Sea Venture
Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of Jamestown
Kieran Doherty
In one of the most triumphant high sea stories ever told, Kieran Doherty brings to life the remarkable true story of the ship that rescued the struggling Jamestown settlement in 1610 and single-handedly ensured England's place in the New World. When the Sea Venture left England in 1609, it was flagship in a fleet of nine bound for Jamestown with roughly 600 settlers and badly needed supplies aboard. But after four weeks at sea, as the voyage neared its end, a hurricane hit devastating the fleet—one ship sank, the rest scattered, and the Sea Venture was shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda. It would take Sea Venture’s passengers nearly a year and half to reach their destination. Awaiting them was not the thriving, populated colony they expected, but instead the grim reality of a remaining fifty colonists—beleaguered, desperate, and hungry. But, the question remains, would the English have lost their place in the New World if theSea Venture had never arrived? A story of strife and triumph, but above all, endurance, Sea Venture begins and ends in hope and remains one of the greatest “What Ifs?” in history. With the bravado of a legendary sea saga, Doherty braves the elements in Sea Venture, delivering a powerful history willed by a people destined to change the New World forever.
Praise
"Doherty's fast-paced and colorful blow-by-blow account is a swashbuckling tale of adventure in the age of exploration."-Publishers Weekly
"Doherty's well-told yarn reveals the impulses both noble and base underlying any colonial enterprise, but it's even more effective in showing the unsettling degree to which luck stirs human destinies."-Kirkus Reviews
About the Author(s)
KIERAN DOHERTY is a freelance journalist and award-winning author of numerous biographies for young adults. Sea Venture marks his first history for adults. He lives in Lake Worth, Florida.
RELATED: Americas, United States
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Hardcover
$15.95 Pre-Order
St. Martin's Griffin
On Sale: 5/13/2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-38207-0
ISBN-10: 0-312-38207-3
Trim: 5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches
288 pages, Plus one 8-page b&w photo insert
The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown
The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America
Lorri Glover and Daniel Blake Smith
A freshly researched account of the dramatic rescue of the Jamestown settlers
The English had long dreamed of colonizing America, especially after Sir Francis Drake brought home Spanish treasure and dramatic tales from his raids in the Caribbean. Ambitions of finding gold and planting a New World colony seemed within reach when in 1606 Thomas Smythe extended overseas trade with the launch of the Virginia Company. But from the beginning the American enterprise was a disaster. Within two years warfare with Indians and dissent among the settlers threatened to destroy Smythe’s Jamestown just as it had Raleigh’s Roanoke a generation earlier.
To rescue the doomed colonists and restore order, the company chose a new leader, Thomas Gates. Nine ships left Plymouth in the summer of 1609—the largest fleet England had ever assembled—and sailed into the teeth of a storm so violent that “it beat all light from Heaven.” The inspiration for Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the hurricane separated the flagship from the fleet, driving it onto reefs off the coast of Bermuda—a lucky shipwreck (all hands survived) which proved the turning point in the colony’s fortune.
Praise
“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.”—James Horn, author of A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America
About the Author(s)
Lorri Glover is the author of two books on the social structure of the early South, including Southern Sons: Becoming Men in the New Nation. She is an associate professor of early American history at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Daniel Blake Smith is the author of Inside the Great House: Planter Family Life in 18th Century Chesapeake Society and many articles on early American history. He is a professor of colonial American history at the University of Kentucky.
Hardcover
$26.00 Pre-Order
Henry Holt and Co.
On Sale: 8/5/2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8654-6
ISBN-10: 0-8050-8654-4
Trim: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches
336 pages, 15-18 b&w illustrations; 3-5 maps
The Bedford Anthology of American Literature
Volume 1: Beginnings to 1865
Susan Belasco (U. of Nebraska, Lincoln)
Linck Johnson (Colgate U.)
“This anthology is exceptional. The Bedford Anthology has two major advantages: a realistic balance of texts that acknowledges the frequent practice of assigning novels and autobiographies in full, and an incredibly fruitful, focused approach guided by questions of print culture and its attendant questions of authorship, circulation, and reception of literary texts.”
— Matt Cohen, Duke University
Prepared by recognized scholars and devoted teachers, The Bedford Anthology of American Literature brings the canon of American literature down to a manageable size. Half the length of other leading anthologies, and offered at a much lower price, the anthology reflects years of firsthand experience in the classroom and extensive research on what instructors are actually teaching in the survey course today. Written expressly for students and informed by the new understandings of and approaches to American literature that have emerged during the last 30 years, the anthology is lavishly illustrated and features several pedagogical innovations that help students engage with the literature.
