Stephen Hopkins: Bermuda Castaway, Jamestown Survivor, and Mayflower Pilgrim

Enter Stephano, singing, with a bottle in his hand:

"I shall no more to sea, to sea;
Here shall I die ashore."

William Shakespeare
The Tempest, Act II, Scene ii

If they made a movie of Caleb Johnson's book, Here Shall I Die Ashore, it would be a big-budget documentary action flick filmed on two continents, the ocean between them, and the island of Bermuda. The cast? Huge. Costumes? Everything from shipwreck tatters to a wardrobe fit for the King of England. Don't forget those fancy Pilgrim outfits and whatever the Indians wore.

And the dialogue? Uh-oh... Early Modern English? You're kidding, right? The action takes place in Shakespeare's time and, sorry to say it but I've never been a big fan of Shakespearean English. Without an interpreter, much of it is Greek to me. Well, alright, not exactly Greek, but I certainly miss the subtleties of contemporary communication.

But don't worry... Shakespeare wrote for an Early Modern English audience, whereas Caleb Johnson wrote for... well, me! He's pulled together tons of research about my ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, and about the events of his lifetime, both historic and picayune, and woven it all into a narrative that's as detailed as it is readable.

Stephen Hopkins, it turns out, had a pretty interesting life--adventurer, family man, businessman--Johnson tells all, including the suggestion that my 10th great-grandfather inspired the character called Stephano in Shakespeare's The Tempest. I hadn't heard this before, so I did a little search and found Dating The Tempest by David Kathman, in which he compares, line by line, what Shakespeare would have read in a first-hand report about the shipwreck of the Sea Venture (with Stephen Hopkins aboard) with what he wrote in his play. Pretty convincing!

In addition to Johnson's text, he's included seven appendices, almost a hundred pages of additional material.

I'm happy to have added this book to my family history library. In the glow of hindsight, though, I think I should have bought it in hardcover. It's a definite keeper!