speed and their sister ship,

speed and their sister ship, my memory flipped back a few pages to a lesson I’d learned as a teenager. Crossing the Pacific Ocean on a military transport, I remembered being told over and over again that what I was on was a ship, not a boat. Only ships crossed the ocean, tie naval experts told me, boats stayed closer to home.

Following that line of thought, I guess the three vessels that carried over 100 colonists to the New World would rank as ships. But you could have fooled me. They were certainly flimsy excuses for ocean going transports. Hard to believe that the Jamestown three made it over the Atlantic while the Titantic sank.

With a crew and a few passengers, I might have braved a Rappahannock pond on the largest of the three ships but only in calm weather.

We weren’t allowed below decks but looking down the hatchway, we could see the narrow bunks where passengers slept during their four-and-a-half month ordeal. It was hardly a pleasure cruise, particularly for anyone much over five-foot, six-inches. Judging from the length of the bunks, the taller colonists slept with their knees shoved up against their chests.

Faced with debtor’s prison or a second chance in the colonies, I think I’d have opted for life behind bars every time before setting foot on a ship’s deck.

With wind whistling off the James and the sun playing hide and seek behind clouds, no one in our Rappahannock contingent lingered on the dock. We hustled into the exhibition building for a quick look at 200 years of Virginia history in photographs, drawings and slides.

Historic Squalor From there it was just a short walk through the woods to a replica of the Jamestown fort where our forefathers lived and labored in anything but splendor. Home to the colonists was a collection of

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