese ship bound for home port from San Domingo was driven onto the Bermudan reefs in 1542 or early 1543. Fortunately for the thirty seamen on the vessel, the ship--like the Sea Venture almost seven decades later--was held in the grip of the coral, kept afloat long enough for the crew to salvage provisions, tools, spars, sails, and shrouds. Over the next four months, they constructed a new vessel they u..
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Kieran Doherty |
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In exchange for the parcel of land, Smith promised copper and "gave" Parahunt a teenaged English boy named Henry Spelman to serve as a translator. With the deal closed, Smith ordered West to move into the Indian village with his men and then made his way back to the ship for his journey downriver to Jamestown."
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Kieran Doherty |
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the island chain had achieved such a terrible reputation, thanks to its reefs and to the unearthly screams of the island's millions of cahows, that mariners were calling Bermuda the Isle of Devils.
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Kieran Doherty |
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Even after its discovery, Bermuda remained a no-man's-land. The maze of reefs and coral heads that nearly surround the islands make approaching the Bermudas a scary business.
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Kieran Doherty |
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the balance of the fleet--other than the little ketch that was lost after separating from Sea Venture in the early hours of the storm--had survived the tempest, if barely. On August 10, four of those ships passed between Cape Henry and Cape Charles, named for the sons of King James I, and sailed slowly up the Chesapeake Bay on the rising tide. The ships--the Blessing, the Falcon, the Lion, and the Unity--were battered, their masts broken or..
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Kieran Doherty |
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As challenging as the islands were to mariners, a few Spanish and Portuguese and, later, English sailors did make their way to stand on one of Bermuda's beaches or to climb its rocks or investigate its many caves. None of these early visitors came to stay, though. Bermuda was just too difficult to reach, too dangerous to approach.
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Kieran Doherty |
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vessels in the fleet endured after leaving the company of the Sea Venture. The first thing that happened--and this was reported by every witness--was that the ships scattered. Contact was soon lost and it was every vessel for herself. In reality, even if the ships' captains had wanted to stay in contact, it would have been impossible. The only way for ships to communicate was by flag or other visual signals, by lights at night, or by horns ..
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Kieran Doherty |
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the death toll on the Diamond and the Swallow was terrible. Between the two vessels, thirty-two passengers and crew--well over 10 percent of their total complement--had died at sea, their bodies thrown overboard. Somehow, during the crossing, perhaps at the height of the storm, two of the women passengers gave birth to babies. Not surprisingly given the circumstances, the two children, both boys, died in mid-Atlantic.
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Kieran Doherty |
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it is unlikely that any of the ships' captains seriously considered steering their damaged and undermanned vessels to either Barbuda or the Bermudas in search of the Sea Venture. Instead, the storm would have convinced all the captains to steer for Virginia and what they hoped and prayed would be safety.
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Kieran Doherty |