The first English ship arrived in Barbados, where is now the Holetown, on the sheltered west coast of the island, on May 14th 1625, after what appears to have been a fortuitous accident. Captain John Powell and the crew of Olive Blossom were sailing from Brazil to England and went off course, due to a navigational error. Powell found the island to be uninhabited and claimed it in the name of King James I of England. On his return to England informed his employer, Sir William Courteen (a Dutch-born English merchant trader), what it happened. Immediately Courteen sent Powell back to occupy Barbados and establish a settlement. However, Powell never made it, as en route to Barbados he captured a Spanish ship and needed to return it to England.
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