Go to Web Site
2007 Paperbound
Volume 1 1,404 pp.
ISBN–10: 0–312–41207–X
ISBN–13: 978–0–312–41207–4
ISBN–10: 0–312–41208–8
ISBN–13: 978–0–312–41208–1
Resources for Teaching The Bedford Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1865
by Lisa Logan, University of Central Florida
This extensive instructor's manual includes entries for every author and every thematic cluster and offers approaches to teaching; sample syllabi; connections with other authors/texts; classroom-tested suggestions for discussion, writing, and oral-presentations; and print and multimedia resources for further research. Also available online.
Volume I ISBN–10: 0–312–44491–5,
ISBN–13: 978–0–312–44491–4
Volume II ISBN–10: 0–312–44650–0,
ISBN–13: 978–0–312–44650–5
Through a Howling Wilderness
Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775
Thomas A. Desjardin
In September 1775, eleven hundred soldiers boarded ships in Newburyport, bound for the Maine wilderness. They were American colonists who had volunteered for a secret mission to paddle and march nearly two hundred miles through some of the wildest country in the colonies and seize the fortress city of Quebec, the last British stronghold in Canada.
The march, under the command of Colonel Benedict Arnold, proved to be a tragic journey. Before they reached the outskirts of Quebec, hundreds died from hypothermia, drowning, small pox, lightning strikes, exposure, and starvation. The survivors ate dogs, shoes, clothing, leather, cartridge boxes, shaving soap, and lip salve. Their trek toward Quebec was nearly twice the length shown on their maps. In the midst of the journey, the most unlikely of events befell them: a hurricane. The rains fell in such torrents that their boats floated off or sunk, taking their meager provisions along, and then it began to snow. The men woke up frozen in their tattered clothing. One third of the force deserted, returning to Massachusetts. Of those remaining, more than four hundred were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.
Finally, in the midst of a raging blizzard, those remaining attacked Quebec. In the assault, their wet muskets failed to fire. Undaunted, they overtook the first of two barricades and pressed on toward the other, nearly taking Canada from the British. Demonstrating Benedict Arnold’s prowess as a military strategist, the attack on Quebec accomplished another goal for the colonial army: It forced the British to commit thousands of troops to Canada, subsequently weakening the British hand against George Washington.
A great military history about the early days of the American Revolution, Through a Howling Wilderness is also a timeless adventure narrative that tells of heroic acts, men pitted against nature’s fury, and a fledgling nation’s fight against a tyrannical oppressor.
Thomas A. Desjardin is the Historic Site Specialist for the State of Maine. He is the author of Stand Firm, Ye Boys from Maine: The 20th Maine and the Gettysburg Campaign and These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory.
St. Martin's Press
256 pages
Size: 5-1/2 x 8-1/4
$24.95
Hardcover
Pub Date: 12/2005
ISBN: 0-312-33904-6
Copyright 2000-2003 St. Martin's Press, LLC
Gouverneur Morris
Author, Statesman, and Man of the World
James J. Kirschke
A fierce, florid nationalist, Gourveneur Morris was the most colorful of America's founding fathers. He financed and fought for American independence, witnessed firsthand the French revolution that followed, and brought his indomitable and outspoken presence to the table at the Consitutional Convention. There, he penned some of the most important and poetic sections of the Constitution, in the process creating the foundation of what Americans think of as democracy today.
A decade in the making, this biography uses extensive 18th-century primary sources and recent scholarship to shed new light on Gouverneur Morris. In doing so, it places Morris's impressive achievements more fully in the context of his times and reveals how his independent spirit triumphed over accidents and reversals that would have crushed a lesser soul. It also examines Morris's writings and speeches in great detail and explores the major lines of influence that led Morris to give the Preamble and the Constitution of the United States the shape and content that govern and inspire us today.
JAMES J. KIRSCHKE is a professor of English at Villanova University, as well as a visiting lecturer in history at Vanderbilt University. In addition, he is a retired U.S. Marine captain and the author of several hisotry works including Henry James and Impressionism, Willa Cather and Six Writers from the Great War, and Not Going Home Alone: A Marin'e Story. He lives in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
St. Martin's Press
400 pages
Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
$40.00
Hardcover
Pub Date: 11/2005
ISBN: 0-312-24195-X
May 13, 2008