BATH, Maine — After more than two decades of research, fundraising and labor, a re-creation of Maine’s first ocean-going ship will hit the water just in time for the state’s bicentennial in June 2020. That’s the plan, at least.
There’s lots of work to be done before the wooden, 50-foot pinnace Virginia is ready to slip into the Kennebec River and sail. It still needs more hull caulking, a lead weight for the keel and watertight decking.
“Basically, we’ve got to be able to keep the water out,” lead shipwright Rob Stevens said last week. Stevens oversees the small navy of volunteer shipbuilders working on the boat since 2011.
The original Virginia was built at the Popham Colony in Phippsburg during the winter of 1607-08. The colony marked the first serious attempt at a permanent European settlement in Maine. The ship was built to explore and exploit the coast. Despite the significance, the Virginia — and the Popham colonists who built it — are not well known outside history nerd circles. Volunteers building the new ship hope their vessel will change that.
In August 1607, a group of 120 English men and boys arrived at the mouth of the Kennebec River and began building their settlement. It was the sister colony to Jamestown, started a few months earlier in Virginia.
“The purpose was to make money. It was not a religious colony,” Stevens said, in contrast to the better known Pilgrims of Plymouth. They would arrive in the New World 13 years later.
Popham colonists hoped to find gold, silver, timber, furs and perhaps the Northwest Passage. George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert were in charge. The colony was partly financed and named for Popham’s father, Sir John Popham.
The first thing they built was a fort. The second, was the Virginia. They probably started in October and were finished by the time a supply ship arrived in April 1608.
It was no small task without power tools or electric lights.
“They only had hand tools — and no cover,” Maine’s First Ship board president Orman Hines said, sitting next to a kerosene heater earlier this month. “They were right out in the cold.”
The colonists had to cut and shape their own timber but probably brought sails and cordage with them. They also brought a shipwright named Digby. He was in charge of creating the vessel. It had to be seaworthy and suitable for exploring Maine’s jagged coastline.
At the time, the English called the entire eastern coast of North America by the name Virginia. That’s how the ship got its name.
“These ships were the most complicated thing built by man at the time,” said Jim Nelson, lead rigger on the Virginia project.
Nelson is in charge of hand building the tangle of lines that will support the mast and control the sails on the new Virginia.
Over the winter, while the first boat was under construction, Popham died and Gilbert took charge of the colony. He was just 25 and was not supported by all the colonists. In the spring, a supply ship brought word that Gilbert’s father had died and he was due a large inheritance
With Popham dead, Gilbert set for life and no gold or silver to be found in Phippsburg, the decision was made to abandon the colony. All they managed to send back to England were a few beaver pelts and a boatload of wild sarsaparilla.
In October 1608, settlers boarded the Virginia and another boat and sailed home. After that, the Popham Colony sank into obscurity while Jamestown, its sister to the south, rose in fame.
The next year, in 1609, the Virginia sailed to Jamestown with some of the same men who’d tried to settle in Maine. Then, the little ship — the first ocean-going ship built in Maine — vanished from history.
Starting in 1994, a series of archaeological digs revealed the site of the long-forgotten Popham Colony. That sparked interest in building another Virginia. The original plan was to have it ready for the colony’s 400th birthday in 2007. That didn’t happen but the idea wouldn’t die.
“We just figured: Hey, as long as it takes,” Stevens said.
The keel was finally laid in 2011, on the banks of the Kennebec River in Bath, just a few miles upriver from where the first version was built. Since then, a steadfast handful of volunteers has pecked away at it, two days a week.
“Every Wednesday and Saturday, there’s a dozen people here,” Stevens said.
The volunteers are a diverse group.
“We’ve got engineers, a landscape architect, two cooks, a sign painter, computer people, an Outward Bound instructor and an insurance man,” Stevens said. “And we have a concert violinist and I can’t believe she’s willing to risk her hands here.”
Before it could be re-built, design plans had to be drawn up. That proved to be difficult as not much is known about the original Virginia. No plans, a few descriptions and one drawing are all that remain in the historical record. That’s why they’re calling it a re-creation and not a replica. It’s a best-educated-guess kind of thing.
One description of the Virginia stated that it was a 30-ton ship. That refers to volume — not weight — and gave designers a decent idea of size. As for sail configuration, they know what other typical ships of that size looked like from detailed period paintings.
The new Virginia will be just over 50 feet long and, at 36 tons, be slightly wider than its namesake. It’s nearly-finished hull is made of inch-and-a-half thick white oak planks. Eventually, it will sport six sails and carry 36 passengers and crew on day trips down the river. The Virginia will conform to all U.S. Coast Guard safety regulations and, unlike the original, have a motor.
Hines can’t wait to finally see it in the water.
“It’s going to be amazing,” he said. “When we started, we didn’t have much of anything. Raising money is not easy but we’ve been able to bring in $70,000 to $100,000 a year for eight years or so, making this possible.”
All the money has come from private grants and individual donations.
The next big task will be to get it in the water. Nobody’s quite sure of the method they’ll use or where it will be tied up while they finish fitting it out.
“We’d like to put a dock right out here but it’s probably outside our budget right now,” Hines said.
Once finished, the Virginia will be a living history lesson. It will help tell the story of the Popham Colony and England’s first attempt to colonize Maine. It’s a tale with which few Mainers are familiar.
“Very little is known about the Popham Colony — even here in Maine — and it’s an important part of our history,” Nelson said. “In terms of bringing that history to the public, nothing could be more perfect than this ship. Once this ship spends some time sailing up and down the coast, people are going to know all about the Popham Colony.”
Fishermen and explorers such as John Smith and Verazzano had come before but no one tried to stay before Popham. Though it ultimately failed, the colony is a marker between exploration and settlement.
“It was really the first step toward colonization here — which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective,” Nelson said, refering to the Native American genocide that was to follow. “Either way, it’s history. It’s what happened.”
Stevens said the project is historically significant, but he also has personal reasons for spending so much time building the Virginia.
“I can tell you why I’m doing this: Traditional wooden boats are magical,” Stevens said, “and if I build a yacht, I’ll make one family happy. If I build this, hundreds and hundreds of people are going to get to enjoy it.”