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
Bonin Islands entirely different islands. On 12 September 1824 American Captain James Coffin in the "Transit" first visited the southern group of islands ("Coffin Islands"). He visited the archipelago again in 1825 but this time he arrived at the middle group of islands ("Beechey Group"). In September 1825, the British whaling ship "Supply" landed in the southern Bailey Group of islands. In 1826, another British whaler, the "William", arrived at Beechey Island. Whaling ships called on a regular basis, for water and turtles, before continuing their voyages. In 1827 Captain F. W. Beechey of reached the island chain and claimed them as