Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown

“Doherty's fast-paced and colorful blow-by-blow account is a swashbuckling tale of adventure in the age of exploration.” —Publishers Weekly

In one of the most triumphant high sea stories ever told, Kieran Doherty brings to life the true story of the ship that rescued the Jamestown settlement in 1610 and ensured England's place in the New World.

When the Sea Venture left England in 1609, it was flagship in a fleet of nine bound for Jamestown with roughly 600 settlers and badly needed supplies aboard. But after four weeks at sea, as the voyage neared its end, a hurricane devastated the fleet, leaving the Sea Venture shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda. It took Sea Venture's passengers nearly a year and half to reach their destination.

Awaiting them was not a thriving colony, but instead the remaining fifty colonists—beleaguered, desperate and hungry. But, the question remains, would the English have lost their place in the New World if the ship never arrived?

A story of strife and triumph, but above all, endurance, Sea Venture begins and ends in hope and remains one of the greatest “What Ifs?” in history. With a bravado reminiscent of Patrick O'Brien's legendary sea sagas, Doherty braves the elements, delivering a powerful history willed by a people destined to change the New World forever.

“Doherty's well-told yarn reveals the impulses both noble and base underlying any colonial enterprise, but it's even more effective in showing the unsettling degree to which luck stirs human destinies.” —Kirkus Reviews

© 2024 St. Martin's Press (Ebook): 9781466852457

Release date

Ebook: June 4, 2024