"In November 1578 Gilbert had made an attempt to sail to America, but was forced back by severe storms. He eventually established a colony in Newfoundland in June 1583, but drowned on the voyage home, when his ship went down in heavy seas. It was said that Gilbert had last been seen on deck reading Thomas More’s Utopia. But in the end Gilbert would not be remembered for his learning or his courage or his imagination, but for setting the brutal pattern of English colonial rule in Ireland."