Supp Family Blog: The Jamestown Quadricentennial

Here's the next blog post you've all been waiting for! Sorry it's been so long since our last post. The Jamestown installments are coming to a close, with only two more days to write about. I hope you've been enjoying them so far!

Thursday, June 14

It sure felt good to sleep in this morning! After a leisurely hotel breakfast (and meeting a few more families attending the celebration!), we packed our day bags and drove over to the Jamestown Settlement. As we neared it, we drove along the James River.

The first thing we saw when we arrived was... a building! Yes, we did see a building, but there was also something I'd never seen before. Just outside the museum, the flags of all 50 states, lined up in two rows, waved in the breeze. At the base of each flagpole there was a plaque that gave a few facts about the state its flag represented.

We went inside, purchased tickets, and began our tour with a short, informative video about Jamestown's history. Then we looked around in the exhibit hall (we saw a few sleuths dashing around, solving clues!) and then headed to the outdoor exhibits.

A short walk brought us to the Indian village. There were several wigwams, each containing lots of furs, a few weapons, pots, and other things. One of the beds looked so comfortable that Mom wanted to try it out.

We checked out the different activities you could do, talked with an employee who was making arrowheads, and then we continued down the path towards the docks and the fort.

We caught sight of the fort before we reached the docks. As we rounded the bend, a large ship loomed into view. It was the Susan Constant, the largest of the three ships that brought the Englishmen who founded Jamestown. The other two are the Godspeed and the Discovery.

The Susan Constant was very crowded, so we decided to wait and see the other boats first. The Godspeed was out for a sail,

so the only other boat we could see was the Discovery. It wasn't too crowded, so we climed aboard and poked around. We worked the bilge pump and the rudder, and listened to a sailor tell us about the boat. As I recall, it held 21 people - 9 were the captain and crew, and 12 were passengers.

We we finished exploring the Discovery, we walked back to the Susan Constant to see if it was less crowded. It was, so we went aboard.
We explored up on the main deck first. The stairs leading to the hold were in the very middle of the deck. To the left side were the cook's and captain's cabins. The cook's cabin was tiny! It had a cooking fireplace in it, and it must have been boiling hot in there when the fire was going!

Beyond these cabins was the upper deck. There were lots of different ropes, and we wondered how the sailors remembered what each rope was for!

Below deck there were chests, cannons, ammunition, eating utensils, beds, and supplies. The beds were small, as the Englishmen back then weren't much taller than 5 feet, but they were pretty comfortable!

We discovered a shirt, vest, and pants hanging on some rope, and found a pair of shoes in one of the chests.

When we finished looking around the Susan Constant, we made our way to the fort. Just outside, we saw a canoe. Three girls were posing in it for a picture. When they were done, Julia and I hopped in and pretended to canoe!

Once inside the fort, we saw several houses. To our right was the large church, to our left was a large house (beyond it was the blacksmith's shop), and in front of us was a large open area that all the buildings were clustered around. We came to a bench that had some armor to try on. Nearby, you could try building a fence by weaving boards between poles.

We made our way around, looking in all the houses and shops.

The lumberyard

We passed the well, where several people were taking turns carrying buckets of water on a yoke. Each house had similar furnishings, but the smaller items varied. All houses had a garden, a few had writing desks, and one had a very ornately carved cabinet.

One house we came to had a couple of brooms in it. I immediately picked one up and started sweeping the floor - it felt great to be doing something! (Even if I was only stirring up dust!)

The church was quite large, with one long row of benches on either side of the aisle, a pulpit, and an area at the back in which the Apostles' Creed, The 10 Commandments, and the Our Father prayer were hung. This area also had a fancy chair in it. I'm not sure what this spot was used for.