Stamp Story, No. 36 Shipwreck Colony

Press, Volume C, Issue 29536, 10 June 1961, Page 8

Stamp Story, No. 36 Shipwreck Colony

I Despite the conventional though handsome design of two coast-of-arms. this Berrnuda stamp commemorates ian unusual subject; the 350th anniversary of a shipwreck! And a very important wreck it was, too. It resulted in the establishment of what is now : Britain's oldest colony. j In 1609 the < 4ea Venture, 'flagship of a supply fleet from England, was wrecked on a Bermuda reef on her way to the relief of the, then, colony

of Virginia. From the wreckage of their ship and from local cedar, the crew succeeded in building two small pinnaces, aptly named Deliverance and Patience. These arrived safely at Jamestown. Virginia, in May of the following year. Found by Spaniard The Bermuda islands had been named after a Spanish explorer, Juan de Bermudez, who had discovered them more than a century before but they remained uninhabited until the wreck of the “Sea Venture” led to the first British settlement. As early as 1615, King James I granted Bermuda its first charter, on which its present constitution is based Among other things it authorised a locally elected 'assembly with full legislative powers. Thus. Bermuda iis the oldest self-governing [colony in the British Com. monwealth. Eight Years Earlier Bermuda’s former capital. St. George, is the oldest continuous English-speaking community in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded in 1612—-eight years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. The arms on the stamp are (those of King James I and [the present Queen. You can 'see the Sea Venture—along (with a portriat of Admiral Sir George Somers, who led the 1609 expedition—on a 2Jd. stamp, first issued by (Bermuda in 1953.