TWO American professors looking for an interesting, as-yet unexplored story about the early days of colonial America, discovered that the shipwreck that led to the founding of Bermuda was more than a happy accident for the British: It was essential to the success of its quest for empire.

Lorri Glover and Daniel Blake's The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America is a rollicking, accessible history which argues that Bermuda, not Plymouth, was really Britain's second New World colony, a bridge of sorts between the disaster that was Jamestown and the pilgrims of Plymouth.

The book is receiving glowing reviews in advance of its publication by Henry Holt & Co. in August. Kirkus Reviews said Glover and Smith offer "a thrilling adventure story gracefully told" and "an energetic examination of the maritime disaster that, surprisingly, cemented England's claim to a colonial empire in the Americas." (Glover and Smith) "use this tale of shipwreck and survival to convey the larger spirit of the age, a brew of enterprise, greed, godliness, hucksterism and self-advancement."

James Horn, author of A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America, said: "In this gripping account of shipwreck, mutiny, perseverance, and deliverance, the epic story of the wreck of the Sea Venture and its consequences for the survival of Jamestown, England's first successful colony in the New World, is told for the first time. Glover and Smith persuasively make the case that in saving themselves, the 150 castaways stranded for nearly a year on the remote island of Bermuda ultimately saved English America."

To read the Sea Venture's story and an interview with Lorri Glover, please see Insight on Page 5