Blasted out this morning and rode down the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown, Virginia - the first successful British Colony in the New World in 1607. The Mayflower and Plymouth Rock wouldn't happen for another 13 years in 1620. Some of the following is from Wikipedia:
History Lesson: In December 1606, the Virginia Company of London sent an expedition to establish a settlement in the Virginia Colony, which became Jamestown. After an unusually lengthy trip sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from England, the three ships, the Susan Constant (sometimes known as the Sarah Constant), the Godspeed, and the Discovery (smallest of the three) reached the New World at the southern edge of the mouth of what is now known as the Chesapeake Bay. The ships left Blackwall, now part of London, with 104 men and boys; 39 of which were the ships' crew, by Captain Christopher Newport. . The voyage was uncommonly long; one of the passengers was found dead in the Caribbean . After 144 days, it is recorded that 103 of them finally arrived in the New World; there were no women on the first ships.
These are exact replicas of the 3 ships with the Sarah Constant in the foreground, then the Discovery and Godspeed. The last two carried all the passengers and the large ship carried the supplies for the colony.
The Sarah Constant that carried the supplies.
The Discovery - carrying passengers (the smallest of the 3) - also the only one that stayed since she could go upriver. After dropping off the passengers of Jamestown, the other 2 returned to England and continued in service elsewhere:
And the Godspeed.
PS: JP even got a great lesson in how mariners kept time back in 1607 (both night and day).
Arriving at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay in late April, they named the Virginia capes after the sons of their king, the southern Cape Henry, for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the northern Cape Charles, for his younger brother, Charles, Duke of York. On April 26, 1607, upon landing at Cape Henry, Chaplain Robert Hunt offered a prayer and they set up a cross near the site of the current Cape Henry Memorial. This site came to be known as the "first landing." A party of the men explored the area and had a minor conflict with some Native Americans.
Sealed Orders from the Virginia Company were opened which named Captain John Smith as a member of the governing Council. Smith had been arrested for mutiny on the voyage over by Christopher Newport and was incarcerated aboard one of the ships and had been scheduled to be hanged upon arrival, but was later freed by Captain Newport after the opening of the orders. The same orders also directed them to seek an inland site for their settlement which would afford protection from enemy ships.
Therefore, the English Colonists re-boarded their three ships and proceeded into the Chesapeake Bay landing again at what is now called Old Point Comfort in the City of Hampton. In the following days, the ships ventured inland upstream along the James River seeking a suitable location for their settlement as defined in their orders. The James River and the initial settlement they sought to establish, Jamestown (originally called "James His Towne") were named in honor of King James I.
Arriving on May 14, 1607, the colonists chose Jamestown Island for their settlement largely because the Virginia Company advised them to select a location that could be easily defended from ocean-going navies of the other European states that were also establishing New World colonies and were periodically at war with England, notably the Dutch Republic, France and especially Spain. The island fit the criteria as it had excellent visibility up and down what is today called the James River and it was far enough inland to minimize the potential of contact and conflict with enemy ships. The water immediately adjacent to the land was deep enough to permit the colonists to anchor their ships yet have an easy and quick departure if necessary. An additional benefit of the site was that the land was not occupied by Native Americans, most of whom in the area were affiliated with the Powhatan Confederacy.
We were amazing at how the Powhatan villages were made. These were people that built their homes to stay not nomadic like the plains Indians. The homes were made from woven swamp reeds. They had domesticated crops so they could stay stationary versus following the herds out west. Remember, they taught the settlers the crops that could be kept in Jamestown.
The settlers came ashore, and quickly set about constructing their initial fort. Within a month, James Fort covered an acre on Jamestown Island, although it burned down the following year. The wooden palisaded walls formed a triangle around a storehouse, church, and a number of houses.
It soon became apparent why the Native Americans did not occupy the site, and the inhospitable conditions severely challenged the settlers. Jamestown Island is a swampy area, and furthermore, it was isolated from most potential hunting game such as deer and bears which like to forage over much larger areas. The settlers quickly hunted and killed off all the large and smaller game that was to be found on the tiny peninsula. The low, marshy area was infested with mosquitoes, other airborne pests and the brackish water of the tidal James River was not a good source of water.
The settlers who came over on the initial three ships were not well-equipped for the life they found in Jamestown. In addition to the "gentlemen", who were not accustomed to manual or skilled labor, they consisted mainly of English farmers and "Eight Dutchmen and Poles" hired in Royal Prussia.[4] Many suffered from saltwater poisoning which led to infection, fevers and dysentery. As a result of these conditions, most of the early settlers died of disease and starvation.
Despite the immediate area of Jamestown being uninhabited, the settlers were attacked, less than a fortnight after their arrival on May 14, by Paspahegh Indians who succeeded in killing one of the settlers and wounding eleven more. By June 15, the settlers finished the initial triangle James Fort. A week later, Newport sailed back for London on the Susan Constant with a load of pyrite ("fools' gold") and other supposedly precious minerals, leaving the tiny Discovery behind for the use of the colonists. Newport returned twice from England with additional supplies in the following 18 months, leading what were termed the First and Second Supply missions.
