Sir George Somers

English colonist, a founder of the South Virginia Company. In 1610 he was commander of a fleet of settlers which was shipwrecked on the Bermudas (originally known as the Somers Is), and claimed the islands for the British crown.

Admiral Sir George Somers (1554-1610) was a British naval hero.

Somers commanded several British ships between 1600 and 1602, including the HMS Vanguard, HMS Swiftsure and HMS Warspite.

In 1609, Somers was made Admiral of the Virginia Company's Supply Relief Fleet, which left Britain for the Virginia Colony. On 25th July 1609, battered by a huge storm, his ship the Sea Venture was wrecked off the reefs of Bermuda's Discovery Bay. Somers was presumed dead by those in Virginia, but remained in Bermuda for 10 months, along with all those others who had survived the Sea Venture's wreck.

During their time on the islands, the crew and passengers formed the start of the Bermuda colony, building a church and houses. Somers and Sir Thomas Gates (also among the castaways) between them oversaw the construction of two ships - the Deliverance and the Patience - from spars and rigging of the wrecked Sea Venture and local timber.

Sir George returned to Bermuda in the Patience to collect more food, but he became ill on the journey and died, on 9th November, 1610 in Bermuda.

A biography, "Sir George Somers: A Man and his Times", written by the late David Raine, was published by Pompano Publications, 7 King's Square, St George's, GE 05, Bermuda.