ROCKPORT (AP) – Two boatyards up the coast from the spot where Maine’s shipbuilding tradition was born in 1607 are working on new likenesses of two ships that carried the founders of the Jamestown colony, the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

The latest vessels to bear the names Godspeed and Discovery are being built for the Jamestown Settlement living history museum in Virginia in time to take part in the 400th anniversary celebration next year.

The larger of the two, the 65-foot Godspeed, is a three-masted square-rigger that will be launched Saturday in Penobscot Bay near Rockport Marine, the yard where it was built.

Discovery, at 50 feet the smallest of the colonists’ three ships, is scheduled to be completed at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard later this year.

The Godspeed, Discovery and a third ship, the Susan Constant, arrived in America 13 years before Pilgrims arrived aboard the Mayflower at what is now Plymouth, Mass.

Because there are no known illustrations or blueprints of the Godspeed or its sister ships, the California-based naval architect based the design on that of ships from the early 17th century and documentation that the original Godspeed could carry 40 tons of cargo and passengers. A design researcher in England pored through shipbuilding treatises and port records of the period to glean more information.

“Nobody knows exactly what these boats looked like. That’s why we call them representative vessels, rather than replicas,” said John England, Rockport Marine’s project manager for the 18-month build.

Jamestown was settled the same year that English colonists arrived at Popham, at the mouth of Maine’s Kennebec River, but they abandoned that settlement after the harsh winter of 1607-08. To make the return trip home, they built the 50-foot pinnace Virginia, marking the start of English shipbuilding in America.

A campaign is under way in Maine to raise $2.2 million to build a replica of the Virginia to help celebrate next year’s 400th anniversary of the Popham settlement.

An official of Virginia’s state-owned Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, which is funding much of the Godspeed’s $2.64 million cost, said the agency was impressed by the heritage of Maine’s wooden boatbuilders and their reputation for quality craftsmanship.

Maine became a center of America’s boatbuilding during the age of sail thanks to its location on the coast and its plentiful tall pines.

But the new Godspeed and Discovery won’t be built from Maine trees. The vessels they’re replacing deteriorated in a Virginia climate that combines hot, moist summers and cold, dry winters, according to Eric Speth, the foundation’s director of maritime programs.

So the new ships, along with a replica of the Susan Constant that was built in 1991, are made from rot-resistant tropical hardwoods imported from Suriname. In place of steel fasteners, builders used longer-lasting ones made of bronze.

England is no stranger to such work, having been part of the team in North Carolina that built a similar reproduction of Elizabeth II, the ship that in 1585 transported Sir Walter Raleigh’s settlers to Roanoke and what became known as the Lost Colony.

To England, whose customary business is building strong but lightweight yachts through a “cold molding” technique in which layers of wood veneers are laminated together, the biggest challenge in working on ships like Godspeed is “the weight issue.”

“Everything is heavy. All the timbers on the boat are heavy. It takes two guys to pick up a piece of the framing stock,” England said. “But it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a guy to work on what we call a double-sawn frame vessel.”

That construction technique incorporates the use of double-layered frame components fastened together with wooden pegs.

The ship’s eye-catching colors include a red and off-white diamond pattern on the quarterdeck bulwarks, a black hull below the waterline, brown above it, and accents of narrow gold striping.

The new Godspeed is considerably larger than the replica it will replace at the Jamestown Pier, but visitors who climb aboard can only wonder what it was like for the 52 men and boys who sailed across the Atlantic to be confined to such cramped quarters for nearly five months on a ship that also carried tons of supplies and perhaps some livestock.

The new vessel will include modern equipment and amenities, including twin diesel engines, a full galley with a propane gas stove and refrigerator-freezer, and a head in the forward section that includes a shower.

Those features, along with the vessel’s electronic gear, will be hidden from view behind panels. The only modern shipboard fixtures in open view are the aluminum handrails installed for safety reasons along hatches and companionways.

After the launching Saturday, builders will spend several weeks outfitting and rigging the Godspeed, which will then undergo sea trials prior to the nine-day voyage to its Virginia home. Plans call for the ship to visit several East Coast ports on a three-month swing beginning in May to promote the 2007 anniversary celebration.

England’s daughter Suzanne, a 20-year-old college student, will christen the Godspeed by cracking a bottle of champagne across the bow.

“The protocol then was to pour some wine over the stem, but up here we like breaking bottles,” her father said.

—

On the Net: http://www.historyisfun.org/

Copy the Story Link