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September 23, 2007
Aboard the Godspeed
Recently, I spent a week in another world: sailing as a volunteer crewman aboard Godpseed.
The ship is a replica of one of three vessels that sailed from England to Jamestown in 1607, where they founded the the first permanent British colony in North America. I produced a documentary on the construction of the ship, Godspeed to Jamestown, that aired in 2005. That’s how I got a chance to serve on the ship's crew for the first leg of a two week journey to several ports in the Chesapeake Bay, where the ship was open to the public, this being the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.
Captain Eric Speth and the three mates all work full time for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. Everybody else was a volunteer. The crew ranged from 26 to 78, and there were a couple of guys in their late 60’s who went aloft every day to unfurl and furl the sails. The picture at right shows a 68 year old grandfather, Tony Flores, scampering up the lines to unfurl the sails. What an inspiration!!
Most of the crew slept in the main cabin. I had an upper bunk with a good 18” of clearance between my nose and the deck above! Still, our living conditions were 100 times better than those of the folks who crossed the Atlantic on the original ship. Each bunk had a fan and an electric light. We had 13 people sleeping aboard instead of 52 on the original journey. And we had a great cook (Noel, a retired insurance broker) who made each meal a pleasure.
It was an amazing journey with a tremendous bunch of folks, and I will deal with some of the aspects of it in further posts.
Posted by rickbeyer at September 23, 2007 09:26 PM
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