In the Age of Elizabeth I, England became a formidable sea power. Her Royal Navy was weak, but her merchant fleet was aggressive, entrepreneurial, and opportunistic and it sought to expand trade with settlements across the seas. Much of its “trade” with Spain’s New World colonies was procured under threat from English gunships, and by the diversion of Spanish shipments of gold, silver, and precious jewels to English ports, where land-based merchants would offer handsome rewards.  

This talk offers some reasonable speculation and review a few known facts about the “adventurers” who invested in the Popham Colony and the sailors and “colonists/shipwrights” who built Fort St George and Virginia in 1607-08.   It will then examine the contributions made by piracy and privateering that, coupled with royal collusion and local admiralty courts, contributed to the venture we call the Popham Colony.

This is the fourth of the 2024 Summer Lecture Series. This year the lectures will be held on Wednesday evenings at the Bath Freight Shed (27 Commercial St, Bath Maine). Recordings will be available here a couple of days later.  

The lectures are free, but if you consider them valuable, please donate to Maine’s First Ship either in person or online.tal