The ship was launched in 1609, and her uncompleted journey to Jamestown appears to have been her maiden voyage. She was armed with eight 9-pounder (4.1 kg) demi-culverins, eight 5-pounder (2.3 kg) sakers, four 3-pounder (1.4 kg) falcons, and four arquebuses. The hold was sheathed and furnished for passengers. This meant that the ship did not need double-timbering, and she may have been the first single-timbered, armed merchant ship built in England. Her guns were placed on her main deck, rather than below decks as was then the norm.
She measured "300 tunnes", cost £1,500, and differed from her contemporaries primarily in her internal arrangements. The Company built Sea Venture, probably in Aldeburgh, as England's first purpose-designed emigrant ship and in response to the inadequacy of its vessels. They even had the newly constructed purpose-built flagship Sea Venture placed in the most experienced hands of Christopher Newport. Their Third Supply mission was by far the largest and best equipped. There are strong indications that those in London comprehended and embraced Smith's message. Smith did begin his letter with something of an apology, saying "I humbly intreat your Pardons if I offend you with my rude Answer". When you send againe I entreat you rather send but thirty Carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers up of trees, roots, well provided than a thousand of such as wee have: for except wee be able both to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries before they can be made good for anything.
In what has been termed "Smith's Rude Answer", he composed a letter, writing (in part): Ever bold, Captain John Smith delivered what must have been a wake-up call to the investors in London. It fell to the third president of the council to deliver a reply. They specifically demanded that the colonists send commodities sufficient to pay the cost of the voyage, a lump of gold, assurance that they had found the South Sea, and one member of the lost Roanoke Colony. With the Second Supply, they expressed their frustrations and made demands upon the leaders of Jamestown in written form. Yet the investors of the London Company expected to reap rewards from their speculative investments. The colony at Jamestown seemed doomed to meet the same fate as the Roanoke Colony and the Popham Colony, two earlier failed English attempts to settle in North America, unless there was a major relief effort, despite the delivery of supplies in 1608 on the First and Second Supply missions of Captain Christopher Newport. The company's fleet was composed of vessels that were less than optimal for delivering large numbers of passengers across the Atlantic Ocean, and the colony itself was threatened by starvation, diseases, and warfare with native peoples. The entire operation was characterized by a lack of resources and experience. The proprietary of the London Company had established the settlement of Jamestown in Virginia in 1607, and delivered supplies and additional settlers in 1608, raising the English colony's population to 200, despite many deaths. JSTOR ( July 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification.
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