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Sir Humphrey Gilbert
1539-1583

Humphrey Gilbert was an ambitious, educated man who set in motion two of the great quests of the Elizabethan age – the hunt for the Northwest Passage and the attempt to settle America.

Gilbert was born into a Devon seafaring clan and was Walter Ralegh's half-brother. He studied at Oxford and then did service in Ireland, putting down rebellions. His real ambition, however, was to find the mythical Northwest Passage – a sea strait believed to lead through the northern land masses to Cathay (the Elizabethan name for the Orient). Gilbert laid out his plans for the expedition in a treatise – Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cathaia – and presented it at court. Elizabeth was unimpressed and ordered him back to Ireland, but she did agree to another of his plans, to found a colony in the Irish county of Munster.

In the 1570s, Gilbert – knighted for his success in Munster – joined fellow Devonian seaman John Hawkins as a Plymouth MP. He advanced at court and was made surveyor of artillery. However, he still nurtured his explorer's ambitions: the Discourse was published and he championed Frobisher on his expeditions to find the passage. Meanwhile Gilbert argued the case for establishing English colonies overseas.

A visionary theorist, Gilbert was not a good practical seaman. In 1578, he led a huge and disastrous reconnaissance trip to the New World with Ralegh, in which only Ralegh's ship made it across the Atlantic, and two years later sent a smaller, more successful expedition to America without him. Finally, in 1583, Gilbert sailed with a fleet of five small ships and 260 men to settle America. Four of the ships made it to Newfoundland and Gilbert claimed St John's for Elizabeth and England, but many of the crew died of sickness and others deserted or turned to piracy.

A chapter of accidents followed during the voyage back to England. Gilbert disregarded his navigator's advice and lost a ship, then refused to transfer into a larger, safer vessel when a storm blew up. He was last seen on the deck of his small, capsizing ship, a book still in his hand.
SG

Gilbert Humphrey
Canada 1983;32,0;SG? Exeter Emergency Delivery Service 6d.

Newfoundland issued in 1933 a set of 14 stamps for the 400th anniversary that Sir Humphrey Gilbert arrived in Newfoundland. Four of this stamp show us vessels used in the voyage.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, explorer (born near Dartmouth, Eng c 1537; died at sea 9 Sept 1583). Gilbert was an early publicist for the idea of a “Norwest Passage” , compiling an influential Discourse (1576) on the subject, and his experience in colonizing Ireland suggested similar ventures farther afield. He received letters patent 11 June 1578 from Queen Elizabeth authorizing him to colonize the coast of N America.
His first attempt, in 1578, was frustrated by poor organization, desertion and storms. Undaunted, he regrouped and set out again 11 June 1583 with 5 vessels (DELIGHT, RALEIGH, GOLDEN HIND, SWALLOW and SQUIRREL ); the queen tried to persuade Gilbert to stay behind, noting he was a man "of not good happ by sea." The RALEIGH turned back, but the other 4 ships arrived off St John's Aug 3. Brandishing his letters patent (known as "Gilbert's Charter"), he entered the harbour Aug 5 and formally took possession of Newfoundland. He dispatched SWALLOW to England with the sick and malcontents and left St John's Aug 20, losing DELIGHT in shoals off Sable Island, and turned homeward in heavy seas. On the evening of Sept 9 Gilbert reportedly sat astern of SQUIRREL repeatedly calling out, "We are as neare to Heaven by sea as by land." Near midnight he and the SQUIRREL were "devoured and swallowed up of the Sea."The GOLDEN HIND reached Dartmouth Sept 22.
Vain, tempestuous, even cruel, Gilbert was typical of the early adventurers who became obsessed with America. His own exploits were failures but his persuasive, if faulty, advocacy of a Northwest Passage spurred a lasting fascination, and although his seizure of Newfoundland seemed a formality, it was not seriously disputed and the colony became the first English possession in the New World.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/ ... ey-gilbert
Of the ships which took part in this voyage in 1583 is given as follows:

