Virginia (pinnace)
Encyclopedia
The Virginia (also known as Virginia of Sagadahoc) was a pinnace built in 1607-08 by colonists at the Popham Colony
. She was the first English-built ship in what is now Maine
and possibly in all of the English-colonized areas of North America
.
Little is known about the details of her architecture, but written accounts of the colony and historical records of similar ships suggest that Virginia was a pinnace that displaced about 30 tons and measured somewhat less than 50' (15m) long, with a beam of 14' 6" (4.42m). She had a flush main deck, drew about 6'6" (2m) fully loaded, and had a freeboard of less than 2' (0.6m).
A demonstration of the new colony's ability to build ships, Virginia was built at the mouth of the Kennebec River
in what is now Phippsburg, Maine
. The ship was a project of the Plymouth Company
, branch of the proprietary Virginia Company
, on land England claimed as belonging to the Virginia.
.
The Popham Colony
was established in 1607 by the Virginia Company
of Plymouth. It was also known as the Sagadahoc Colony, taking its name from the Abanaki word for the confluence of a river and the sea. At this time, all of eastern North America from Spanish Florida to New France (in Canada) was called 'Virginia' by England. The territory originally chartered to the Virginia Company of Plymouth extended from present day Delaware to New France
in the Canadian maritimes
, 38°N to 45°N. Leaving Plymouth England on May 31, 1607, 120 colonists arrived at the mouth of the Sagadahoc River on August 13, 1607 aboard the Gift of God, and on August 16, 1607 aboard the Mary and John. Popham Colony leader Sir George Popham
was aboard the Gift of God, with Raleigh Gilbert second in command. Robert Davies was captain of the "Mary and John". The expedition had come to find gold, the Northwest Passage
, a river passage to China, to fish and hunt Beaver
for fur
and to sell and prove that New World
forests could build English ships. Construction of Fort Saint George was begun immediately. On December 1, 1607, about half the men returned to England with Captain James Davis aboard "The Gift of God", a journey that took 53 days. It was hoped that by drastically reducing the colony's population: a) available food would last throughout the brutally cold winter; and b) the difficulty of trading with hostile Abanaki neighbors would be negated. With one exception ( Sir George Popham, leader of the colony died in February 1608), each of the colonists made it through the winter. A young, disinterested Raleigh Gilbert became the new governor. Captain James Davis, who commanded the short lived Fort St. George at the Popham Colony was to have a noteworthy career at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia.
The pinnace "Virginia" was first ship of noteworthy size for which solid evidence exists that she was built in America was a pinnace of the smaller type. Because plans of early 17th century British or American sailing vessels have not yet been found, reconstructing Virginia of Sagadahoc was a challenge. Nonetheless, there is historical information about the 'small' pinnace design that can be utilized, and from which a reasonable plan can be extrapolated. The choice to build a 'small' pinnace for the Popham Colony was a good one. Able to support at least three different rigs, the 'small' pinnace was very versatile and could be assigned to offshore fishing, the North Atlantic fishing grounds, or readied for a trans-Atlantic journey to England with equal ease.
in southern Maine - see the Info Box in this article. This boat is thought to be the 30 ton pinnace Virginia that was built in 1607–1608 at the Popham colony on the Sagadahoc River (now Kennebec River
) in southern Maine. Assuredly, lofting was done by 'eye'. Assembly was done under the guidance of shipwright Mr. Digby; and James Davis (mariner)
, Master of the "Gift of God".
Virginia would have been about 56' feet long with a beam of 15'5", a flush main deck that drew approximately 6'5" fully loaded, a free board of less than 2 feet, and weight of approximately 30 tons. Sketches of the replica's hull design and framing are online at the Maine First Ship website. For ocean voyages, the Virginia would likely have been rigged with a square-rigged main mast, a much smaller second mast that was gaff rig
ged, and a small square sail under the bowsprit
. The main mast on many pinnaces would have been large enough to carry a small topsail
. Plans for Virginia that include a plausible rigging are available from the Maine Maritime Museum. For coastal work, Virginia would have used a fore and aft rig with a spirit mainsail
and one headsail. How the coastal rigging would have been changed for a cross-Atlantic voyage is not yet fully understood. In John Walker's drawing of the Virginia when rigged for a trans Atlantic voyage, an aft-rigged mizzen mast carries a sail that resembles a lateen
sail more closely than a spanker
.
A non-profit organization, Maine' First Ship - Reconstruct "Virginia" has been formed to build a reconstruction of Virginia on the grounds of the Bath Freight Shed in Bath, Maine
. The organization educates people about Maine's role in early American and European history], the 400-year tradition of shipbuilding, and archeology.
A four-year building project of the "Virginia" began in July 2011 with two shipwrights, a teacher, a media specialist, fourteen high school students and many adult volunteers. The keel was laid on July 3, 2011.
This variety of rigs enabled the 'small' pinnaces of this era for several different assignments. They could be used as fishing boats, storage at anchor, tender to large ships or supply ships that were often towed to their destination by a larger ship.
Structurally sound, the Virginia had more work to do. The background to these next expeditions was the new Charter of the Virginia Company
, drafted by Roger Bacon
and signed by King James I of England on May 23, 1609. This Charter granted a vast extension of territory and expanded powers to the Virginia Company. Virginia was one of two pinnaces and nine ships in the fleet known as the Third Supply
. With 5-600 people, the Third Supply left Falmouth, Cornwall
, England on June 8, 1609 for the colony in Virginia by way of the Azores
and Bermuda
. The Virginia and one other pinnace were towed by the 300 ton flagship, Sea Venture
which was the first single timbered, merchantman built in England, and also the first dedicated emigration ship.
After passing the Canary Islands, the fleet encountered a powerful 3-day hurricane which did serious damage to two ships. The "Catch" went down with all aboard lost, and the Sea Venture was heavily damaged. Sir George Somers and the Sea Venture had 'discovered' an uninhabited archipelago
that would later be named the Somers Isles then Bermuda
. Meanwhile, Captain James Davis (mariner)
guided the Virginia safely to Jamestown, arriving on October 3, 1609. This arrival was six weeks later than the other ships of the Third Supply that had not been 'captured' by the Bermuda hurricane of late July, 1609. The long travel time suggests that the Virginia may once again have been in tow behind a larger ship.
Afterwards, the Virginia with Captain Davis returned safely to England. The last known voyage of the Virginia was in 1610 when she once again delivered settlers and supplies to the Jamestown Colony. There is no mention of the Virginia afterward in known historical records.
, Sir Thomas Gates
and James Davis (mariner)
, captain of the "Gift of God" who possessed considerable ship building knowledge. This close dating estimate establishes that these two ships were the second constructions of pinnaces in the New World English colonies. Ships of the Third Supply
that escaped the terrible 3 day Bermuda hurricane brought few provisions to the Jamestown Colony as most supplies had been on the flagship Sea Venture. Under the command of the experienced and trusted Christopher Newport
, who had been the captain of the Sea Venture, Patience and Deliverance set sail for Virginia on May 11, 1610 and arrived at the Jamestown settlement on May 23, 1610, a journey of less than two weeks. Meanwhile in the fall of 1610, Sir George Somers
returned to Bermuda with the pinnace Patience to obtain wild pig and food that had been stockpiled for the Jamestown Colony by the passengers of the Sea Venture during their months on Bermuda. Unfortunately, Sir George died in Bermuda from a "surfeit of pork". The Patience captained by his nephew Mathew Somers returned to Lyme Regis
in Dorset, England. Aboard the flagship Sea Venture had been the expedition's specialist in growing tobacco. John Rolfe
lost his wife and young son while the Third Supply reorganized in Bermuda. Rolfe made his way to Virginia with 142 survivors aboard the Patience and Deliverance. Finally, Christopher Newport and a pinnace had delivered the salvation of the Jamestown Colony in what would be his last trip to the colony.
referred to a two masted sailing ship that was square rigged on the foremast, and fore and aft rigged on the main mast. The designation 'brig' did not exist until the early 18th century by which time the pinnace had been well known for at least a century and a half. By the late 17th century, a brigantine in the Royal Navy was a small, square rigged, two masted ship, that could be rowed as well as sailed. 'Brig' referred to any ship that was square rigged on both masts. When 'brig' and 'brigantine' were too widely applied, other possibilities for ship types were obscured. There is also the problem in sorting out what is meant by a 'barque' in the early 17th century. Note that the 'barque' or 'bark' rig as we understand it, was not known in the first half of the 17th century, and so exactly what is meant by a 'barque' is not clear. "When Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote of 'barques', he referred to ships that were both 'small' and 'large' and weighed 12 to 40 tons". thereby suggesting the two types of pinnace and their usual range in tonnage.
A second pinnace 'type' was often much larger than the first, and frequently carried enough cannon to be considered an (armed) merchantman, and/or fast and maneuverable small war ship. "The pinnace is perhaps the most confusing of all the early seventeenth-century types of vessels. Pinnace was more of a use than a type name, for almost any vessel could have been a pinnace or tender to a larger one. Generally speaking, pinnaces were lightly built, single-decked, square-sterned vessels suitable for exploring, trading, and light naval duties. On equal lengths, pinnaces tended to be narrower than other types. Although primarily sailing vessels, many pinnaces carried sweeps for moving in calms or around harbors." The rigs of pinnaces included the single-masted fore-and-aft rig with staysail and sprit mainsail to the mizzenmast, and a square sprit-sail under the bowsprit. To confuse matters further, however, open square sterned pulling boats were called pinnaces at least as early as 1626.
Often decked over, the 'small' pinnace was able to support a variety of rigs, each of which conferred maximum utility to specific missions be those fishing, cargo transport and storage, or open ocean voyaging. The mature 'small' pinnace design emerged as versatile with several different options and rigs possible. The expected popularity of the pinnace in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the first half of the 17th century is documented. By the 1630s, historical records mention many ships trading or fishing with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, some of which were also built in colony. Above all, the fishing trade had taken hold offshore New England and was immediately successful. The pinnace may have been the preferred, multi-use small ship of the first decades of English settlement in 'Virginia'.
Popham Colony
The Popham Colony was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America that was founded in 1607 and located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the Kennebec River by the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth...
. She was the first English-built ship in what is now Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and possibly in all of the English-colonized areas of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Little is known about the details of her architecture, but written accounts of the colony and historical records of similar ships suggest that Virginia was a pinnace that displaced about 30 tons and measured somewhat less than 50' (15m) long, with a beam of 14' 6" (4.42m). She had a flush main deck, drew about 6'6" (2m) fully loaded, and had a freeboard of less than 2' (0.6m).
A demonstration of the new colony's ability to build ships, Virginia was built at the mouth of the Kennebec River
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River is a river that is entirely within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward...
in what is now Phippsburg, Maine
Phippsburg, Maine
Phippsburg is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States, on the west side of the mouth of the Kennebec River. The population was 2,106 at the 2000 census. It is within the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical rea...
. The ship was a project of the Plymouth Company
Plymouth Company
The Plymouth Company was an English joint stock company founded in 1606 by James I of England with the purpose of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.The Plymouth Company was one of two companies, along with the London Company, chartered with such...
, branch of the proprietary Virginia Company
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...
, on land England claimed as belonging to the Virginia.
First ship built in America
The pinnace makes an appearance early in the European exploration of North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
The Popham Colony
Popham Colony
The Popham Colony was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America that was founded in 1607 and located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the Kennebec River by the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth...
was established in 1607 by the Virginia Company
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...
of Plymouth. It was also known as the Sagadahoc Colony, taking its name from the Abanaki word for the confluence of a river and the sea. At this time, all of eastern North America from Spanish Florida to New France (in Canada) was called 'Virginia' by England. The territory originally chartered to the Virginia Company of Plymouth extended from present day Delaware to New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
in the Canadian maritimes
Maritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...
, 38°N to 45°N. Leaving Plymouth England on May 31, 1607, 120 colonists arrived at the mouth of the Sagadahoc River on August 13, 1607 aboard the Gift of God, and on August 16, 1607 aboard the Mary and John. Popham Colony leader Sir George Popham
George Popham
George Popham was a pioneering colonist from Maine, born in the southwestern regions of England. He was an associate of English Colonizer Sir Ferdinando Gorges in a colonization scheme for a part of Maine....
was aboard the Gift of God, with Raleigh Gilbert second in command. Robert Davies was captain of the "Mary and John". The expedition had come to find gold, the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
, a river passage to China, to fish and hunt Beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
for fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
and to sell and prove that New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
forests could build English ships. Construction of Fort Saint George was begun immediately. On December 1, 1607, about half the men returned to England with Captain James Davis aboard "The Gift of God", a journey that took 53 days. It was hoped that by drastically reducing the colony's population: a) available food would last throughout the brutally cold winter; and b) the difficulty of trading with hostile Abanaki neighbors would be negated. With one exception ( Sir George Popham, leader of the colony died in February 1608), each of the colonists made it through the winter. A young, disinterested Raleigh Gilbert became the new governor. Captain James Davis, who commanded the short lived Fort St. George at the Popham Colony was to have a noteworthy career at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia.
