Historian George Cook says the wreck of the Sea Venture in Bermuda was the turning point in the English colonisation of America.Previous efforts by the English to colonise North America were disastrous, he told members of the Hamilton Rotary on Tuesday.“The fleet was struck by a storm and the Sea Venture washed up on one of the most remote islands in the world, and then made it to Jamestown in time to save the colony,” Dr Cook said.“The Bermuda Company, quite deliberately in my opinion, interpreted it as that God wanted England to colonise the world. The company would have believed that God was an Englishman.“Before that, it was disaster after disaster.”Dr Cook said that the Sea Venture and its crew played a major role in the colonisation, including creating the tobacco trade in Virginia.He said John Rolfe, who is best known for marrying Pocahontas, discovered a breed of tobacco here that the Spanish had a monopoly on.“He noticed that several species of plant on the Island were not native, that they had been introduced by man, like the hogs,” Dr Cook said.Mr Rolfe later bred the plant with an American species to produce an extremely hearty strain, starting the Virginia tobacco trade.Dr Cook said he has been able to identify around 50 of the 150 survivors of the shipwreck.A list of the names is on display on the Sea Venture monument on Barry Road in St George’s.lUseful websites: www.stgeorgesfoundation.com, www.rotary.bm.