Third Supply

The Third Supply was the first truly successful wave of colonization in the first English settlement in the Americas, at Jamestown. It also resulted in the settlement of Bermuda (as an unintended side effect).

However, from the perspective of the colonists anxiously awaiting supplies at Jamestown, the Third Supply was anything but smooth, and four out of five of the colonists perished during the "starving time" before the leaders and some of the supplies which had been aboard the ill-fated flagship Sea Venture finally arrived in Virginia, ten months later than expected. Even then, the salvation of the colony only came with the timely arrival of Lord Delaware and another supply mission a few weeks later.

History

The Third Supply Mission from England to Jamestown consisted of five to six hundred people, in a fleet of eight ships, with Admiral Sir George Somers, William Strachey, Sylvester Jourdain and Sir Thomas Gates. These three men were on the new flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture.