Read A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare'sThe Tempest for Free Online Page B

have been filled with “nails, clinches, rove and clinch nails, spikes, plates, rudder irons called pintels and gudgions, pump nails, scupper-nails and leather, saws, files, hatchets, and such like.”
    Live animals were among the more conspicuous supplies loaded aboard the ships. Venetian ambassador Marc Antonio Correr described the taking on of “many oxen and ponies” and “a number of stallions and other animals.” A Dutchman wrote of animals as well, listing “some stallions and fourteen or fifteen mares, some young bulls and cows,” a herd of “bucks and nanny goats,” and “hogs as well.” Most of the animals went aboard ships other than the Sea Venture , but hogs and heath sheep would ride on the flagship in stalls on the gun deck next to the passengers. The other live cargo on the flagship was a dog (probably a mastiff), a cat or two, and—unintentionally—a few dozen rats.
    The Sea Venture also carried arms, more as a hedge against attacks by other Europeans than the Powhatans in Virginia. The ship carried twenty-four guns classed as falconets, minions, sakers, and demiculverines, which weighed between five hundred and thirty-four hundred pounds and fired cannonballs up to twelve pounds. A good quantity of matchlock pistols and muskets, small shot, swords, and daggers completed the vessel’s arsenal.
    Cape-merchant Thomas Whittingham oversaw the lading of the Sea Venture . Whittingham likely paid close attention to the placement of cargo in the hold, for the tilting of a ship to the starboard (right side) during loading was considered a bad omen. Conversely, a heel to larboard or landward was considered a sign of a fair sail. A sailors’ manual of the day advised care in loading: “Some superstitious seamen, when they take in goods or victuals for a voyage, if by chance in stowing the provision she heel to the starboard, will say it is a sign of a long and bad voyage.”
    The passengers and crew who came from London had already marked out areas for sleeping and stowing belongings. The general choice of quarters was defined by tradition: sailors resided in the narrow confines of the bow in hammocks and bunks; officers and gentlemen occupied cabins at the stern. In the crowded conditions of the Sea Venture , temporary walled-in rooms in the rear portion of the enclosed gun deck probably augmented the permanent cabins. The common sort who had no room assignments slept on mattresses atop chests or on the gun deck floor.
    John Rolfe tacked up curtains around the sleeping mattress he would share with his wife. The servant Elizabeth Persons selected a spot near the door of the cabin of her employer, Mistress Horton. Namontack and Machumps had little with them but their bows and arrows. They spent much of their time above on the open deck, but when below they kept to a cramped spot behind some crates. The reality was that for many of the voyagers the next few weeks would be spent in a small room with scores of strangers.
     
    As May drew to a close, Governor Thomas Gates had still not arrived at Plymouth to join the expedition. The other leaders were growing concerned as the six hundred and sixty colonists and crew consumed the stores while the fleet sat in port. “The coming hither of Sir Thomas Gates is much desired to the end the ships may be speedily dispatched from hence,” a Virginia Company official wrote from Plymouth to London. “Sir George Somers has been here these two days, and the ships, if weather serve—God willing—shall be ready this next day. Their people—God be thanked—are all in health and well.”
    Two things had delayed the expedition’s leader in London. First, the revised charter of the Virginia Company was not signed until May 23, necessitating Gates’s presence in Westminster Hall for that business. A week after the signing he was still in the city helping to organize the expedition that would follow in a few months. The governor finally finished his business on May 29 and