Good writers borrow, but great writers steal—and Shakespeare was a great writer.

Among those he purloined from during his career was William Strachey, an aspiring travel author and poet. In 1609, Strachey was bound for Jamestown on the Sea Venture when a hurricane forced the ship off course and wrecked it on then-uninhabited Bermuda. The survivors eventually built two new ships and finished their journey to Virginia, and Strachey sent home a dramatic, descriptive account of the event. He returned to London days before the premiere of “The Tempest,” which contained striking similarities to his own chronicle.

In “A Brave Vessel,” Hobson Woodward has produced something rare: a lively biography of a man who lived and died in near obscurity four centuries ago. This is largely due to his skillful descriptions of the London theater scene, Bermuda and a Virginia where natives and colonists “were killing each other with an alarming frequency.”

His depiction of the four days the crew and passengers of the Sea Venture spent bailing water from their leaky ship is captivating and suspenseful: Strachey’s “arms ached from passing the heavy buckets and his hands were raw. . . he pushed on with the work, more for the occupation of mind rather than from any real hope that death was not imminent.”

Strachey’s story is supplemented by those of his fellow castaways, some of whom married, bore children and discovered new species during their time on Bermuda, and others who fought and schemed, often with deadly results. The book’s broad scope is even more remarkable when compared with its length; in 200 pages of text, Woodward provides a picture of Jacobean life that shows why a struggling artist would want to seek his fortune halfway around the world, along with a sketch of Colonial life that explains why the same man would choose to return home.

Meanwhile, in London, Shakespeare was trying to decide on a subject for his next play. “His method of looking for the framework of a new drama was to read widely and to gauge the current interests of his audience,” and with Londoners captivated by “exploration of the New World — the value of that public interest was not lost on” the playwright.

Although he was not the only Sea Venture survivor to produce a first-person account, Strachey was “Shakespeare’s most important source.” Several lines in “The Tempest,” argues Woodward, were “oddly reminiscent” of Strachey’s prose.

“Such homage to the works of others was not only tolerated in Jacobean England, it was expected, and Shakespeare was a master. In his supremely creative mind, merely good language was made both accessible and profound.”

Woodward reminds us that Shakespeare’s masterpieces didn’t spring fully formed from his head. He drew upon the work of colleagues, with or without permission.

Would it have been enough for Strachey, at best a good writer, to know he would live on as a footnote in the work of a great one? Regardless, through the failed writer’s story, Woodward has created a fresh portrait of Colonial and literary ambition.

Stephanie Eve Boone is a local freelance critic.

A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare’s

‘The Tempest’

By Hobson Woodward

Viking,

288 pages, $25.95