Dart History Stepping across the World
Dartmouth’s Gallant aDventurers by Phil Scoble
A
dventurers and round-the-world yachtsman have, in recent times, often chosen Dartmouth as the place to start from because of the beauty of the town, its naval heritage and the safety of the town’s harbour. But centuries before that – in an age lacking the most basic of navigational tools - intrepid Dartmouth men sailed beyond the horizon to search for riches, land and perhaps a little fame. Imagine the Apollo 11 mission – conducted by amazing men who had guts, brains and a desire to travel further than anyone had done before. Now imagine if the crew all came from Dyersville, Iowa (pop. 4,035). Wouldn’t that seem a bit of a coincidence? Now imagine that two of them were brothers and that all the remainder of the Apollo missions were manned by either friends or relatives of those first three men. That would be unbelievable, wouldn’t it? Well that’s essentially what Dartmouth produced during the late 1500s, a series of men who tried to discover new lands, new riches, and make their name with bold adventures on the high seas. Many of their voyages were inspired by a desire to find the mythical ‘North West Passage’ to Asia – the way to trade with China (or Cathay as it was known) without travelling around the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the first to attempt to find this route. The former soldier and governor of Ulster wrote a book on his theory of where it was to be found in an attempt to gain support from Queen Elizabeth (who he also petitioned to support a novel idea- a Naval training academy; she didn’t like it) but failed to get her support. He next wrote a proposal called ‘How to Annoy the King of Spain’ proposing to found colonies in the New World and perhaps travel near to where he suggested a passage might be. This proposal she DID like and suddenly he had the money to mount an expedition. He was not blessed with good luck. He took 11 ships from Dartmouth in September 1578.
Illustration by Lisa Wyman
In an age lacking the most basic of navigational tools - intrepid Dartmouth men sailed beyond the horizon to search for riches, land and perhaps a little fame.
to be commanded by Gilbert, and sailed for London instead. The remaining ships tried again but were forced back to Spain and then to Ireland when they left port again. The expedition almost bankrupted Gilbert. Five years later he tried again – this time with a fleet of five ships, one of which was commanded by his half brother, Walter Raleigh.
Again the voyage did not go well. One ship turned back within days after sickness took over the crew. The four ships that reached Newfoundland, where Sir Humphrey had a patent to claim the land for the Queen, found more than 30 ships of
The fleet left late and was quickly forced back to Plymouth by bad weather. The captains of five of the vessels refused
various countries doing the same for their monarchs. With what might be called supreme arrogance, Sir Humphrey read his claim to the people of the area and seems to have convinced them of its validity. But even this success seemed a poor victory when another ship had to sail for home with sick and dying aboard. He then lost another ship which ran aground, carrying all his supplies and 100 men to a watery grave. Sailing for home the two remaining ships - the Golden Hind and Sir Humphrey’s tiny Squirrel - were overtaken by
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136