A Brave Vessel

Praise

“Hobson Woodward [writes] with admirable scholarship, wit, and cunning”
–Boston Globe

“Like Shakespeare before him, Hobson Woodward…excels at using his source materials to produce a richly textured adventure story…If you’re interested in Jamestown, shipwrecks or Shakespeare, you’ll want…this book”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune

“The exquisitely detailed story of the 17th-century ship that helped inspire Shakespeare’s The Tempest…skillfully written history.”
–Kirkus (starred review)

“[A] fruitful combination of literature and history.”
–Booklist

“Anyone interested in either early America or Shakespeare will want [this book]”
–Library Journal

“On the 400th anniversary of the Sea Venture‘s wreck on Bermuda, Hobson Woodward recounts the events and personalities of the voyage, the island refuge, and the early Jamestown Colony. He tells the story with accuracy and verve, and makes a compelling case for Shakespeare’s indebtedness to William Strachey when writing The Tempest. Woodward’s Brave Vessel is learned, lucid, and engrossing.”
-Alden Vaughan, Professor emeritus of History at Columbia University and coeditor of the Arden edition of The Tempest

“A Brave Vessel is a real-life story of heroism and human ambition as thrilling as any Hollywood fiction. Injecting popular history with a wealth of little-known detail, it traces a fascinating story of unlikely survival-and the impact a single, freak event in the mid-Atlantic had on the fortunes of America’s birthplace and the world’s greatest playwright. Woodward immerses us in the mindset of 17- century colonists and the immense challenges and tragedies of their endeavor. He entwines true events with their literary spin-offs, and in doing so, brings both to life.”
-Rosemary Jones, author, Bermuda: Five Centuries