The Boy and the Boat
It was getting late in the fall of 1607
and the beeches and oaks on the slopes running down to the
Kennebec, or Sagadahoc as it was then called, had yellowed and
reddened in the frosty nights and mellow sunny days of autumn
while the pines, standing tall and straight, were darkening and
beginning to sing their deeper notes.
Here the "Popham colony'' had landed
from their two ships "The Gift of 'God'' and the "Mary and
John," and had almost immediately begun building the cabins and
general storehouse of their town. They had named the settlement
"St. George," and already, in imagination, saw it growing into
the metropolis of this western world.
And now, under the eye of their
Governor, Mr. George Popham, and the supervision of Captain
Raleigh Gilbert, navigator and shipbuilder, a crew of men were
to build a small vessel to add to their fleet. For weeks a
company of the men had been getting out lumber suitable for the
timbers and planks of the pinnace. She was designed to be of
only twenty-eight or thirty tons burden and was, after the
fashion of the day, to be of broad beam, rounded bow and high
stern, decked over for the most part, and with comfortable
quarters and cargo room. Still she was styled a pinnace because
of her small dimensions and the fact that she might be propelled
by oars should need arise.
Captain Gilbert, who had planned the new
craft, was a son of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. We all know how Sir
Humphrey, more than twenty years earlier than this, had tried to
plant a colony in Newfoundland and on his return voyage had gone
down with all on board in the "Squirrel." Now his son had come
out to be Admiral of the fleet, leaving his home and business in
Plymouth, England, at the urgent request of Lord Popham and
other members of the Plymouth Company. "With him he had brought
his orphaned nephew, Humphrey, a boy of fifteen. Humphrey
Gilbert's father had been a quiet and studious young man, but
Humphrey himself was boyishly in love with the stir and bustle
and adventure of a sailor's life. He never tired of hearing of
the voyages of his grandfather. Sir Humphrey, of his uncle.
Captain Gilbert, and most of all of his grandfather's gallant
half-brother. Sir Walter Raleigh, courtier, colonizer and
officer in the navy sent against the Spanish Armada.
He begged and implored so hard to be
included in the ship's company of the "Mary and John" that he
won his uncle's reluctant consent. By the time America was
sighted the boy had become robust and sturdy. Ere long he was
the busiest member of the newly-planted colony, and the life and
spirit of the otherwise sober and staid company. Even Gov.
Popham loved the manly, bright-faced youth, who was already
taking a man's part in all the labors of the settlement.
Any boy can imagine with what interest young Humphrey watched
the preparation of material for the boat, and with what
eagerness he lent his aid in many ways. And today the keel was
to be laid on the bank of the Sagadahoc, right before the little
group of houses which formed the new town.
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The Virginia on the
Stocks at Popham Colony
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The short autumn days were full of the
business of building this ship, as well as of completing the
storehouse and dwellings. Hammer and maul resounded; fires were
daily built for steaming the planks and ribs to be bent in the
fashion required for the hull of the new ship. Stores of iron
work, ropes and other fittings and finally the canvas for the
sails, all brought from England for this purpose, were assembled
and in readiness for use on the new craft.
Ere the snows of winter came, that long winter which was to
prove the last for so many of the company, the ship was built,
standing ready for the running rigging and the sails which would
be bent in the spring.
The crew had builded staunchly and well
and, all unconsciously, they had performed a labor the memory of
which would not die. They had inaugurated a great industry;
having built the first vessel constructed by English hands in
all America and launched the first ship into the Kennebec where
in the centuries to follow shipbuilding would be a leading
occupation.
What should the new boat be christened?
Gravely the old governor and Captain Gilbert consulted over
this, piously they bethought them of "Hope," "Charity,''
"Deliverance," and "Divine Providence" as suitable; but young
Humphrey Gilbert insisted that she be named the "Virginia," not
as a compliment to the English company at home or to the
province, but for the now dead Virgin Queen, Elizabeth.
But now I must take you back to England
and tell you how, seven or eight years before, when but a very
little boy, Humphrey had seen Queen Elizabeth, and why he so
much wished that the new boat should be named for her. From his
home town of Plymouth, he had gone up to London with his uncle,
Captain Raleigh Gilbert. To him it was a wonderful visit. He had
seen London Bridge, the Tower, and the grand city houses with
their overhanging upper stories and balconies almost meeting
over the narrow, muddy and unpaved streets. He had watched the
lords and ladies of the court riding out in their carriages. He
had seen Admiral Howard, who had commanded Elizabeth's fleet
when it put to rout the great Spanish Armada. He had seen his
father's uncle, Sir Walter Raleigh, riding amid a gay company of
courtiers and, best of all, he had seen Elizabeth herself! In
her state carriage, with her ladies about her, powdered and
painted, and with her wig finely curled, she had looked so grand
and regal to the little fellow that in all his long years of
after life he was never to forget her, or cease to remember her
as a heroine.
As he stood in the muddy street amid the
bowing and applauding crowd, the queen's carriage passed so
close that he might have touched it, and just then she glanced
down to see the bright-haired little boy so gallantly saluting
her. She had leaned forward and smiled upon him, a really sweet
and womanly smile, such as perhaps had rarely come to the
woman's lips in all her long, stormy years. And that smile won a
courtier forever.
