Jamestown Sails Up the East Coast

I've shared about our trip to Jamestown, VA in April here, along with some links to lesson plans and information about the 400th anniversary of the landing. Part of the 400th anniversary celebration has been the sailing of the replica Godspeed up the East Coast. A week ago the boat was docked at Penn's Landing and the public was able to go on board. Each group of about 20 people was guided by one of the crew that works as an interpreter at Jamestown Settlement. Our guide was excellent. He told us about navigation, the reason for the trip, life on board the ship and life in the first week of arriving at Jamestown. The ship was smaller than I thought it would be- hardly seemed like enough room for as many people as it carried. It was beautiful though.

We also visited the NPS tent with a video from Discovery Channel about how the replica was built (facinating) and a representation of what the hold looked like. The interpreter in this area was full of information as well. As usual, the more you ask the more they tell you. Once they get the idea that you are really interested in this stuff they explain things in greater detail. Another bonus was it was air-conditioned.

Outside the tent we also learned to make different knots from the man in this picture. He even showed my husband and I a quick way to make some pretty good handcuffs should we need to restrain the children. :) Next to him was a table full of broken pottery. It was your typical "learn to be an archaeologist" kind of display. We had seen it many times before, but my children still enjoyed it. It did seem like a lot of pieces were missing, so it wasn't very satisfying, but I guess that makes it more authentic.

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• jamestown
• history
• colonial