The Plough settles Bermuda

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In 1612, the Plough crossed the Atlantic to Bermuda in only 61 days and had a very smooth trip compared to the Sea Venture’s 1609 voyage: she sank off St George’s after surviving more than three days in a hurricane!

The Plough arrived off St. David’s Head at about 10am on the morning of July 11. She slowly approached the island and entered the natural channel leading into St George’s Harbour as plotted out by Sir George Somers for the Deliverance and Patience a year and a half earlier.

The captain almost immediately turned abruptly south into Smith’s Sound through Bremen Cut and anchored at the eastern end of Smith’s Sound — and just off the only visible beach in Smith’s Sound — at about 4pm. This historic beach is at Vaughn’s Bay Park, near the site of Dennis’ Hideaway. Bremen Cut is not a deep channel — it is fairly narrow and at low tide today is only seven feet deep — but Captain Davis, the Plough’s navigator, knew what he was doing — he was probably well coached on the approach to Bermuda and where to rendezvous with Christopher Carter, Edward Chard and Edward Waters, the three men left behind on Bermuda in 1611. Davis probably had Sir George Somers’ map with him. Only two copies of this map survive — one in London and one in Bermuda Archives … could the Bermuda Archives’ map have come out with the Plough?

When Mathew Somers left Bermuda on the Patience with Sir George Somers’ body on board, Carter Chard and Waters perhaps told him they would set up camp near the channel to keep an eye out for any approaching ships. An inbound English ship may have been instructed to turn into Smiths Sound to distinguish it from a Spanish or other potentially hostile vessel.

We know the Plough was described as a “shippe” rather than a pinnace or another type of sailing vessel. It was probably not very big, since it had only 60 people and supplies on board (the Sea Venture, by contrast, was 300 tons and had 150 sailors and passengers on board). As such, it could navigate the shallow and narrow Bremen Cut into the Smith’s Sound anchorage. The Plough was similar in size and design to the Godspeed, which brought some of the first settlers to Jamestown in 1607.

Godspeed:

* Was only 40 tons (weight), 68 feet long drawing 7 feet (Deliverance was 80 tons burthen, 40 foot keel and 19 foot beam, drawing 6 feet and Patience 30 tons burthen, 30 foot keel and 15 foot beam, also drawing about 6 feet; source: Strachey. The old tons burthen was a mathematical estimate of cargo capacity and had nothing to with weight hence the discrepancy of length and tonnage.

* Was a barque, with two masts square rigged and the third mizzen mast, fore and aft. Deliverance was a full rigged “pinnace” similar to a square rigged barque with two masts square rigged with a fore and aft mizzen but a pinnace is always small, under 100 tons. Strachey refers to both Deliverance and Patience as “barks” and “pinnaces”. Jourdain refers to them as a “ship” and a “pinesse” respectively.

* Carried 39 people and 13 sailors to Jamestown (The Plough had 60 on board; the Deliverance had 110 on board and 40 on the Patience)

* Took 144 days to cross the Atlantic from the Canaries whereas it took the Plough about 61 days from the “Downes”, England to Bermuda!

Having arrived safely in Smith’s Sound, “in a very safe harbour near S Georges Iland” (originally Tortus Island) the Plough disembarked all its passengers at Vaughn’s Bay using her longboat. The new arrivals immediately “went to prayer” and commenced their service of thanksgiving. The sailors, in contrast, had noticed a large school of fish following the Plough in and as soon as “they had passed ouer [their] business” they got out their hooks and lines and caught more than enough to feed the entire complement of 60 people — the first fish fry in St David’s. Little did they know that many more were to follow!

Within an hour or so, Carter, Chard and Waters, having concluded the vessel was English, got their boat out and “came rowing downe” to the Plough to join the settlers for a great celebration. The next day was the Sabbath, spent in prayer and rest, but on Monday they moved the Plough “higher into” (west) the harbour to be closer to Carter’s camp on Smith’s Island.

The three men’s camp was likely located in the fertile (deep red soil) valley east of the escarpment that runs North to South at the narrow waist of the island. This site boasts good landing areas on the North and South sides of the island. The three had cultivated about an acre of garden there growing “Corne, great store of Wheate, Beanes, Tobacco and Mellon and many other good things for the use of man”. Michael Jarvis helped by a team from the University of Rochester is currently excavating a site on the east facing slope of this valley which may be Carter, Chard, and Waters’ campsite — the first farm in Bermuda. This site has a very large cooking fireplace with a round oven in the back all carved out of the limestone. The rest of the shelter would probably have been timber framed and thatched with palmetto. From there they would have had a clear view through Cedars and Palmetto trees looking east to the main channel entrance north of Smith’s Island. Today the area is overgrown with Spice trees, Fiddlewood and Mexican Pepper with a few Palmetto trees and very few Cedars.

After a few weeks on Smith’s Island and following “the ambergris affair”, the Plough left to return to England and Governor Richard Moore decided to move the settlers to the bigger island originally known as Tortus island, due to the many hilly humps on the Island. It was there that he established St George’s and built the first dwellings and church in August, 1612. The St David’s Island Historical Society is currently building a Settler’s Dwelling c 1612 using the same materials, techniques and tools as the first settlers did. This dwelling can be seen at Carter House and is a dramatic illustration of the resourcefulness of the first settlers and the challenges they faced.

There are many events in St George’s scheduled for July 14 and 15 in celebration of 400 years of settlement. These events include Carter House and St Peter’s Church open both days (special service at St Peter’s on Sunday at 11.15) and boat tours of Smith’s Island archaeological sites, including the likely camp site of Carter, Chard and Waters, talks by Michael Jarvis and George Cook, and many more events. In particular at 1pm on Saturday you have an opportunity to be a part of a historic photograph of 120 people on the decks of the Deliverance near the same location where she was anchored in the spring of 1610 while loading for her departure to Jamestown!

A weekend for the whole family and one not to miss unless you plan to be around for the 500th!

Rick Spurling is the deputy chairman of the St George’s Foundation

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