Project Retraces Early Voyage

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Chestertown's Sultana Projects, Inc., are joining forces to commemorate the upcoming 400th anniversary of John Smith's voyages to the Chesapeake Bay and to launch the Sultana's Captain John Smith Four-Hundred Project.

As part of the initiative, Sultana Projects is constructing a full-scale replica of Smith's "Discovery Barge," the 30-foot open boat—or "shallop"—used during his voyages, using research compiled by Kees de Mooy '01, Program Manager at the C.V. Starr Center. The vessel will be built at the Sultana Shipyard in Chestertown, using 17th-century tools and construction techniques. Upon its completion, the shallop will be exhibited in museums throughout the Chesapeake region during 2006 before setting out to retrace the route of Smith's expeditions in the summer of 2007. Schoolchildren from across the region will follow the Project through an educational curriculum being developed by Sultana Projects in conjunction with the Maryland State Department of Education and the Friends of the Chesapeake National Water Trail.

On June 2, 1608, Captain John Smith and fourteen English colonists set out on a journey to explore and map the Chesapeake Bay. Covering more than 1,700 miles in just over three months, Smith and his men saw a Chesapeake Bay that is scarcely imaginable today, with its ecosystem intact and a multitude of Native American cultures thriving along its shores. Smith's famous 1612 map resulting from these explorations was the first accurate depiction of the Chesapeake and his notes describing the indigenous people and the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem are still widely studied by historians, environmental scientists, and anthropologists.