A dozen young adventurers hopped a 17th-century workboat this weekend to retrace Captain John Smith’s 1608 exploration of the Chesapeake Bay.
The crew will row and sail 1,500 miles this summer in a shallop, a replica of a craft like the one Smith and 14 English explorers set out in on one of the most important voyages in American history.
Their expedition inaugurates the newly created Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.
The crew, which last month studied the Jamestown settlers’ narratives, will attempt to complete the voyage in 121 days and return to Jamestown by Sept. 8. The shallop will stop in 28 cities in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware and visit Washington in time for the Folklife Festival on the Mall.
In 1608, Smith’s expedition spent three months seeking gold, silver or a route to the Pacific Ocean.
Smith’s voyage produced a remarkable survey of the region, opening it to thousands of European settlers, altering forever the face of the Bay and changing the lives of those living around it.