Don't know about the deer thing though - we sure saw some!
We learned today that out of the 104 original settlers, when the supply ship returned a year later, there were only 30 something (38 I think). The little girl (reenacting historian) that we were talking to said that viruses, etc went both ways. We gave the Indians desease that they couldn't handle and vice versa.
In the months before becoming president of the colony for a year in September 1608, Captain John Smith did considerable exploration up the Chesapeake Bay and along the various rivers. He is credited by legend with naming Stingray Point (near present-day Deltaville in Middlesex County for an incident there).
Smith was always seeking a supply of food for the colonists, and he successfully traded for food with the Native American Nansemonds, who were located along the Nansemond River in the modern-day City of Suffolk, and several other groups. However, while leading one food-gathering expedition in December 1607 (before his term as colony president), this time up the Chickahominy River west of Jamestown, his men were set upon by Powhatan Indians. As his party was being slaughtered around him, Smith strapped his Indian guide in front of him as a shield and escaped with his life but was captured by Opechancanough, the Powhatan chief's half-brother. Smith gave him a compass which pleased the warrior and made him decide to let Smith live.
Smith was taken before Wahunsunacock, who was commonly referred to as Chief Powhatan, at the Powhatan Confederacy's seat of government at Werowocomoco on the York River. However, 17 years later, in 1624, Smith first related that when the chief decided to execute him, this course of action was stopped by the pleas of Chief Powhatan's young daughter, Pocahontas, who was originally named Matoaka but whose nickname meant "Playful One." Smith returned to Jamestown just in time for the First Supply, in January 1608.
In September 1609, Smith was wounded in an accident. He was walking with his gun in the river, and the powder was in a pouch on his belt. His powder bag exploded. In October, he was sent back to England for medical treatment.
While back in England, Smith wrote A True Relation and The Proceedings of the English Colony of Virginia about his experiences in Jamestown. These books, whose accuracy has been questioned by some historians due to some extent by Smith's boastful prose, were to generate public interest and new investment for the colony.
What became known as the "Starving Time" in the Virginia Colony occurred during the winter of 1609–10. Only 60 of 214 English colonists survived.
The colonists, the first group of whom had originally arrived at Jamestown on May 14, 1607, had never planned to grow all of their own food. Instead, their plans also depended upon trade with the local Native Americans to supply them with enough food between the arrival of periodic supply ships from England, upon which they also relied.
This period of extreme hardship for the colonists began in 1609 with a drought which caused their already limited farming activities to produce even fewer crops than usual. Then, there were problems with both of their other sources for food.
An unexpected delay occurred during the Virginia Company of London's Third Supply mission from England due to a major hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. A large portion of the food and supplies had been aboard the new flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture which became shipwrecked at Bermuda and separated from the other ships, seven of which arrived at the colony with even more new colonists to feed, and few supplies, most of which had been aboard the larger flagship.
The impending hardship was further compounded by the loss of their most skillful leader in dealing with the Powhatan Confederacy in trading for food: Captain John Smith. He became injured in August of 1609 in a gunpowder accident, and was forced to return to England for medical attention in October 1609. After Smith left, Chief Powhatan severely curtailed trading with the colonists for food. Neither the missing Sea Venture nor any other supply ship arrived as winter set upon the inhabitants of the young colony in late 1609.
When the survivors of the shipwreck of the Third Supply mission's flagship Sea Venture finally arrived at Jamestown the following May 23 in two makeshift ships they had constructed while stranded on Bermuda for nine months, they found fewer than 100 colonists still alive, and many of those were sick. Worse yet, the Bermuda survivors had brought few supplies and only a small amount of food with them, expecting to find a thriving colony at Jamestown.
Thus, even with the arrival of the two small ships from Bermuda under Captain Christopher Newport, they were faced with abandoning Jamestown and returning to England. On June 7, 1610, both groups of survivors (from Jamestown and Bermuda) boarded ships, and they all set sail down the James River toward the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Shortly after they had abandoned Jamestown, they came upon a fleet of three supply ships arriving from England, commanded by a new governor, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr. The two groups met on the James River on June 9, 1610 near Mulberry Island (adjacent to present-day Fort Eustis in Newport News).
With the new supply mission, Governor West, known in modern times as "Lord Delaware", brought additional colonists, a doctor, food, and much-needed supplies. He also was of a strong determination that Jamestown and the colony were not to be abandoned. He turned the departing ships around and brought the entire group back to Jamestown. This was certainly not a popular decision at the time with at least some of the group, but Lord Delaware was to prove a new kind of leader for Virginia.
Included in those returning to Jamestown was a colonist whose wife and child had died during the shipwreck of the Sea Venture and the time at Bermuda. A businessman, he had with him some seeds for a new strain of tobacco and also some untried marketing ideas. That colonist was John Rolfe. Despite his misfortune to that point, history records that he would change the future of the colony as much as Lord Delaware's timely arrival had.
I mean we stood where America began!