The pinnace "Virginia" was first ship of noteworthy size for which solid evidence exists that she was built in America was a pinnace of the smaller type. Because plans of early 17th century British or American sailing vessels have not yet been found, reconstructing Virginia of Sagadahoc was a challenge. Nonetheless, there is historical information about the 'small' pinnace design that can be utilized, and from which a reasonable plan can be extrapolated. The choice to build a 'small' pinnace for the Popham Colony was a good one. Able to support at least three different rigs, the 'small' pinnace was very versatile and could be assigned to offshore fishing, the North Atlantic fishing grounds, or readied for a trans-Atlantic journey to England with equal ease.
Virginia's hull and rig
There is a very small 17th century sketch of a pinnace on J. Hunt's October 8, 1607 map of Fort St. George at the Popham ColonyPopham Colony
The Popham Colony was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America that was founded in 1607 and located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the Kennebec River by the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth...
in southern Maine - see the Info Box in this article. This boat is thought to be the 30 ton pinnace Virginia that was built in 1607–1608 at the Popham colony on the Sagadahoc River (now Kennebec River
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River is a river that is entirely within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward...
) in southern Maine. Assuredly, lofting was done by 'eye'. Assembly was done under the guidance of shipwright Mr. Digby; and James Davis (mariner)
James Davis (mariner)
James Davis was an English ship captain and author. He was part of the group of the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth which established the short-lived Popham Colony near present-day Phippsburg, Maine in August of 1607...
, Master of the "Gift of God".
Virginia would have been about 56' feet long with a beam of 15'5", a flush main deck that drew approximately 6'5" fully loaded, a free board of less than 2 feet, and weight of approximately 30 tons. Sketches of the replica's hull design and framing are online at the Maine First Ship website. For ocean voyages, the Virginia would likely have been rigged with a square-rigged main mast, a much smaller second mast that was gaff rig
Gaff rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar called the gaff...
ged, and a small square sail under the bowsprit
Bowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a pole extending forward from the vessel's prow. It provides an anchor point for the forestay, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull.-Origin:...
. The main mast on many pinnaces would have been large enough to carry a small topsail
Topsail
A topsail is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails.- Square rig :On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a square sail rigged above the course sail and below the topgallant sail where carried...
. Plans for Virginia that include a plausible rigging are available from the Maine Maritime Museum. For coastal work, Virginia would have used a fore and aft rig with a spirit mainsail
Mainsail
A mainsail is a sail located behind the main mast of a sailing vessel.On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast....
and one headsail. How the coastal rigging would have been changed for a cross-Atlantic voyage is not yet fully understood. In John Walker's drawing of the Virginia when rigged for a trans Atlantic voyage, an aft-rigged mizzen mast carries a sail that resembles a lateen
Lateen
A lateen or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction....
sail more closely than a spanker
Spanker (sail)
A spanker is either of two kinds of sail.On a square rigged ship, the spanker is a gaff rigged fore-and-aft sail set from and aft of the aftmost mast. Almost all square rigs with more than one mast have one or two spankers, which evolved from the driver sail. Some also carry a topsail above the...
.
A non-profit organization, Maine' First Ship - Reconstruct "Virginia" has been formed to build a reconstruction of Virginia on the grounds of the Bath Freight Shed in Bath, Maine
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...
. The organization educates people about Maine's role in early American and European history], the 400-year tradition of shipbuilding, and archeology.
A four-year building project of the "Virginia" began in July 2011 with two shipwrights, a teacher, a media specialist, fourteen high school students and many adult volunteers. The keel was laid on July 3, 2011.
This variety of rigs enabled the 'small' pinnaces of this era for several different assignments. They could be used as fishing boats, storage at anchor, tender to large ships or supply ships that were often towed to their destination by a larger ship.
Voyages of the Virginia
By the spring of 1608, gold had not been found at the Popham Coloony and relations with the local Abenaki were poor, although the colonists did manage to obtain some furs and sasparilla. On October 17, 1608, the Popham Colony was abandoned. News of his elder brother's death prompted Raleigh Gilbert to return to England aboard the "Mary and John" to claim his inheritance. Captain James Davis and 45 colonists who had found the food situation and climate unbearable packed into the "Virginia" and also returned to England.Structurally sound, the Virginia had more work to do. The background to these next expeditions was the new Charter of the Virginia Company
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...
