I was in Plymouth last weekend and saw the place where the Sea Venture set sail from in 1609. It was supposed to bring relief supplies, etc. to the settlers in Jamestown but was damaged during a hurricane and run aground off the coast of Bermuda. The Sea Venture was helmed by the Admiral of the Company, Sir George Somers, and it was his decision during the storm to drive the ship onto the reefs in order to prevent its foundering. All of the passengers aboard the Sea Venture survived. His Admiralty Sir George Somers later died on the island and his heart was buried in St. George. There is a memorial in Somers Garden commemorating his life.

There is a plaque in Plymouth commemorating the 350th anniversary of the wreck in 1959 and in Bermuda there is a cross celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Bermuda (The Somers Isles).

William Shakespeare purportedly used the account of the Sea Venture as inspiration for The Tempest.

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