In the early part of 1609, the London Company secured a new charter, under which they proposed to exploit Virginia on a scale of grandeur which was in itself a proof of their utter ignorance of the real conditions and needs of the colony. The company, as reorganized, was composed of twenty-one peers and innumerable knights and gentlemen. Officers were appointed with high-sounding titles. Lord Delaware was made Captain-general of Virginia; Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-captain-general; Sir George Somers, Admiral; Captain Newport, Vice-admiral; Sir Thomas Dale, High-marshal; Sir Ferdinando Wainman, General of the Horse. Just think of it! General of the Horse in Virginia! Keeper of the Hogs, or Master of the Poultry, or Superintendent of the Fish Seines, would have been more to the purpose. What a humble and insignificant individual plain “Captain John Smith” must have appeared to these grand gentlemen! In May, nine vessels with five hundred emigrants were despatched from England, under the command of Gates, Somers and Newport. To each of these a governor’s commission was given with the understanding that he who should arrive first should take charge of the colony and supersede Smith. Evidently these gentlemen were not sportsmen, for, rather than take any chance, they decided to go in the same ship. This vessel, the _Sea-Venture_, was parted from the rest of the fleet in a hurricane and wrecked on the Bermudas. The lives of the prospective potentates were saved but they did not reach Virginia until months afterwards and when Smith had left. Meanwhile seven of the original ships arrived at their destination. Amongst the mixed company that they landed were Ratcliffe and Archer who figured large in the contingent of “gentlemen.” Most of these were “profligate youth, whose friends were only too well satisfied to give them ample room in remote countries, where they might escape the worse destinies that awaited them at home. Poor gentlemen, bankrupt tradesmen, rakes and libertines, such as were more apt to ruin than to raise a commonwealth.” The minds of these, naturally open to evil, had been poisoned by Ratcliffe and Archer against Smith, and they landed in a spirit of antagonism to him.