After battling a three-day hurricane, on July 28, 1609, 150 souls were castaway on the shores of the Isle of Devils. They had been passengers on the Sea Venture which was the flagship of a 9-ship flotilla commissioned by the Virginia Company of London to aid the struggling English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. During their 10-month stay they constructed two getaway ships to carry 135 survivors onto Jamestown where they saved the lives of 60 persons on the cusp of death from starvation and war. Many people believe that this episode is “Bermuda’s contribution” to “saving Virginia” – but we know this is hardly the full story.

Over the next two years, certain survivors of the Sea Venture got back to London and impressed upon the Virginia Company the need to settle Bermuda. In this book you’ll see how lessons learned from the “Bermuda Experience” inspired the Virginia Company to formulate much needed land reformation which, along with political reformation, saved Virginia from certain failure. This book will also trace the lives of many Sea Venture survivors and those who brought about the birth of America at Jamestown. In this process we are drawn into the adventures of Pocahontas.

Since Bermuda’s formal settlement in 1612, its economy has reacted from the effects of war, revolution, and from being Britain’s north Atlantic headquarters enabling it to command dominance in the region. Bermuda not only “changed with the times”, but also impacted change on both sides of the Atlantic. This book will illustrate, in ways never seen before, how the tiny island nation of Bermuda evolved from 1612 to where we are today - and what the future might hold.