Jamestown Settlers versus Spanish Pirates

in 1621 a small vessel challenged the Seas part of that very tenuous connection between mother England and her struggling colony in Virginia along the way they had an adventure one of the many challenges of travelling on the Seas in the 17th century and in many ways their struggle against the odds on the high seas was emblematic of the struggles of the people living in that place called Jamestown and came at a desperate time for England's first permanent settlement in the Americas people who would have to struggle to survive in Virginia first had to struggle to survive against pirates and don't all great stories involve pirates the colonization of the new world was fraught with danger for those willing to make the journey the danger was not only in the harsh life of living on the frontier and fighting with the native populations but dangerous from the very instant they stepped on the boat that would take them from Europe at sea they faced the danger of storms hunger mutiny and pirates all before they ever set their eyes on the new world they hoped to call home when the ship Margaret and John left England in February of 1621 it carried 85 passengers sent by the Virginia company to join the colony at Jamestown which at the time was humppa fewer than a thousand people the ship carried 150 tons burden making it larger than the Susan constant the largest of the ships that in 1607 had brought the colonists who found at Jamestown still the ship would have not been much larger than a hundred feet long Margaret and John was likely square-rigged and similar to her contemporary ship the Mayflower aboard the ship was dr. Lawrence behin a shareholder in the company who had recently been appointed the physician general of the colony the ship was also laden with supplies for the desperately needed colonists and included on it a hopeful new source of revenue silkworms the over a decade old Jamestown was far from settled and the colonists were still struggling by 1621 they had survived the first winter which he killed so many of the first colonists had weathered poor harvests in trouble with the powhatan confederacy and they even come through the infamous starving time but the colony had still not yet turned a profit and most of the many people sent their died it was these problems which would lead to the revocation of the company's Charter and royal ization of the colony by King Charles the first a few years later in 1624 but the company was doing what it could to try and turn its fortunes around before that happened the silkworms were another in the series of plans to improve the company's financial output in 1620 John pori the first Speaker of the General Assembly established in 1619 wrote to one of the founders of the Virginia Company emphasizing that silk production was a marvelous hopeful commodity in this country from England the market and John followed the Dutch English trade route to the Americas first traveling south of and west towards the Lesser Antilles Islands in the Caribbean after many tempest and foul weather they reached the New World in March of 1624 stopping in the island of Dominica they traveled on to the island of Nevis on the 14th March where as Captain Anthony Chester described it having been eleven weeks pestered in this unwholesome ship they plan to take a few hours to get off the cramp vessel as they approached they found two ships flying Dutch colors anchored nearby after it more the English ships at a rowboat to the nearest Dutch ship to Hale the supposedly friendly vessels captain Chester it was better to be too cautious than two lakhs as the Englishmen neared the Dutch ship they were surprised when the men aboard demanded their surrender they've been a hasty retreat instead under fire cannonballs hit some of their oars splintering them but without injuring anyone the crew reported to the captain that the ships were not Dutch but were Spanish MANOWAR's the spanish on north america is theirs by right of discovery supported by a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander the sixth the Spanish were threatened and resentful of English colonization in the new world which they saw as violating the terms of the 1605 Treaty of London that had ended the 19-year anglo-spanish war moreover the Spanish feared that the colony would become a base for privateering against their treasure fleets although it was considered and the Spanish spies regularly reported on the defenses of the colony the Spanish had avoided a direct attack so far the Spanish were already stretched too thin by efforts to occupied their existing settlements in the Caribbean New Spain was now called Mexico Peru and New Granada in an attack on the colony directly to break the peace of 1604 drawing England back into the 80 Years War the Spanish made a calculated decision not to attack Jamestown assuming the colony would struggle rather than thrive still the Spanish fleets kept a lookout for the English adventurers the ships that the Margaret and John had run into would happily have captured or destroyed the Margaret and John and everybody aboard in the 17th century piracy was just another part of diplomacy the larger ship called the Admiral in published reports was further away but the smaller the Vice Admiral was already preparing to attack the 103 Souls aboard the Margaret and John were spurred into action in all the tiny English ship had eight iron cannons medium pieces called dim eco Varun's and a light cannon called the Falcon ed but the ship was so stuffed with supplies and household goods that even those they could not properly bring to bear they were able to get four into position and stored musket spikes and other weapons within easy reach Captain Chester knew he was outgunned and out manned and intended to run but the vice-admiral was too quick and forced the English into a fight most desperate an account by a passenger said the Spaniard however gave us no chance for flight so that we found that we had to choose between two evils either to fight desperately or to surrender ourselves into slavery the enemy ship opened fire almost immediately damaging the starboard side of the ship so the English settled in for a fight and answering their unkindness with such a fair shot