George Somers Admiral Sir George Somers ( 1554 – 1610 ) was an English naval hero , knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of the Virginia Company . He achieved renown as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston against the Spanish fleet in 1595 during the undeclared Anglo - Spanish War . He is remembered today as the founder of the English colony of Bermuda , also known in the 17th century as the " Somers Isles " . Early life and education . Born in Lyme Regis , Dorset , in 1554 , George was the son of John Somers and his wife . Career . Somers went into the Royal Navy , where he distinguished himself under Sir Amyas Preston in sailing against the Spanish ships in 1595 , during the undeclared Anglo - Spanish War . Between 1600 and 1602 , Somers commanded several English ships , including HMS " Vanguard " , HMS " Swiftsure " and HMS " Warspite " . He was knighted in 1603 and became Member of Parliament for UK Parliament constituency the same year . In 1609 , Somers was appointed as Admiral of the Virginia Company ' s Third Supply relief fleet , organized to provide relief to the Jamestown colony settled in North America two years before . On 2 June 1609 , he set sail from Plymouth , England on the " Sea Venture " , the flagship of the seven - ship fleet , ( towing two additional pinnace s ) destined for Jamestown , Virginia . The fleet carried a total of five - to - six hundred colonists bound for Jamestown . ( Historians have not determined if this number included crew or was passengers only . ) On 25 July , the fleet ran into a strong storm , probably a hurricane , and the ships were separated . The " Sea Venture " fought the storm for three days . Comparably - sized ships had survived such weather , but the " Sea Venture " had a critical flaw ; she had recently been constructed and her timbers had not set . The caulking was forced from between them , and the ship began to leak rapidly . All hands were applied to bailing , but the water continued to rise in the hold . The ship ' s guns were reportedly jettisoned ( though two were salvaged from the wreck in 1612 ) to raise her buoyancy , but this only delayed the inevitable . Sir George Somers was at the helm through the storm . When he spied land on the morning of 28 July , the water in the hold had risen to nine feet , and crew and passengers had been driven past the point of exhaustion . Somers deliberately drove the ship onto the reefs of what proved to be Bermuda in order to prevent its foundering . This allowed all 150 people and the dog aboard to reach shore safely , at what they later named Discovery Bay . Not seeing them again , those who continued on to Virginia presumed that Somers and the others had died in the storm , which had battered the relief fleet and damaged its supplies . Somers and his company remained in Bermuda for 10 months , living on food they could gather on the island and fish from the sea . Some commentators believe that this incident inspired William Shakespeare ’ s play " The Tempest " . During their time on the islands , the crew and passengers built a church and houses , the start of the Bermuda colony . Somers and Sir Thomas Gates oversaw the construction of two small ships , the " Deliverance " and the " Patience . " They were built from local timber ( Bermuda Cedar ) and the salvaged spars and rigging of the wrecked " Sea Venture . " In May 1610 the ships set sail for Jamestown , with the surviving 142 castaways on board taking food from the island . When they reached the settlement , they found it nearly destroyed by the famine and disease of what has been called the " Starving Time " . Few of the supplies from the Supply Relief Fleet had arrived ( the same hurricane which caught the " Sea Venture " had damaged some of the rest of the fleet ) , and only 60 settlers survived . Only the food and help offered by those on the two small ships from Bermuda , followed by a relief fleet in July 1610 commanded by Lord Delaware , enabled the colony to survive and avoided the abandonment of Jamestown . Somers returned to Bermuda in the " Patience " to collect more food , but he became ill on the journey . He died in Bermuda on 9 November 1610 at age 56 . Local legend says that he loved Bermuda so much that he requested that his heart be buried there . A marker in Somers ' Gardens in St . George ' s marks the approximate location where his heart was supposed to have been buried . The remainder of his body was taken back to England and buried in his home hamlet of Whitchurch Canonicorum near to the town of Lyme Regis .