CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO: ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HISTORY? TAKE A LIFE, SAVE A LIFE.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO: ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HISTORY? TAKE A LIFE, SAVE A LIFE.

We’re in the cradle of America here at the Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake, Virginia. Relatively short drives take you to the Dismal Swamp, Sir Walter Raleigh’s “Lost Colony” on Roanoke, the Jamestown Settlement, Yorktown Battlefield, Fort Monroe, Williamsburg, William and Mary – and WaWa. What? Is not WaWa an American original? “WaWa” is an Algonquian term meaning “Italian hoagies with hot pepper and mayo.” Really – the Admiral himself vouches for this translation. And the Algonquian/Italian connection has been overlooked in American history, but just remember a guy from Genoa named Cristopher Columbus, and it all makes sense.

There will be plenty of history in this chapter – mind-boggling history about the Jamestown Settlement and uplifting history about the Life Saving Service (USLSS) at Chicamacomico on the Outer Banks (OBX). Chicamacomico is another Algonquian term, meaning “the land of shifting sands.”  But first, why are we exploring the landscape and not the seascape this week? Easy – Slow Motion needs a checkup and a rest. We have been running her hard since Key Largo in mid-April, and it’s time for some maintenance. We thought we would have to get her pulled near Morehead City, but we dodged that bullet and rocked our way across Albemarle Sound to get to the capable crew at Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB). We lost our passenger, Carol V., at Swansboro, because it looked certain we would limp into a boatyard for a week near there. However, with the weather cooperating somewhat, we decided it would be better to press on to a place with more expertise and better rates (AYB). We miss Carol, but she probably does not miss the rough Albemarle crossing. It was the worst we have yet endured. Somehow, Slo Mo held up through these nasty seas. And while she gets her needed maintenance and rest, we get to return to our roots, the places where the idea of America first took hold. If you like a whitewashed version of American history, this Blog is not your cup of tea. A la Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker and historian (Democracy in America), I am looking at our beginnings from a great distance – he from his French culture and I from my 68 years of living through the darkly passive Eisenhower 50’s, the riotous 60’s of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, the era of greed under Reagan and Bush, and the age of income inequality we currently “enjoy”.

Let’s start with the Jamestown Settlement. First, a nod to the producers of this fantastic museum – it is top-notch. The museum is run by the State of Virginia. A group called Preservation Virginia (formerly known as The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) got the ball rolling in the latter part of the 19^th century. Where did the money come from for this opulent set of displays? And what about the construction of three replica ships, the Susan Constant, the Discovery and the Godspeed? Gallagher and Associates, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Singapore, did the design work, but who paid them? They also designed part of the National Museum of Natural History, the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum (which is great), the National World War II Museum, the Kentucky Derby Museum, as well as the Vault of the Secret Formula of Coca Cola (who knew there was a vault?). The list goes on. If you live near a Gallagher designed museum, run, do not walk, to visit it. What a treat! And please, please don’t tell me that this treasure is funded by the Koch Brothers. It’s way too “fair and balanced”. It starts with the premise that three “peoples” contributed equally to the life, culture, history and traditions of Virginia – the Native Americans, the Europeans, and the Africans (although most of them were dragged here against their will). And the museum is divided into three major sections about each of these groups and their accomplishments. So the party line of the museum appears to be that immigration and assimilation do work – if you’re willing to overlook the decimation of the Native American population by the Europeans and the enslavement of the African population by, you know, the Europeans.

So now let’s look at the Europeans’ first major foothold in what later became the 13 original colonies, the Jamestown Settlement. It was started in 1607 by intrepid men and boys sponsored by the Virginia Company of London (aka London Company). “Virginia” – this word has an interesting origin. Elizabeth I never married, and so she was dubbed “The Virgin Queen”. For her sake, let’s hope she fooled everyone and had a great sex life. But I get it. When I first learned about menstruation, I insisted right in the middle of my 8^th grade health class that not all women menstruated, as evidenced by my neighbor, Mrs. Witteman, who had no children. So if you can still have that kind of ignorance in the 1950’s about sex and reproduction, imagine what people (even very intelligent 8^th graders) thought about unmarried women with no children in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Elizabeth I ruled from November 17 1558 until her death in 1603. So she was not around to wave goodbye to the first Jamestown settlers, as they set off from England. However, the territory they intended to steal from the Native Americans, er, I mean, “settle”, was already called “Virginia”. Elizabeth I had given her good friend (with benefits, I’m told), Walter Raleigh, a charter to plant a colony north of Spanish Florida. This was in 1583. He moved on that charter in 1584 by sending an expedition to the Atlantic Coast to the area around Roanoke, North Carolina.

According to some historians, either Walter Raleigh or Elizabeth herself came up with the moniker “Virginia” to encompass the entire coastal territory from South Carolina to Maine, as well as the island of Bermuda. Nothing like an inside joke between the two buddies. Then again, there is another competing version of how Virginia got its name, according to Wikipedia. Apparently there was a Native American word “Wingandacoa”, or “Wingina” , which also described this territory. The “Virgin Queen” version is sexier, and after all, Virginia is for Lovers, according to all the bumper stickers in the Dominion. If you don’t remember this from your history, Raleigh’s efforts failed – in 1587  Raleigh’s 119 settlers just disappeared. They are referred to as “The Lost Colony” or the  Roanoke Colony. There are many, many hypotheses about their “disappearance” – they joined Native American tribes, they relocated, they died at sea trying to return to England, they were destroyed by Powhatan’s tribe, they were killed by the Spanish – and not one hypothesis has been proven. Sure, there were alleged sightings of “grey eyed Indians”, but give me a break. Suffice it to say, the Roanoke settlers were nowhere to be found when the London Company sent its first group of colonists to settle Virginia in 1607.

