In 1609, the proprietary Virginia Company of London's Third Supply Mission to its Virginia Colony consisted of a fleet of nine ships, headed by the company's newly built flagship, the Sea Venture. Aboard the flagship, commanded by Vice Admiral Christopher Newport, was the Admiral of the fleet, Sir George Somers, as well as Sir Thomas Gates. In the Atlantic Ocean, the fleet encountered a massive three-day storm, most likely now thought to have been a hurricane. Sighting land, Admiral Somers had the Sea Venture steered aground there to save it from sinking. All aboard survived but their ship was damaged beyond repair, and they had become separated from the others. They soon realized that they had become shipwrecked on the north-easternmost island of an uninhabited archipelago, known as Bermuda.
After reaching England, the reports of survivors of the Sea Venture aroused great interest about Bermuda. In 1612, the Virginia Company's Royal Charter was extended to include the island, and a party of 60 settlers was sent, under the command of Sir Richard Moore, the island's first governor, to join the three men left by the Deliverance and Patience (which had been built out of the salvaged remains of the Sea Venutre). They founded and commenced construction of the town of St. George. The Virginia Company, finding the colony at Bermuda to be unprofitable, briefly handed its administration to the Crown in 1614. The following year, 1615, King James granted a charter to a new company, the Somers Isles Company, formed by the same shareholders, which ran the colony until it was dissolved in 1684 (The Virginia Company itself was dissolved after its charter was revoked in 1624). Representative government was introduced to Bermuda in 1620, when its House of Assembly held its first session, and it became a self-governing colony. So at the very least, from 1612 until 1614, Bermuda, also known as "Virgineola" and the "Somers Isles", was legally part of the Virginia Colony. Close connections continued for the following century and a half, with many Bermudians settling in Virginia, and wealthy Bermudian merchant families, such as the Tuckers, dominating trade through Virginia (and other Southern) ports.
thanks, nathan . . . i may be down in virginia at the end of april with a trio i play in, jennie knaggs and the sure shots, if we can book something . . . ns
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