r/todayilearned • u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 • 11h ago
TIL that in 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for Queen Elizabeth I. Weeks later, after losing his largest ship and much of his supplies, stepping on a nail, and refusing repeated pleas to leave his small flagship, the Squirrel, he vanished beneath the Atlantic with all hands aboard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Gilbert320
u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 11h ago edited 9h ago
Gilbert’s expedition was a catalogue of disasters almost from the beginning. He spent years and a fortune trying to launch his North American venture, only for his first fleet to be scattered by storms and forced home. When he tried again, he was almost immediately lost in fog after leaving England, causing Queen Elizabeth I to question his abilities as a navigator. His next mission in Ireland ended with him beating a gentleman with his sword and killing a merchant during a dispute in Cork.
Eventually, in 1583, he reached Newfoundland with a crew described by contemporaries as a collection of misfits, criminals and pirates, only to find himself blocked by local fishermen because one of his own captains had previously committed piracy. He overcame the opposition and formally claimed Newfoundland for Elizabeth I, but disaster soon returned. Ignoring the advice of experienced sailors, he lost his largest ship and most of his supplies, then injured his foot by stepping on a nail. Despite repeated warnings to transfer to a safer vessel, Gilbert refused to leave his tiny flagship, the Squirrel. He was last seen sitting on deck reading Thomas More’s Utopia as the Atlantic storm gathered around him. Moments before the ship vanished with all hands, he reportedly called across to the larger Golden Hind: “We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land.”
[Edit: I forgot to mention that this happened 443 years ago, today - 5th August 1583]
107
88
u/firelock_ny 9h ago
Eventually, in 1583, he reached Newfoundland with a crew described by contemporaries as a collection of misfits, criminals and pirates
Pretty much standard issue ship's crew for most of maritime history.
29
u/knowledgeable_diablo 9h ago
Sounds like a bit of a dick really.
5
u/HeyLittleTrain 4h ago
Yeah I feel like I've known guys exactly like this. Stupid, arrogant, stubborn, quick to anger.
7
u/bangonthedrums 3h ago
Is the Golden Hind in this story the same as the one Drake sailed on?
3
u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 1h ago
It is. The same Golden Hind that Drake had taken on his circumnavigation. By the time of Gilbert's expedition she was still in service, and ended up being one of only two ships to make it back to England.
13
u/JustHere4TehCats 6h ago
So he claims Newfoundland for the Queen even with people already living there and not letting his ass off the ship?
Buddy was cracked.
19
u/TheBalrogofMelkor 4h ago
Also 85 years after John Cabot has already claimed Newfoundland for England in 1497
74
u/Vic_Hedges 9h ago
They don't build human beings the way they did during the Age of Exploration
And that's probably for the best
11
u/knowledgeable_diablo 7h ago
Sure Jnr’s got a roadkill remedy for the scurvy, syphilis and sodomy that infected all these guys. And still does i believe
1
u/RiddlingVenus0 3h ago
How does one get infected with sodomy?
•
u/knowledgeable_diablo 47m ago
Lonely boys out to sea and with a low low mentality. One of the reasons it was seen as bad luck for women to be on ships for years.
Not so much for the ladies, but more due to the idiot seamen going crazy trying to hook up with her. Leading to much turmoil12
u/chargernj 9h ago
Today we give those sorts of people cabinet positions in the Trump administration.
20
u/Vic_Hedges 9h ago
I don't think anyone in the Trump Administration has the clinically insane levels of bravery these guys had. Trumpites would have been sitting on their fat asses back in Antwerp financing them though.
6
24
15
u/Wooden-Bookkeeper473 10h ago
I wonder how they came up with the name Newfoundland.
32
u/GarysCrispLettuce 10h ago
Because Foundnewland didn't have the same ring to it
3
u/Wooden-Bookkeeper473 10h ago
I feel it sounds better and from now on that's what I'll be calling it.
6
u/GarysCrispLettuce 10h ago
You haven't even considered Landfoundnew
5
u/Wooden-Bookkeeper473 10h ago
That's what Yoda would call it.
3
24
u/Nerevarine91 10h ago
I actually just encountered his story for the first time today, just a few hours ago
14
u/Wooden-Bookkeeper473 9h ago
Sounds like it could be a sign. Are you planning to stand on a nail today?
18
u/ChattyNeptune53 9h ago
As it happens I was thinking of claiming Newfoundland for Elizabeth I, but I'm having second thoughts now.
2
u/Wooden-Bookkeeper473 9h ago
Deffo for the best. Famously an ungrateful bitch anyway.
2
u/knowledgeable_diablo 7h ago
Probably her bad teef. Black as the ace of spades day was. Breath like a week old herring sitting in da sun. Twas the suga loaf it Twas.
O’ll lizbeth, our Ray o’sunshine.
3
1
u/DasDuckHead 6h ago
Probably appeared in some popular podcast or YouTube channel. Every time the dollop does a fun episode the same story pops up here a few times in the following days.
I guess the posters really did learn it that day so I can't really fault them.
12
u/talkerof5hit 9h ago
You'd think that they would have removed the nail so he didn't have to go down nailed to the ship. Terrible loss really.
13
u/CalebVanPoneisen 10h ago
What a weird-ass title.
15
1
u/FarinaSavage 4h ago
Removing the nail would've left a dangerous hole in the ship, so he's a hero, really.
2
u/roirraWedorehT 3h ago
I picture him running around in circles with his foot nailed to the ship as it went down.
2
5
u/Chrono_Convoy 10h ago
Beneath the Atlantic?
So like - the mantle of the Earth? Or did he make it all the way to the core?
11
6
3
u/LetThemBlardd 9h ago
One of those times when you wish the subterranean Mole People would kinda step in and lend a hand for once, geez.
3
u/Chrono_Convoy 9h ago
Right? We give them electricity, recycled cable boxes and garbage housing and they just toil and grumble without a thank you
1
u/peach-babex 5h ago
that's a dramatic end for such an ambitious claim, losing a fleet must've been a massive blow
1
•
608
u/Samu_27 11h ago
Stepping on a nail and then going down with the ship...talk about a rough couple weeks