1. The DELIGHT, alias the GEORGE, of burthen 120 tons, was Admiral; in which went the General, and William Winter, captain in her and part owner, and Richard Clarke, master. DELIGHT was sailing in company with Sir Humphrey Gilbert's frigate to explore the waters around Sable Island. DELIGHT's master, Richard Clarke, had a dispute with Gilbert over a safe course near Sable, but submitting to Gilbert's orders, his vessel went aground and quickly sank on one of Sable's bars at 7:00 am. The water was too shallow for Gilbert's frigate to offer assistance and most aboard drowned. Sixteen people led by Clarke managed to get in a small boat with one oar and they spent seven days at sea before reaching Newfoundland. Five days later they were rescued by a Basque whaling vessel. The wreck was one of many on Gilbert's expedition which ended up with Gilbert himself being drowned in a later wreck. The disaster contributed to the temporary abandonment of the English settlement in Newfoundland.
https://novascotia.ca/museum/wrecks/wre ... sp?ID=1133
2. The bark RALEIGH, set forth by Master Walter Raleigh, of the burthen of 200 tons, was then Vice-Admiral; in which went Captain Master Butler, and Robert Davis, of Bristol, master. She returned to Plymouth, England due to sickness of the crew on the second day of the voyage. Fate unknown ‘

3. The GOLDEN HIND, of burthen 40 tons, was then Rear-Admiral; in which went Edward Hayes, captain and owner, and William Cox, of Limehouse, master. She was the only vessel which returned home in Dartmouth on 22 September 1583, her fate is not known.
4. The SWALLOW, of burthen 40 tons; crew of 10; in her was Captain Maurice Browne. 20 August 1583 she sailed from St John’s NF back to England with on board sick and malcontents crew members.

5. The SQUIRREL, of burthen 10 tons; in which went Captain William Andrews, and one Cade, master. On her return voyage from Newfoundland with on board Sir Humphrey Gilbert she was last seen from the GOLDEN HIND, during a storm off the Azores on 09 September 1583..
Wikipedia has on her:
SQUIRREL was an exploration vessel launched in the 1570s and lost with all hands in 1583.
In the 1570s SQUIRREL made a return voyage from England to Narragansett Bay, piloted by Simon Fernandez. The voyage was considered remarkable given her small size and the dangers of sailing in largely uncharted waters.
She was one of a small fleet of vessels under the command of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, commissioned in 1579 by the lord deputy of Ireland, William Drury, to attack James FitzMaurice FitzGerald by sea and to intercept a fleet expected to arrive from Spain. The expedition was a failure with the fleet dispersed by heavy seas and forced to seek shelter at Land's End.
SQUIRREL was again under Gilbert's command in 1583 for a voyage to Newfoundland and the north-eastern coast of North America. Departing England in June in company with four other vessels, she made an uneventful crossing of the Atlantic and reached the Newfoundland coast on 5 August. Gilbert went ashore at St John's to claim the area as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I. Plans for a further expedition south along the American coastline were abandoned following a critical shortage of supplies, and Gilbert elected instead to return to England. SQUIRREL was selected as the flagship for this return voyage and was armed with some small cannon, in Gilbert's words "more to give a show [of force] than with judgement to foresee unto the safety of her and the men."
The frigate [SQUIRREL] was near cast away, oppressed by waves, yet at that time recovered: and giving forth signs of joy the General, sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out unto us in the Hind, so oft as we did approach within hearing, "We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land." At twelve o'clock that night the SQUIRREL's lights suddenly disappeared, and she was seen no more.
Captain Edward Hayes, Golden Hind
9 September 1583.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_s ... el_(1570s)

On 9 September SQUIRREL had reached the Azores off the European coast when she ran into a storm and was lost with all hands.[7] News of her fate was carried to England by the crew of GOLDEN HIND, another vessel in Gilbert's fleet and the only one to survive the return voyage.

The ships had a total crew of about 260 men; among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths, and such like, requisite to such an action; also mineral men and refiners. Besides, for solace of our people, and allurement of the savages, we were provided of music in good variety; not omitting the least toys, as morris-dancers, hobby-horse, and May-like conceits to delight the savage people, whom we intended to win by all fair means possible. And to that end we were indifferently furnished of all petty haberdashery wares to barter with those simple people.

Source: Various internet sites.
Newfoundland 1933 8c/9c/10c/15c sg242/244 and 246, scott?