, drafted by Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods...
and signed by King James I of England on May 23, 1609. This Charter granted a vast extension of territory and expanded powers to the Virginia Company. Virginia was one of two pinnaces and nine ships in the fleet known as the Third Supply
Third Supply
The Third Supply was the first truly successful wave of colonization in the first English settlement in the Americas, at Jamestown. It also resulted in the settlement of Bermuda ....
. With 5-600 people, the Third Supply left Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
, England on June 8, 1609 for the colony in Virginia by way of the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
and Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. The Virginia and one other pinnace were towed by the 300 ton flagship, Sea Venture
Sea Venture
The Sea Venture was a 17th-century English sailing ship, the wrecking of which in Bermuda is widely thought to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest...
which was the first single timbered, merchantman built in England, and also the first dedicated emigration ship.
After passing the Canary Islands, the fleet encountered a powerful 3-day hurricane which did serious damage to two ships. The "Catch" went down with all aboard lost, and the Sea Venture was heavily damaged. Sir George Somers and the Sea Venture had 'discovered' an uninhabited archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
that would later be named the Somers Isles then Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. Meanwhile, Captain James Davis (mariner)
James Davis (mariner)
James Davis was an English ship captain and author. He was part of the group of the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth which established the short-lived Popham Colony near present-day Phippsburg, Maine in August of 1607...
guided the Virginia safely to Jamestown, arriving on October 3, 1609. This arrival was six weeks later than the other ships of the Third Supply that had not been 'captured' by the Bermuda hurricane of late July, 1609. The long travel time suggests that the Virginia may once again have been in tow behind a larger ship.
Afterwards, the Virginia with Captain Davis returned safely to England. The last known voyage of the Virginia was in 1610 when she once again delivered settlers and supplies to the Jamestown Colony. There is no mention of the Virginia afterward in known historical records.
Patience and Deliverance in Bermuda
The second and third pinnaces built in the English colonies followed closely upon the construction of the "Virginia" at the Popham Colony in New England. Two pinnaces were built in Bermuda from local Bermuda cedar, which was a wood especially prized by regional ship builders because it was as strong as oak, yet lighter. This misnamed juniper species could be worked with immediately after felling, and it has high resistance to rot and wood worms. Materials salvaged from the beached wreck of the Sea Venture, the ill-fated flag ship of the Third Supply on its way to the Jamestown Colony, were also used. Patience and Deliverance were constructed between late fall 1609 and early spring 1610 under the guidance of the Virginia Company Admiral, Sir George SomersGeorge Somers
This article is about the English naval hero. For the American football player, see George Somers Admiral Sir George Somers was an English naval hero. Born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of John Somers, his first fame came as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston against the Spanish...
, Sir Thomas Gates
Thomas Gates (governor)
Sir Thomas Gates , followed George Percy as governor of Jamestown, the English colony of Virginia . Percy, through inept leadership, was responsible for the lives lost during the period called the Starving Time...
and James Davis (mariner)
James Davis (mariner)
James Davis was an English ship captain and author. He was part of the group of the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth which established the short-lived Popham Colony near present-day Phippsburg, Maine in August of 1607...
, captain of the "Gift of God" who possessed considerable ship building knowledge. This close dating estimate establishes that these two ships were the second constructions of pinnaces in the New World English colonies. Ships of the Third Supply
Third Supply
The Third Supply was the first truly successful wave of colonization in the first English settlement in the Americas, at Jamestown. It also resulted in the settlement of Bermuda ....
that escaped the terrible 3 day Bermuda hurricane brought few provisions to the Jamestown Colony as most supplies had been on the flagship Sea Venture. Under the command of the experienced and trusted Christopher Newport
Christopher Newport
Christopher Newport was an English seaman and privateer. He is best known as the captain of the Susan Constant, the largest of three ships which carried settlers for the Virginia Company in 1607 on the way to find the settlement at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, which became the first permanent...
, who had been the captain of the Sea Venture, Patience and Deliverance set sail for Virginia on May 11, 1610 and arrived at the Jamestown settlement on May 23, 1610, a journey of less than two weeks. Meanwhile in the fall of 1610, Sir George Somers
George Somers
This article is about the English naval hero. For the American football player, see George Somers Admiral Sir George Somers was an English naval hero. Born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of John Somers, his first fame came as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston against the Spanish...
returned to Bermuda with the pinnace Patience to obtain wild pig and food that had been stockpiled for the Jamestown Colony by the passengers of the Sea Venture during their months on Bermuda. Unfortunately, Sir George died in Bermuda from a "surfeit of pork". The Patience captained by his nephew Mathew Somers returned to Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border...
in Dorset, England. Aboard the flagship Sea Venture had been the expedition's specialist in growing tobacco. John Rolfe
John Rolfe
John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.In 1961, the Jamestown...
lost his wife and young son while the Third Supply reorganized in Bermuda. Rolfe made his way to Virginia with 142 survivors aboard the Patience and Deliverance. Finally, Christopher Newport and a pinnace had delivered the salvation of the Jamestown Colony in what would be his last trip to the colony.
