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
Melchior Islands The name Melchior Islands has since become established for the whole island group now described, of which Eta Island and Omega Island form the eastern part, while the Sigma Islands mark the northern limit of the islands. The group was roughly surveyed in 1927 by Discovery Investigations personnel in the "RRS Discovery", and was resurveyed by Argentine expeditions in 1942 and 1943, and again in 1948. The semi-circular arrangement of Lambda, Epsilon, Alpha and Delta Islands forms a small harbor called Inner Harbor. Its descriptive name was probably given by Discovery Investigations personnel who roughly surveyed the harbor in 1927.