Table Of ContentSir Humphrey Gilbert and
the Elizabethan Expedition
Preparing for a Voyage
Nathan J. Probasco
Sir Humphrey Gilbert and the Elizabethan
Expedition
Nathan J. Probasco
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
and the Elizabethan
Expedition
Preparing for a Voyage
Nathan J. Probasco
Sioux City, IA, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-57257-0 ISBN 978-3-030-57258-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57258-7
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2020
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For Heidi, Remy, A.J., and Ari
A
cknowledgments
Preparing this book, like preparing Gilbert’s expedition, was a collabora-
tive effort requiring assistance from many supporters. No one played a
greater role in assisting my work than Carole Levin, a tireless supporter of
mine throughout my graduate education and professional career. Charles
Beem, Amy Burnett, Jessica Coope, Susan Doran, Jeannette Jones, Peter
Maslowski, Susan Maxwell, Ken MacMillan, and Julia Schleck all offered
encouragement and advice, while Kathy Johnson and Heather Wolfe pol-
ished my research and paleographic skills. The research required for this
book was only possible because of the financial assistance provided by
several institutions and individuals, including the Robert Bosch
Foundation, the John Carter Brown Library, the Henry E. Huntington
Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Newberry Library, and
Professor Nancy Stara. The University of Nebraska’s Department of
History, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, and Office of
Graduate Studies deserve special recognition. Finally, I wish to thank my
wife Heidi for her patience, strength, and encouragement, and our chil-
dren Remy, A.J., and Ari for making life so enjoyable. This book would
not have been possible without you.
vii
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction: A Single Oar 1
2 A Chronicle of European Exploration: Establishing
Gilbert’s Claim to North America 17
3 Diverse Texts for Diverse Audiences: The Promotional
Literature of Gilbert’s Expedition 53
4 Proving Cartography’s Worth: The Maps of Gilbert’s
Expedition 103
5 Experience over Theory: The Nautical Science of Gilbert’s
Expedition 139
6 Competition Drives Innovation: Assembling Gilbert’s
Expedition 185
7 A New and Improved England: The Proposed
Composition of Gilbert’s Colony 215
ix
x CONTENTS
8 C onclusion: The Mid-Elizabethan Transition 245
Bibliography 255
Index 277
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: A Single Oar
…But heard that sundrie friends
of mine, had taken leaue
At Courte, and vvere all Shipte avvay.
this brute may thee deceyue
Thou follish Boy (quoth I)
nay Sir by svveete Sainct Iohn
(Quoth he) Sir Humfrey Gilbart sure,
and all his troupe is gone.
But vvhether, no man knovves,
Saue they that are in Barke,
Who with one mind, and one consent,
do hope to hitte one marke
—Thomas Churchyard (A discourse of the Queenes Majesties
entertainement in Suffolk and Norffolk … Whereunto is adjoyned a
commendation of Sir H. Gilberts ventrous journey [London: Henry
Bynneman, 1578], H3r-v)
What Strange new radiance is this that shines
So suddenly in heaven’s changing face?
How is it that the heavy clouds dissolve
Into light breezes, mists disperse, and so
The sun can shine more brightly, since his path
Is cleared, on land and on the gentle sea?
The South wind drops, and now the milder East
Blows once again. To this fair breeze unfurl
The sails which England’s Humphrey Gilbert sets
Towards a world our fathers did not know
© The Author(s) 2020 1
N. J. Probasco, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and the Elizabethan
Expedition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57258-7_1
2 N. J. PROBASCO
In seas they scarcely saw.
—Stephen Parmenius (De Navigatione Illvstris et Magnanimi
Equitis Aurati Humfredi Gilberti ad deducendam in novum orbem
coloniam suscepta, carmen έπιβατικῶν [London: Thomas Purfoote,
1582], lines 1–11; in-text translations from Parmenius’s Latin poem
come from David B. Quinn and Neil M. Cheshire, ed. and trans.,
The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius: The life and writings of a
Hungarian poet, drowned on a voyage from Newfoundland, 1583
[Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1972])
On a chilly morning in late August 1583, a small fleet of three English
ships embarked on a dangerous, one-thousand-mile long voyage due
south from Newfoundland. For eight consecutive days the mariners sailed
into the wind and against the current, greatly impeding their progress.
When day broke on the 29th, “the wind rose … bringing withal rain and
thick mist” that decreased visibility to a few hundred feet, until finally …
“Land!” Watchmen aboard the lead vessel inaptly named Delight had
failed to see what lie ahead: the shifting shoals of Sable Island—a tiny,
crescent-shaped sandbar more than one hundred miles from the North
American continent. Amidst the pandemonium aboard the sinking vessel,
sixteen resourceful sailors managed to scramble into a small ship’s boat
and cut it loose just before the Delight’s stern broke apart in the beating
waves. The two remaining ships in the convoy narrowly escaped a similar
fate; they steered away just before hitting the sand. Their crews diligently
searched the vicinity for two days, hoping to find their one hundred crew-
mates from the Delight, but the region’s notoriously turbulent seas and
heavy fog made it impossible to locate any survivors. The sixteen castaways
were on their own.
Although the men had averted disaster once, they had little hope of
survival. All they found on board their lifeboat was a single oar, leaving
them at the mercy of the currents. On a pinnace of one-and-a-half tons
burden meant to carry just a few sailors, they were overcrowded. Without
food or “so much as a droppe of fresh water,” they had less than a week to
find nourishment. Facing continued squalls in waters rarely traversed by
European ships, they were unlikely to be rescued. After two days adrift, a
well-respected soldier named Edward Headly suggested that the men cast
lots—a practice based in Scripture that was used to determine God’s will.
The four unfortunate sailors upon whom the lots fell would be thrown
