Audiobook10 hours
The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America
Written by Lorri Glover and Daniel Blake Smith
Narrated by Michael Prichard
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
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) that proved to be the turning point in the colony's fortune.
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) that proved to be the turning point in the colony's fortune.
Author
Lorri Glover
Lorri Glover is the author of two books on the social structure of the early South, including Southern Sons: Becoming Men in the New Nation. She is an associate professor of early American history at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Related to The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown
Related audiobooks
Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America's Origin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Final Voyage: A Story of Arctic Disaster and One Fateful Whaling Season Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War for All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston's Captivity and Revenge in Colonial America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Captured by Indians: A True Account Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jamestown: The Buried Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barons of the Sea: And their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built The Transcontinental Railroad 1863 - 1869 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Modern History For You
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Revolution: The War for Independence and the Birth of the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Plain Sight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Michigan Murders: The True Story of the Ypsilanti Ripper's Reign of Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Generation Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Path Between the Seas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Final Witness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown
Rating: 4.666666666666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
6 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is well written storytelling and fully supports the thesis in the title. The detailed description of gripping events is both vivid and set well in global context.
Unfortunately the narration is lackluster. And as a person who recorded books like this professionally for years, there are glaring technical shortcomings in the audio which is plagued by major and minor distortions and general lack of presence.
That said the underlying story merits hearing. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In terms of the book's title it fails to explicitly encapsulate the whole story, it actually is somewhat misleading (the subtitle better describes the main content of the story). In reality, the book covers much more of the genesis of American colonization by the British at the turn of the 17th Century. Not to say the book was not comprehensive, my notion is simply that the title alludes to its theme rather than what the co-authors spent time filling its pages.The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown heavily and thoroughly documents the wheeling-and-dealing of visionaries of the Virginia Company, like those selling timeshares, they hoped to either entice investors via subscriptions to bank roll a colony on America's eastern shore or lure them to partake of the adventure. Great pains are taken to describe the political and social turmoil in London to "sell" the idea of Nova Britannia and resell it when disastrous problems were revealed after the 1609 effort. A lot of ink was dedicated to the initial enthusiasm of all classes in Britain in expanding their empire, as well as relating the skepticism of potential investors after failures were revealed. What has become apparent to me regarding books with more than one author, is they read like a roller coaster. This volume is no exception; in the first 100 pages the writing sways from chapters reading briskly to plodding along in detail. Seemingly more than necessary, a large section of the book was dedicated to the anti-Catholic and religious times of England. Perhaps for a book about the Mayflower and its religious-freedom seeking passengers, this recounting of singular state religion and its fervor against "popery," the rest of the book has little to do with the animosity and state persecution of the colonists. The book did a wonderful job at its conclusion, "following-up" with the more famous or well-known passengers. Once the Atlantic journey and unplanned landing on the coral reefs of Bermuda was written about, the pace of the book picked up. Tales of political strife, starvation at Jamestown turned to cannibalism, investor lose and more mutinies than could be imagined made for adventures which even William Shakespeare couldn't ignore when he penned The Tempest.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My history of the Jamestown colony is sparse, at least what I remember from grade/middle school, and I’ll admit that it’s mostly dates and names. The drama of what Jamestown was about wasn’t covered in those far away history lessons. Here, the story isn’t so much about the dates and times but the drama of Jamestown. The Virginia Company, indebted to the King of England, was so worried about forfeiting their claim that they went out and recruited individuals that had no business being part of a settlement. These were people looking for a way to escape the poverty and grief of London and the Virginia Company promised clothes, food, and shelter if they signed up. Of course people signed up for the chance at a new life where they would have no worries and want for nothing. Unfortunately, the Virginia Company forgot the simple things, like signing up people who could build houses, plant crops, dig wells, and hunt. They were doomed.The first group of settlers fared badly, fought with the Powhatan Native Americans, and ended up being starved out by them and then turning to cannibalism. When the second wave of settlers arrived, they didn’t find any milk and honey, what they did find were open graves and starving, mad people. When reports got back to England, the great public relations machine that was the Virginia Company kicked into high gear to mitigate the rumors and lies as they called them. They even went so far as to stop the publication of a memoir of one of the survivors so they could go on recruiting.Now, the Sea Venture was a ship in the second wave of settlers. Unfortunately, it was caught up in a hurricane and crashed on Bermuda. There the settlers found a land full of promise and riches. There were birds, turtles, pigs, fruit and vegetables, and a land that was rich for farming. They didn’t want to leave. The leaders knew that their allegiance was to the Virginia Company and built two new ships to get them the short distance from Bermuda to Jamestown. They arrived to a land of horror. However, they were in a way, the saving grace of the colony. Shortly after the arrival of the shipwrecked passengers, new ships arrived with provisions and people were, in a way, saved and the settlement preserved.The interesting part of the story for me was the founding of Bermuda. As it turns out, some of the travelers that landed on the island, which has been known as the Devil’s Island, told the leaders of the Virginia Company what a wonderfully fruitful place it was and the Company sent new ships to the island which was settled quickly and bountifully. In a strange twist of fate, the Virginia Company which was losing money in the pit that was Jamestown made its money back in the first settlement of Bermuda due to the richness of the land. So the Sea Venture not only gets credit for reviving Jamestown, but also for the settlement of Bermuda.Since I’ve been feeling historically deficient this was one of the books that I picked up with the intent of fixing that need. This one came through for me. It doesn’t read like a dry history book but is filled with fascinating and wonderful facts that only made me want to read more about Jamestown and the Powhatan tribe. There was not much discussion of the Powhatan other than their fighting with the first settlement and ultimate starvation of the settlers but the history there interested me and now I have a new subject to follow up on.If you’re looking for something to fix a history craving, I recommend this one.