Stepping Across the World - Dartmouth's Gallant Adventurers

Stepping Across the World - Dartmouth's Gallant Adventurers

Adventurers 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. The fleet left late and was quickly forced back to Plymouth by bad weather. The captains of five of the vessels refused 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 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 terrible storms. Sir Humphrey tried to reassure his crew by always walking above decks and even reading a book whilst they were swamped with massive waves, but his steely resolve could not prevent the sinking of the Squirrel in September taking all men, including Sir Humphrey, with it. The Golden Hind returned to Dartmouth, with less than a fifth of the men who originally set out in June. 

However unsuccessful Sir Humphrey was his exploits inspired others - including the best friend of his younger brother Adrian. 

John Davis was an experienced captain, who was inspired to search for the North West Passage by Gilbert. He took two very small ships to explore the seas around Newfoundland in 1585, two years after Sir Humphrey’s death. 

He seems to have been clever, canny and quite committed to his cause. He realised soon after arriving in Newfoundland that he needed to be able to ask for help from the ‘Eskimaux’ inhabitants. So he began to compile a makeshift dictionary of phrases to use with them. His meticulous drawings of the coast meant that others would be able to navigate in the dangerous waters, and the water between the coast of Newfoundland and Greenland still bears his name: The Davis Strait. 

He returned three times to the area and did much to allow others to explore further and deeper than ever before. He had a patent to trade with China, and realised that if he did not get to the place, he would never realise riches or success. So he turned to face east, and tried to find new ways to the Jade Empire. 

In a series of voyages between 1591 and 1605 he visited Rio de Janeiro, Magellan’s Strait, St Helena, Ascension Island, the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, the Seycelles, the Maldives, Siam and Indonesia. 

He never, however, made it to China.

He paid a heavy price for his expeditions, losing all of his money and his wife to another man – who then tried to take him to court on charges Davis had mistreated the woman. Although he was exonerated, Davis must have been devastated by this turn of events.

Perhaps as a reaction to this, the search for a route to China seems to have become an obsession, as he took greater and greater risks to reach it, even as his reputation as a navigator grew. In 1605 he invited some Japanese pirates onto his ship to see if they could help him get to China. They tried to take the ship and Davis was killed in the fight. He was 62.

Davis’ expeditions seem to have been the catalyst for many. 

Sir Walter Raleigh  took famous expeditions to Roanoke in Virginia and Guiana twice. On his first trip he took his nephew, and Sir Humphrey’s son. On his final trip he took his son Walter, who was then killed in a fight with Spanish ships. 

Heartbroken, he returned home, to find the Spanish Ambassador had demanded the King execute him in retaliation for his attack on the ships he believed were loaded with treasure. 

In what is regarded as one of the most unfair decisions in English legal history, the King agreed and Raleigh was beheaded that year – his final words, spoken to his executioner, were reportedly, ‘Strike man, Strike!’

Dartmouth began to become rich from the triangular trade from Newfoundland and the Mediterranean and Dartmouth became a regular stop off for ships going on long and dangerous voyages. 

Then, after all these great men had passed, beaten by disease or disaster, a group just as, if not more intrepid set out from Dartmouth’s Bayards Cove: the Pilgrim Fathers set out in 1620, destined to become the founders of the world’s biggest and most influential nation. 

Yet again Dartmouth showed itself to be a small town which had a large influence over world events.

First published December 2010 By the Dart

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