from a dhimmi covering that shot her between wind and water fought the Spanish off with a lucky shot now the larger of the two ships approach striking the Dutch colors and running up the Spanish flag instead according to a later account of the battle the two larger of the ships was around 300 tons and the smaller 200 with the larger ship carrying 22 brass cannons more advanced than the small cast iron pieces aboard the Margaret and John and the smaller carrying another 16 guns the Admiral came close to the English ship and hailed them the Spanish captain demanded to know what nation they hailed from and then demanded that the English take down their mainsail as required by the rights of the king of Spain Captain Chester replied that they were bound for Virginia and that the Kings our masters are friends we intend no wrong nor will we take any the Spanish then demanded the captain board their ship and show him his commission but Chester refused and said offering to show it to any officer that they would send to see it tired of the charade this one passenger described the Spanish response instead of answering by word of mouth they saluted us with two pieces of cannon and a hailstorm of musket balls the English took cover as the Spanish grappled the smaller ship yelling insults and threatening to cut them to pieces the Spanish had opened fire on the deck but as they boarded found the whole of the top deck clear for a moment appeared that they had had their prey but at a sign previously agreed upon the English opened fire with their cannons and muskets and captain Chester reported in the end they were violently repulsed the fighting was vicious the captain would later claim that the crew of the market and John encountered them so rudely that their fury was not only abated but their hastiness interrupted several of the crew were injured in the fight but the Spanish had the worst of it as captain Chester said I'm sure they had two for one there was a brief lull before the Spanish regrouped and charged a second time and again the English colonists beat them back as a passenger later said our men led by our brave and courageous captain received them so well with their muskets spears and grappling axes that we throw them off a second time sending many of them to a watery grave after the second encounter captain Chester became enraged shouting and challenging the Spanish to come again they did and in the desperate fighting the Spanish captain was slain when a volley a small shot was fired into the borders we had the good luck to shoot their Admiral down recalled a passenger now the Spaniards raised such a hue and cry that it astonished the English and the Spanish fled the battle only escaping the English ship when captain Chester ordered the grappling rubs Cup they fired a few shots off as they retreated but the English were victorious a passenger described the battle we attacked the Spaniard so bravely and fought as heroes or rather as madmen and played upon them with our muskets and fork in and so furiously that they were forced to leave us the victory another said their stoppers run with blood coloring the sea in their quarter the fight had lasted two and a half hours the vice-admiral ship remained a feel but the English took the initiative attacking it before it could grapple them they could only use four guns but the colonists used there's too much greater effect forcing the ship to flee to shallow waters for repairs and the crew to take shelter on the shore the triumphant English colonists resumed their journey to Virginia but shortly found the Spanish ship still following them at a distance they spent a tense night refilling cartridges treating wounds and praying at dawn the Spanish remained on their tail but turned away after two hours of staring at each other with frowning faces the Englishman recounting of the tale was pleased to add that it was plain they must have had a good many dead and wounded still the fight had not come without a cost eight men at the market and John were killed outright including dr. behin when he fell it is said that the captain embraced him crying Oh dr. behin what a disaster this is the injured surgeon replied fight it out break man the cause is good and Lord received my soul another sixteen men were wounded including several French castaways the ship had rescued and the captain himself two of the injured died from their wounds but the rest recovered to reach Virginia it is not known precisely how many Spanish were killed despite the loss of dr. boham the safe arrival of the market and John provided critical supplies and colonists to the Jamestown Colony which at the time had less than a thousand surviving colonists among the colonists to arrive was a 10 year old named Abraham would who would eventually serve in the Virginia House of Burgesses and we'd become among the first Englishman to explore the interior of the continent would personally explored the upper reaches of the James in Roenick rivers and was responsible for the first English explorations of the southern Appalachian Mountains among the casualties of the battle were the fragile silkworm larvae that the colonists had hoped to turn into an industry the larvae were said to have miscarried during the battle apparently whatever container they were in was destroyed the colony would continue to try to raise silkworms and actually managed to produce some silk but never an economic quantities the fight with the Spanish men a war made a splash in the English press the first account was published in 1621 and several others were published including one purportedly from Captain Chester himself the English seemed to be quite proud of the performance of their small vessel against the larger Spanish warships captain Chester stayed in Virginia for a while and then loaded up the market and John with goods from the colony and sailed back to England Captain Chester's final fate is unknown but the Margaret and John made several more trips to the colony at least until 1623 I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 167,179

Rating: 4.9789734 out of 5

Keywords: History, the history guy, us history, pirates, jamestown

Id: 5opyiW_bbgM

Length: 11min 46sec (706 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 21 2019