2-329-820 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Admiral Somers runs his ship ashore, Bermuda, 1609 (c1880). Admiral Sir Geirge Somers (1554-1610) was the founder of the English colony of Bermuda. In 1609 he was placed in command of a fleet of seven ships carrying settlers and supplies for the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The ships were scattered by a hurricane, and Somers deliberately ran his ship, the 'Sea Venture', aground to prevent her from foundering. All 150 people and one dog aboard survived the ordeal. The events are said to have inspired Shakespeare's play The Tempest. A print from Cassell's History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume I, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, c1880.