While waiting for help from Virginia, Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas
Gates decided to build a pinnace, in case of need. The work was put in
charge of Richard Frobisher, an experienced shipwright. The only wood
on the island that could be used for timber was cedar and that was
rather poor, being too brittle for making good planks. The pinnace's
beams were all of oak from the wrecked ship, as were some planks in
her bow, all the rest was of cedar. The keel was laid on the 28th of
August, 1609, and on the 26th of February, calking had begun. Old
cables that had been preserved furnished the oakum. One barrel of
pitch and another of tar had been saved. Lime was made of wilk shells
and a hard white stone, which were burned in a kiln, slaked with fresh
water, and tempered with tortoise oil. She was forty feet long at the
keel, nineteen feet broad at the beam, had a six-foot floor, her rake
forward being fourteen feet, her rake aft from the top of her post
(which was twelve feet long) was three feet; she was eight feet deep
under her beam, four feet and a half between decks, with a rising of
half a foot more under her forecastle, the purpose being to scour the
deck with small shot if an enemy should come aboard. She had a fall of
eighteen inches aft to make her steerage and her great cabin larger;
her steerage was five feet long and six feet high with a closed
gallery right aft, having a window on each side, and two right aft.
She was of some eighty tons burden.
On the 30th of March, the pinnace was launched, unrigged, and towed to
"a little round island" nearer the ponds and wells of fresh water,
with easier access to the sea, the channel there being deep enough to
float her when masts, sails and all her trim had been placed on her.
"When she began to swim (upon her launching) our Governor called her
_The Deliverance_."
Late in November, and still with no word from Virginia, Sir George
Somers became convinced that the pinnace which Frobisher was building
would not be sufficient to transport all the men, women, and children
from Bermuda to Virginia. He consulted with Sir Thomas Gates, the
Governor, who approved his plan of building another pinnace. He would
take two carpenters and twenty men with him to the main island where
with instruction from Frobisher, "he would quickly frame up another
little bark, for the better sitting and convenience of our people."
The Governor granted him all the things he desired, all such tools and
instruments, and twenty of the ablest and stoutest men of the company
to hew planks and square timber. The keel laid was twenty-nine feet in
length, the beam fifteen feet and a half; she was eight feet deep and
drew six feet of water, and was of thirty tons capacity. Sir George
Somers launched her on the last day of April, giving her the name of
_Patience_, and brought her from the building bay in the main island,
into the channel where the _Deliverance_ was moored.
After nine months on the islands, these fearless and undaunted men,
with a stout determination to finish the voyage they had begun nine
months before, set sail in the two pinnaces on May 10, 1610, and after
eleven days, arrived at Point Comfort. "On the three and twentieth day
of May, we cast our anchor before Jamestown."