| this month in history  | born this month | in the news |
| Sir George Somers dies Somers had led the heroic battle to save the Sea Venture from going under after it encountered a fierce hurricane on July 24, 1609. All 150 passengers made it safely to shore four days later. The castaways spent the next 10 months building two ships, the Deliverance and the Patience, on which they set sail for Jamestown on May 10, 1610. They found the colony in desperate straits, with the majority of settlers killed off by disease, starvation and attacks by Indians. Somers left Jamestown for Bermuda in late July. His arrival date is not known. Neither is his cause of death. Some scholars have speculated that he died of food poisoning. His nephew and heir Matthew Somers took Somers’ body back to England, where he was buried with full honours in his hometown of Lyme Regis. Photo: Bermuda Historical Society | Cyril Packwood November 22, 1930-January 14, 1998 Cyril Packwood was a librarian with a passion for history. He was the author of Chained on the Rock, the first definitive account of slavery in Bermuda. Published in 1975, Chained on the Rock shed light on an important aspect of Bermuda’s history that had previously been swept under the carpet. He spent most of his professional life in New York. He worked in the New York Public Library system from 1957 to 1968 and from 1968 to 1985, at the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library, where he was supervising librarian. In 1985, he was appointed head librarian of the Bermuda Library, the first black person to hold the position. His other books included Detour Bermuda, Destination U.S. House of Representative: The Life of Joseph Rainey, about the former slave who took refuge in Bermuda during the American Civil War, and went on to become the first black member of the House of Representatives. Photo: National Museum of Bermuda | Sea Venture monument unveiled
|
 | ||
| Search Bermuda Biographies | Search previous Bermuda Biographies | |
| © 2010 Bermuda Biographies. All rights reserved. Home | Terms of Use | List of Biographies | About Us | Contact Us | ||
