Tudor History with Claire Ridgway

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

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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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    Tudor History with Claire RidgwayBy Claire Ridgway
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