Third Supply
Encyclopedia
The Third Supply was the first truly successful wave of colonization in the first English settlement
English colonial empire
The English colonial empire consisted of a variety of overseas territories colonized, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries....

 in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, at Jamestown
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...

. It also resulted in the settlement of Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 (as an unintended side effect).

However, from the perspective of the colonists anxiously awaiting supplies at Jamestown, the Third Supply was anything but smooth, and four out of five of the colonists perished during the "starving time"
Starving Time (Jamestown)
The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of forced starvation initiated by the Powhatan Confederacy to remove the English from Virginia. The campaign killed all but 60 of the 500 colonists during the winter of 1609–1610....

 before the leaders and some of the supplies which had been aboard the ill-fated flagship Sea Venture
Sea Venture
The Sea Venture was a 17th-century English sailing ship, the wrecking of which in Bermuda is widely thought to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest...

finally arrived in Virginia, ten months later than expected. Even then, the salvation of the colony only came with the timely arrival of Lord Delaware
Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
Thomas West, 3rd and 12th Baron De La Warr was the Englishman after whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, an American Indian people and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named....

 and another supply mission a few weeks later.

History

The Third Supply Mission from England to Jamestown consisted of five to six hundred people, in a fleet of eight ships, with Admiral Sir George Somers
George Somers
This article is about the English naval hero. For the American football player, see George Somers Admiral Sir George Somers was an English naval hero. Born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of John Somers, his first fame came as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston against the Spanish...

, Samuel Jordan
Samuel Jordan
Samuel Jordan was an early settler and Ancient Planter of colonial Jamestown, and one of the first colonial legislatorsJordan traveled to Virginia in 1610, according to his 1620 patent:...

 and Sir Thomas Gates
Thomas Gates (governor)
Sir Thomas Gates , followed George Percy as governor of Jamestown, the English colony of Virginia . Percy, through inept leadership, was responsible for the lives lost during the period called the Starving Time...

. All of these were on the new flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 of the Virginia Company
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...

, the Sea Venture
Sea Venture
The Sea Venture was a 17th-century English sailing ship, the wrecking of which in Bermuda is widely thought to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest...

.

The ships ran into a massive three-day storm believed to have been a hurricane. The Sea Venture became separated from the others. Taking on water through her new caulking, she was deliberately run aground on Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

. Admiral Somers and his officers managed to land everyone safely from the wreck. The rest of the fleet continued on to Jamestown, not knowing of the fate of the Sea Venture.

Over a period of nine months, the survivors on Bermuda built two new ships — Patience and Deliverance — using Bermuda cedar and hardware salvaged from the Sea Venture. Their struggle to survive may have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's play, The Tempest.

Without the leadership, and most of the supplies, all of which had been aboard the Sea Venture, the rest of the group which arrived at Jamestown on the other ships and those already there were ill-prepared to survive, resulting in the "starving time
Starving Time (Jamestown)
The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of forced starvation initiated by the Powhatan Confederacy to remove the English from Virginia. The campaign killed all but 60 of the 500 colonists during the winter of 1609–1610....

" of 1609-1610 when over 80 per cent of the colonists perished.

The fate of Jamestown and the surrounding colony only turned when the officers showed up less than a year later in their replacement vessels, and were resupplied by yet another supply mission from England headed by Lord Delaware.

John Rolfe
John Rolfe
John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.In 1961, the Jamestown...

 was one of the surviving colonists who had been shipwrecked with the Sea Venture. Despite the death of his wife and young son in Bermuda, he went on to Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, and in 1611, successfully cultivated new strains of tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

, providing a critical cash crop
Cash crop
In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...

 for the colonists to grow and export beginning in 1612. Rolfe later married Matoaka (Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...

), Chief Powhatan
Chief Powhatan
Chief Powhatan , whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh , was the paramount chief of Tsenacommacah, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Virginia Indians in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607...

's daughter. Reverend Richard Bucke of Wymondham
Wymondham
Wymondham is a historic market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It lies 9.5 miles to the south west of the city of Norwich, on the A11 road to Thetford and London.- Before The Great Fire :...

 officiated the wedding. Reverend Alexander Whitaker
Alexander Whitaker
Alexander Whitaker was a Christian theologian who settled in North America in Virginia Colony in 1611 and established two churches near the Jamestown colony, and was known as "The Apostle of Virginia" by contemporaries....

 converted Pocahontas to Christianity. He renamed her "Rebecca" when she had her baptism. Through their son, Thomas Rolfe
Thomas Rolfe
Thomas Rolfe was the only child of Pocahontas by her English husband, John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Wahunsunacock, the chief of Powhatan tribe in Virginia.-Early Life:Thomas Rolfe was born in Virginia...

, many of the First Families of Virginia
First Families of Virginia
First Families of Virginia were those families in Colonial Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy, but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They originated with colonists from England who primarily settled at Jamestown, Williamsburg, and along the James River and other navigable waters...

trace both English and Native American heritage roots.
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