Jamestown Settlement- Tuesday October 12

Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum was established in 1957 to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Jamestown's founding.  We saw a reproduction of a Powhatan Village, James Fort, and the three ships the Discovery, Susan Constant, and the Elizabeth. The Godspeed is normally there but she was out on an event elsewhere. Kevin tried his hand at tying knots for a fishing net. I ground some corn for meal.   More to be added... check in tomorrow....

We began with a short film "1607:A Nation Takes Roots" before starting our walking tour. Then we went outside, our first stop was at the Powhatan Indian Village. It depicts the culture of coastal Virginia's original inhabitants with the re-cration of reed-covered houses, ceremonial circle, and crop fields. The was costumed interpreters showing and telling how they used to make their tools from bone and stone, fishing nets, and grinding corn.

     

    

 

Our next stop was out to the docks to the Riverfront Discovery Area, where we were able to board re-creations of the ships that sailed to Virginia in 1607 to establish America's first permanent English colony.    

The smallest of the three vessels was the pinnace Discovery. It was purchase especially for the voyage by the Virginia Company. Susan Constant & Godspeed sailed back to England in mid-June. Discovery did not sail with the other vessels. It was used by the settlers to explore the inland waterways of the Chesapeake Bay.

The 40-ton ship, Elizabeth, first arrived in Virginia in May 1611, probably as part of the fleet of Sir Thomas Dale. The colony's deputy governor. It made two voyages to Virginia in 1613-1614 when it transported 13 settlers and again in 1620 when it transported 20 settles to the colony. Under the command of Captain Heney Spelman, Elizabeth was used to trading in Virginia waters during the 1622 Anglo-Powhatan war. In 1624, under the command of Captain Raleigh Crashaw, the ship was commissioned by Virginia's governor to sail up Chesapeake Bay and obtain corn from the Indians by

trade or force. In 1625, Elizabeth made its last known voyage to Virginia, transporting gunpowder for the colony's war with the Powhatan Indians.  

The Susan Constant was the flagship and largest of the three ships that brought the first Permanent English settlers to America in 1607. While anchored in the River Thames near Limehouse, it was involved in a minor collision with another vessel which led to a case in the High Court of Admiralty. The resulting court records were used to assist in determining the size of this re-creation. The original was probably built in 1605 and almost certainly built on the River Thames near London. Soon After the Jamestown colony was planted the Susan Constant returned to England, continuing its career as an ordinary trading vessel.

    

   

Our last stop here was the re-creation of James Fort, it represented the time from 1610-1614. A time period with thatched-roof houses, storehouse, court of guard and church inside a triangular palisade. The Wattle-and-Daub buildings including a church, the governor's house, a storehouse, and an armory.

Due to needing to allow time to go to Yorktown's Victory Center, Historic Area and Battlefield, we had to skip the galleries that display 17th century artifacts that trace the influence of the European, African, and Powhatan Indian cultures that shaped the colony's development.