Now the old queen had been dead these
four years, and Scottish James reigned in her stead. The lad's
uncle, Sir Walter, was a prisoner in the Tower, because King
James suspected him of sharing in a plot to place Lady Arabella
Stuart on the throne. England was far across the ocean. But
Humphrey still remembered and admired the great Virgin Queen and
would name the new boat for her. So the "Virginia of Sagadahoc"
she was christened, and was to start out in early spring to
coast along the shores, gathering furs from the Indians in
exchange for knives and trinkets.
The winter closed in, long and severe,
and their loneliness depressed the colonists. As the cold
increased, sickness appeared among them and presently the first
death. In the days and weeks following, many were laid in graves
in this far, strange land. Early in February, Gov. Popham
sickened and died and the stoutest hearts wavered. Courage ebbed
and homesickness crept into the hearts of many.
Spring, coming late, found only half of
the original company of one hundred twenty men ready for duty,
while even among these some thought only of escape from this
cruel, new land.
But the Virginia was fitted out and,
with a company of five, set out on a trading trip westward along
the coast. You may be sure that young Humphrey Gilbert made one
of her crew, and so expert did he become in seamanship and so
well had he spent his winter evenings in the study of
navigation, that he seemed already qualified to take the
Virginia on an ocean voyage, even without the presence of Master
Bing, who commanded her, and whose mate Humphrey soon became.
The Virginia was on a third trip to
Casco to complete the load of the "Mary and John,'' when a ship
just out from England brought urgent summons to Capt. Gilbert to
return home and attend to business left uncared for by the death
of his partner in Plymouth.
He prepared to sail at once in the
waiting "Mary and John," and when he made known his resolve,
more than half the colonists decided to sail with him.
About forty of the hardier spirits,
mostly fishermen and traders remained to scatter among the
fishermen at Pemaquid and Monhegan, intending also to return
home in the autumn in the '"Gift of God."
When the Virginia, Master Bing, with his
four companions and a load of peltries, returned to St. George,
he found the place practically deserted and it soon became
wholly so. But this adventurous life had so charmed young
Gilbert that he rejoiced in his freedom and this chance to spend
another season in America. With the beautiful May weather, the
place had again become a paradise, and the English fishing
vessels, returning for the season, brought companionship and
chance news from over seas.
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Popham Fort and Trading Post
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On one of the trips of the Virginia to
the Piscataqua, Humphrey experienced an adventure which opened
his eyes to an ever lurking danger to all Englishmen. He had
traded successfully with a little party of savages, seemingly
very friendly and was following them as they bore their load
through the forest. Though the day was foggy and the sun
obscured, Humphrey instinctively felt that their direction had
been changed and that they were no longer moving toward the
shore. Slipping his pocket compass out, he was horrified to find
that they were heading northwest, directly into the dense forest
and away from his floating home, the Virginia! Perhaps for a
mile or more his guides had been leading him astray, doubtless
meaning to steal his furs and kidnap him. What should he do! To
show fear or distrust might bring the savages upon him at once.
Thunder had been muttering through the
fog, and now a sharp flash of lightning was instantly followed
by a heavy peal. Humphrey halted and the savages gathered
sternly about. He was surrounded and flight was hopeless. So,
holding his compass before them, he told them how it directed
him to turn back from the death to which the arrow pointed, told
them that the voice of the thunder threatened death if they did
not obey him. They knew the power of the thunderbolt; but this
little box which told even the child of the white man all their
deceit and by which he could perhaps command the lightning,
daunted them!
Sternly Humphrey turned them back. With
a grunt from this one and that, they accompanied him in the
direction of the shore. Soon, too, he heard his companions
shouting his name in alarm at his pro-longed absence in the
tempest. Humphrey had learned his lesson and never again went
into the woods with the savages.
The autumn proving warm, and the winter
as mild as the previous one had been severe, the ships remained
in America and the Virginia made many trips along the coast,
even sailing south to the Jamestown settlement with salted cod.
When spring came again, the spring of 1609, the "Gift of God''
and the little "Virginia," laden with valuable cargoes of furs
and sassafras root, set sail for Plymouth, England.
One more adventure was to be Humphrey's.
After some days, a storm arose during which the "Gift of God"
was disabled by the breaking of her topmast and the loss of some
sails. This compelled her to heave to, while repairing. The
"Virginia" sailed on, expecting the larger ship to overtake her.
But she was soon alone upon the ocean and. Master Bing being
helpless in his berth from an injury, Humphrey assumed all his
duties of navigating the ship and directing her crew. So well
did he shape his course and so true were his calculations, that
they first sighted old England at Land's End and, with-out a
pause, slipped gaily into Plymouth harbor on a May morning, full
five days before the arrival of the "Gift of God."
You can imagine the joy with which
Captain Gilbert greeted his young nephew and his pride in the
boy's courage and ability. The little pinnace almost immediately
set sail again for the land of her birth, this time in the fleet
of Gates and Somers, with men for the Jamestown settlement. For
more than twenty years she ran between England and Virginia,
until a captain, older but less apt than Humphrey Gilbert, lost
his reckoning and wrecked her on the Irish coast, where she went
down with a full cargo of American tobacco.
Humphrey never saw America again; but
after finishing his education, became his uncle's partner, and a
wealthy merchant and ship-owner of Ply-mouth. Even as an old
man, he was still fond of telling his grandson, not of any of
the great ships he had sent out, or of the rich cargoes they had
brought home, but of his first little ship, the "Virginia of
Sagadahoc.''
Mary Dunbar Devereux
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