George Somers 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
Slate Islands Slate Islands The Slate Islands are an island group in the Inner Hebrides, lying immediately off the west coast of Scotland, north of Jura and southwest of Oban. The main islands are Seil, Easdale, Luing, Lunga, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua. Scarba and Kerrera which lie nearby, are not usually included. The underlying geology of the islands is Dalradian slate, which was quarried widely until the mid-twentieth century. Quarry working began in 1630 and at the turn of the 20th century, the quarries were yielding some eight million slates every year. Eilean-a-beithich ("island of the birches") was once one of the