Reconstructions of the ships that brought the English to Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 sail here to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the selllement, 22 years ago: from the left, Godspeed, Discove ry, Susan Constant. A new ship way has been builr ro restore these ships, at a working exhibit at Jamesrown Fesrival Park. The Susan is being hauled rhis su111111er, ro be followed by Godspeed in 1980 and Discove ry in 1981. Pharo: Marcus Rirger.
Janiestown Ships To Be Restored By Parke Rouse, Jr. Executive Director, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation A major rebuilding of the Susan Constant, flagship of three reconst ructed Jamestown ships, will soon get underway on the banks of the James River near Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement of America. To undertake the work, Jamestown Festival Park is building a 17th century type shipway, which is scheduled for completion this summer. The Susan and her companions, the Godspeed and Discovery, are full-size recon structions of square-rigged merchant ships which brought 104 men and boys to Virginia in 1607. The exhibit ships were built in 1955-57 at the Curtis-Dunn Marine Railways at West Norfolk, and they have attracted more than 13 million visitors since they were put on di splay in 1957 at the park. On their first Virginia voyage the ships left London on December 20, 1606, under command of Captain Christopher Newport. Newport remained for several years in the employ of the Virginia Company of London, bringi ng five "supplies" or reinforcement voyages to Jamestow n. Coming by the southern route, the outward-bound ships stopped first in the Canary Islands, then they crossed to the Caribbean islands, stopping in several ports for water and fresh provisions, and reached the entrance to Chesapeake Bay on April 26, 1607 . After ex ploring the James River as far upstream as the fall line, now the site of Richmond , they sai led back down strea m and chose a
SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1979
wooded peninsula as the site of their settlement. It was named Jamestown in honor of their king, James l,on May 13, 1607. Jamestow n is now preserved as part of the Colonial National Histo rical Park by the National Park Service, a long with Yorktown and a 25-mile connecting parkway. A part of it is also maintained by the Association for the Prese rvation of Virginia Antiquities. To celebrate the 300th anniversary of the first permanent English sett lement, Virginia held a yea rlong festival in 1957. The popularity of the festival ex hibits led to the establishment of the Jamestown Festival Park, which attracts more than a million visitors annually. The ships, which are the most popular exhibit at Jamestown , were developed from research done by th e lat e Cdr. Griffith Baily Coale, USN, for th e State Capitol painting of the ships, which he was commissioned to paint by the Virginia General Assembly in the 1930s. In Coale's research he examined l 7th century ships' plans and other data in the papers of Samuel Pepys, the 17th century English diarist who served in the British Admiralty. From these data, plans for the reconstructions were drawn in 1955-56 by Robert G. C. Fee, marine architect a nd director of th e model ships' laboratory of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. Const ruction was supervised by John Hu ghes Curti s, Sr., late principal of C urtis- Dunn Marine Railways. His so n, John Curtis, Jr. , an ex-
ecutive of Norfolk Shipbuilding Company, has served as advisor on the ships' maintenance, along with Coast Engineering Company. The ships are authentically rigged and equipped with linen sails of 17th century design. In 1957 and for several years thereafter, the vessels were sailed for historic re-enactments, being manned by members of the Norfolk and Hampton Yacht Clubs. However, si nce 1973 they have not left their dock side moorings. The new shipway was necessitated by si lting of the dredged channel which once permitted egress of the ships to the channel of the James and thence to overhaul yards at Newport News and Norfolk . Because of Kepone contamination of the lower James, such dredging is currently restricted by State and Federal environmental agencies. The shipway is being built with a $335,960 appropriation from the Virginia government. It includes a 243-foot inclined railway with a 80-foot lift platform . The platform will be hauled up by electrically-powered winches, in lieu of the manpower and horsepower used in earlier times. To allow for the underwater platform and the turning of the ships in the dred ged Three Ships' Basin, limited additional dredging in the basi n and along the Festival Park shoreline was permitted by environmental agencies. The 111 ' Susan constant draws 11 ',while the Godspeed (68 ' from stem to stern) draws 7', and the Discovery (50' long) draws 6'. ..V 23