Well, after we dug on Jamestown, we sat outside amongst the flags of each state with the history of each one on a plaque and ate the second half of our subway sandwiches from the night before (that we had put in the fridge and thrown in the saddle bags this morning) with a bottle of water for brunch.
Then we rode about 30 miles on the Colonial Parkway back through Williamsburg and over to Yorktown, Virginia. (This was from the French Trench along the York River. They sank 3 British ships by firing "hot shot" - superheated cannon balls at them). Yorktown was the seige that caused Cornwallis to surrender to George Washington.
Great musuem at the Victory Center!!!! You can learn a lot there - I know we did.
History Lesson: The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis’s army (the second major surrender of the war, the other being Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga) prompted the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the conflict.
In 1780, 5,500 French soldiers landed in Rhode Island to help their American allies in assaulting British-occupied New York City. The two armies met North of New York City in 1781. The French Commander, the Comte de Rochambeau, convinced the American Commander, George Washington, that an attack on New York City would be hard pressed to succeed and it would be easier for the French Fleet under the command of the Comte de Grasse to assist in the attack further south, because he was to bring the French Fleet into the Caribbean in October. Thus, they agreed to attack Lord Cornwallis and his smaller army of 9,000 men which was stationed in the port town of Yorktown, Virginia. In the beginning of September, de Grasse defeated a British Fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake which had come to relieve Cornwallis. As a result of this victory, de Grasse blocked any escape by sea for Cornwallis. Washington had dispatched the French general Marquis de Lafayette to contain Cornwallis in Yorktown until he arrived, and Lafayette did so. By late September the Allies surrounded Cornwallis by land.
After initial preparations, the Allies built their first parallel and began the bombardment. With the British defense weakened, Washington, on October 14, sent two columns to attack the last major remaining British defenses; redoubts #9 and #10. A French column took #9 and an American column #10. With these defenses gone, the allies were able to finish their 2nd parallel. With the Allied artillery closer and more intense than ever, the British situation began to deteriorate rapidly and Cornwallis asked for capitulation terms on the 17th. After two days of negotiation, the surrender ceremony took place on the 19th, with Cornwallis being absent since he claimed to be ill. With the capture of over 8,000 British soldiers, negotiations between the United States and Great Britain began, resulting in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
We got to see musket demonstrations and cannon demonstrations - BOY HOWDY!!!!!!!!!!!
The guy that was touring around was awesome. Threw humor in and was VERY INFORMATIVE!!!!!
We got to see how cooking was done with a ditch being dug and little fireplaces made to cook the food to maximize the heat given off by the fire.
And how the meat was salt cured. In fact the little girl showed us examples of hard tack and why it was used and what most soldiers ate day in and day out. Very informative!
We got to see a reenacted camp and how they lived. There were 6 soldiers in each tent. Basically, if you were not an officer - well....you know.
After that you got to see a working farm of what it was like after we won the Revolutionary War. It was typical of a single family farm.
This little gal even said, "Oh yeah, you had to take a picture when I wasn't doing something!"
My riding buddy did take a piece of the tobacco and try it.
Well, we spent about 2 hours at both Jamestown and Yorktown - plan on at least that much if you want to see stuff.
Then we shot across the York River on 17 and headed northwest again.
About halfway here, we decided that the Subway sandwich just wasn't doing the trick to make us till dinner, so we stopped at this cafe in Virgina and got the desert menu. It all looked good so we ordered the whole menu with some ice cream on it to boot! That should tide us over till dinner!!!!
Well, we did order coffee to wash it all down with!!!!
Rode 17 into Fredericksburg, Virginia (watch Gods and Generals) and checked in. Man, 17 for the last 20 miles or so is Awesome!!!!!! Anyway, checked in and the manager came out and told us it was OK to park our bikes in the grass by our rooms since we are in the back. We checked out the room and got it for another night just because the guy is so cool!!!!!! Days Inn again - Fredericksburg.
We got some sandwiches at Perkin's next door - the Rubuen Melt was awesome!!!! Rode over to ABC and got me some more stumpwater and Target for some socks (I was on the 2nd day on this pair - so I can now throw the old ones away)
Got me some trunks and went swimming since it was a tad warm today - have not had a drop of rain - just lotsa heat. Met a cool guy out by the pool that is riding a Goldwing with his 10 year old grandson all around America - SUPER NICE GUY!!!!!! I may look like a Buluga Whale with sunburned arms but it sure was refreashing.
Air conditioner is on and starting to cool off. Makes me worry about my riding partner though!
I mean it is like 95 degrees outside for our ride today, the AC is barely on and he is sleeping with a SOCK ON HIS HEAD!!!!!
We had an awesome time today!!!! We saw things we have never seen and learned things we didn't know. Again, today was a great day!!!!
WE ARE HAVING A BALL YA'LL!!!!!!!!!
Bikes are humming and the company sure is fine to share what we are sharing!!!!!!!!!!!
WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE TOMORROW!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE THE HISTORY SHOT OF ALL HISTORY SHOTS TOMORROW!!!! Seriously, we are having a BLAST - sure hope you don't mind me sharing with ya'll......
