May 14
JAMESTOWN DAY
Three very small ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, sailed across the ocean blue from Plymouth, England to a place the ship’s crew and passengers called Jamestown on this day in 1607.
If you have ever been to today’s Jamestown and had the chance to climb aboard the restored ships, you would wonder how anyone could have survived that historic trip in such tiny, cramped quarters. We can only assume that some of us had ancestors who were very, very short.
This hearty group of Virginia Company settlers was chartered by England’s King James I, therefore, the name, Jamestown, Virginia. The group was led by Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame and Christopher Newport.
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States. It became the capital of Virginia and remained so through 1699.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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