William Strachey's Account of the Storm |
After he survived the 1609 storm that destroyed the Sea Venture, William Strachey wrote a very long letter about the voyage, including his subsequent arrival in Jamestown. He addressed his report to a woman he referred to only as “Noble Lady”—probably Dame Sara Smith, who was married to Sir Thomas Smith of the Virginia Company. The letter circulated as a manuscript in England, where Shakespeare is thought to have seen it.
This vivid description of the “dreadful tempest” was transcribed for this website from Strachey’s letter as it was later printed in Purchas His Pilgrims, a seventeenth-century book in the Folger collection. For ease of reading, the text has been slightly modernized in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Small deletions are indicated by ellipses (...).
Strachey. Letter, 1610. In Purchas, His Pilgrimes. London, 1625. Folger Shakespeare Library.