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Third Supply

Samuel Jordan was the second husband of Cecily Green who married William Farrar (farrar1)

Samuel Jordan was a member of the Virginia Company and in June of 1609 set sail from Plymouth Harbor, bound for Virginia. He was a passenger on the Sea Venture, one of the nine ships which, in all, contained some 500 settlers and known as the "Third Supply". According to tradition his voyage to the New World became the basis for Shakespeare's play the Tempest. "...wrecked on the vext Bermothes"

The fleet was "caught in the tail of a Hurrican" in the Atlantic. Of the original nine ships, one was sunk, and the flagship the Sea Venture, bearing Samuel Jordan, was wrecked off the coast of Bermuda, thus forming the basis of the play. For three days and nights the crew of the Sea Venture worked to keep the ship from foundering on the rocks. Wedged on the craggy shore, the Sea Venture was secured long enough for the crew and passengers to escape and most of the cargo was salvaged.

After a number of months on Bermuda the survivors of the wreck managed to build two small pinnaces named the "Patience" and the "Deliverence", using the wreckage of the original ship in the construction. These two small vessels were to carry them the rest of the way to Virginia. By the time of their arrival, all hope had been given up for their survival and it was a joyful reunion for the families of those presumed lost many months before.

Also among the passengers was one Silvester Jourdain. It is probable that the first authentic news of the Sea Venture disaster to reach England was through Jourdain's pamphlet on the discovery of the "Barmudas" published in London in the Fall of 1610.

The Sea Venture was the flagship of the flotilla. Among other notables aboard were Sir Thomas Gates, who was to be interim Governor for the struggling colony at Jamestown, John Rolf, who later introduced the cultivation of tobacco into Virginia and married the Indian Princess, Pocahontas, and Capt. William Pierce, whose wife and small children sailed on the "Blessing", another ship of the flotilla which arrived safely in Virginia in August 1609. Also aboard the ill-fated Sea Venture was Stephen Hopkins who later was a passenger on the Mayflower to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

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