Mult-task, Multi-use
Identification of some pinnaces in contemporary historical documents is often difficult because there was no standardization of pinnace design, be the type 'small' or 'large'. Furthermore, several ship type and rig terms were used in the 17th century, but with very different definitions than applied today. Re-assessment of the design of some 17th century ships not designated 'pinnace sometimes uncovers the unexpected. For example, in the 17th century, brigantineBrigantine
In sailing, a brigantine or hermaphrodite brig is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged.-Origins of the term:...
referred to a two masted sailing ship that was square rigged on the foremast, and fore and aft rigged on the main mast. The designation 'brig' did not exist until the early 18th century by which time the pinnace had been well known for at least a century and a half. By the late 17th century, a brigantine in the Royal Navy was a small, square rigged, two masted ship, that could be rowed as well as sailed. 'Brig' referred to any ship that was square rigged on both masts. When 'brig' and 'brigantine' were too widely applied, other possibilities for ship types were obscured. There is also the problem in sorting out what is meant by a 'barque' in the early 17th century. Note that the 'barque' or 'bark' rig as we understand it, was not known in the first half of the 17th century, and so exactly what is meant by a 'barque' is not clear. "When Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote of 'barques', he referred to ships that were both 'small' and 'large' and weighed 12 to 40 tons". thereby suggesting the two types of pinnace and their usual range in tonnage.
A second pinnace 'type' was often much larger than the first, and frequently carried enough cannon to be considered an (armed) merchantman, and/or fast and maneuverable small war ship. "The pinnace is perhaps the most confusing of all the early seventeenth-century types of vessels. Pinnace was more of a use than a type name, for almost any vessel could have been a pinnace or tender to a larger one. Generally speaking, pinnaces were lightly built, single-decked, square-sterned vessels suitable for exploring, trading, and light naval duties. On equal lengths, pinnaces tended to be narrower than other types. Although primarily sailing vessels, many pinnaces carried sweeps for moving in calms or around harbors." The rigs of pinnaces included the single-masted fore-and-aft rig with staysail and sprit mainsail to the mizzenmast, and a square sprit-sail under the bowsprit. To confuse matters further, however, open square sterned pulling boats were called pinnaces at least as early as 1626.
Often decked over, the 'small' pinnace was able to support a variety of rigs, each of which conferred maximum utility to specific missions be those fishing, cargo transport and storage, or open ocean voyaging. The mature 'small' pinnace design emerged as versatile with several different options and rigs possible. The expected popularity of the pinnace in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the first half of the 17th century is documented. By the 1630s, historical records mention many ships trading or fishing with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, some of which were also built in colony. Above all, the fishing trade had taken hold offshore New England and was immediately successful. The pinnace may have been the preferred, multi-use small ship of the first decades of English settlement in 'Virginia'.
External links
- Popham Colony
- Captain James Davis, 1580-1623: The Early Settlement of New England & Virginia
- "The Sailing Ships of New England, 1607-1907", by John Robinson and George Francis Dow, Marine Research Society, Salem, Massachusetts: 1922.
- The 1606/1607 Voyage To Virginia.
- Surviving Sketch of the Virginia
- Building a Replica of the “Virginia.”
- The Pinnace Virginia Building project video
- Sailing Ship Rigs
- Maine's First Ship - a project to reconstruct Virginia
- How the Virginia was Built, A speculaltive reconstruction.
- English Expeditions to Powhatan Country
- The 1606/1607 Voyage To Virginia
Further reading
- History of the Popham Colony 1.
- History of Popham Colony 2.
- Maine's Popham Colony by William H. Tabor, Athena Review 3(2).
- Pinnace Virginia at Maine Penobscot Marine Museum.
- Pinnace Virginia model on display.
- Learn More about Virginia (pinnace).
- Catalog of Plans of historic boats and ships.
- The Ship's pinnace in Cook's Bay (ie HMS Endeavor, replica)