“Near to Heaven by Sea”: Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s Last Voyage

“Near to Heaven by Sea”: Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s Last Voyage

We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land.” On this day, 9 September 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s tiny ship, the Squirrel, disappeared in an Atlantic storm, and an audacious Elizabethan life ended in a flash of foam and darkness. I’m historian and author Claire Ridgway, and today we follow Gilbert’s extraordinary arc: Devon gentleman and half-brother to Sir Walter Ralegh; soldier praised at Newhaven and feared in Munster for brutal tactics; polemicist for a Northwest Passage and English colonisation; MP who clashed in Parliament; and, finally, patent-holder who sailed to Newfoundland and claimed St John’s for Queen Elizabeth I, before disaster struck on the homeward voyage. In this episode:

  • Gilbert’s powerful family network (Kat Ashley & the Ralegh connection)
  • Soldier and strategist: praise in France, terror in Ireland
  • Pen and policy: A Discourse of a Discoverie & dreams of an academy
  • The 1583 voyage: The Delight, the Golden Hind, the Swallow, and the fateful Squirrel
  • Claiming St John’s—and losing men, charts, and nerve in a wreck
  • The storm off the Azores and Gilbert’s haunting last words
  • Legacy: how his vision fed later English ventures in the New World

If you enjoy these daily Tudor deep dives, please like, subscribe, and ring the bell so you don’t miss the next one. #TudorHistory #OnThisDay #Elizabethan #Exploration #Newfoundland #SirHumphreyGilbert #WalterRaleigh

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