Here’s the Newport news about the origin of the Jamestown Settlement. The London Company granted land rights, which it had received from King James I, Elizabeth’s successor, in 1606, to a select group of adventuresome males. Christopher Newport was designated the leader of the mission and he sailed with 105 men and boys and 39 crew members to the Atlantic Coast, where they eventually landed at the James River  and established the first settlement on May 13, 1607. There were no women or girls in that first contingent – not hardy enough, according to the mistaken sexist beliefs of the organizers. If Liz One were still alive, I bet she would have sailed along with Newport to make her mark in the “New World” (to us, not to the native Americans of course). Captain John Smith was among the first group of colonists. He had been arrested for mutiny on the way across the Atlantic, and he was scheduled to be hanged, once they landed. However, funny story, the Virginia Company had sent along sealed orders, which were opened before Smith was hanged. The orders said Captain Smith was to be a member of the Governing Council of settlers. Voila! Captain Newport freed Smith to carry out that duty, and, for some reason, his mutinous behavior was rarely, if ever discussed in our history books. So all you mutinous types with unsavory backgrounds, just come to the New World and re-invent yourself as an American Hero – don’t forget the sealed envelope.

The men and boys who first settled Jamestown came from all over what is now Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland) and from some European countries as well. I don’t know how they were selected, and the museum exhibits did not enlighten me on this issue. But according to one of the sources on the Jamestown Settlement, there were very few skilled workers (4 carpenters, 2 bricklayers, a mason and a blacksmith) in the group, and that shortage of skilled settlers, along with disease, illness, lack of food, difficult relations with the Powhatan Native Americans, contributed to the almost overwhelming hardships faced by the colonists in their first year. Only 38 of the original 104 men and boys who landed in Jamestown to settle it lived there more than 8 months. The rest died. Contrast this meager number with the robust Native American population which lived in the Jamestown area. The Powhatans called this area “Tsenacommacah”, which means “densely inhabited area”. What irony! Nearly 20,000 Powhatan tribe members lived in this part of the “New World” when the small contingent of colonists arrived from England. And these Native Americans did not have any food supply problems, nor were they plagued by disease – until the Europeans arrived.

Historians like to discuss why the Virginia Company wanted to develop a settlement in the Jamestown area. They offer many reasons. Chief among them are the following: 1) This Company was a private for-profit, stock holding business.  It was looking to may a profit from the resources of the “New World”. It expected to find gold and other valuable minerals, such as iron ore. It was going to make money on timber and wood products too. First and foremost, the Company was looking for a lucrative return on its relatively small investment of men and supplies. 2) The Company was still looking for a route to the Orient, the fabled “Northwest Passage” sought by most early explorers. 3) They wanted to prevent Spain –England’s main rival -- from spreading into this area and taking all the natural resources. 4) They wanted to stop the march of Catholicism across this territory with their own brand of Protestant Christianity. 5) They wanted to “convert” the Native Americans to the Protestant faith, as the Spaniards had tried to convert all the Native Americans they subjugated to Catholicism. 6) They instructed the settlers to search for the Roanoke colonists who had disappeared 17 years earlier. This search for members of the “Lost Colony” was pretty much an afterthought. Profit was the main motive stimulating the Virginia Company and its stock holders.

It is very interesting that the official flyer on the Jamestown Settlement is highly critical of the profit motive of the Virginia Company and how the demand for a return on their investment made them turn a blind eye to the suffering and privation of the first colonists. The flyer reads: “It is hard to overstate just how desperate the early years were at Jamestown. By 1619 disease and malnutrition had taken all but 1,000 of those who had come to Virginia, and those threats ravaged the population for the next five years. While poor leadership, an unhealthy environment, the worst drought in 800 years, and conflict with the Powhatan tribes played a part, the nature of the enterprise weakened the settlement. For its backers, the Virginia Company of London, this was a business venture to exploit Virginia’s natural resources.” (Emphasis added)

There is no way to sugar coat the fact that the settlers who survived their first few winters at Jamestown had to kill and eat their horses to do so. They also killed and ate a 14 year old girl, “Jane”, according to a display in the Voorhees Archaearium in historic Jamestown. To prove this allegation of cannibalism, the Archaearium has put on display in one of its room the bones of “Jane”, which were excavated from the land of the original settlement. The markings on the bones, particularly 4 scrape/dent marks on her forehead, convinced the archeologists that “Jane”, determined to be a young girl of about 14 years of age, was killed and eaten by other colonists. “Jane” is the only physical evidence presented of the settlers’ cannibalism, but I have not found any refutations of the assertion that the colonists were so desperate for food that they started eating other colonists. Women and girls first came to the settlement in October 1608, when Miss Forrest and her maid, Ann Burras, arrived. Generally, the women who came were married and arrived with their husbands or they were servants for the married women. I would venture a guess that “Jane” was a servant.

What saved the Jamestown Settlement? Certainly, the largesse of the Native American chieftain, Wahunsonacock, and his relatives and tribal members made a great contribution to the settlers. With their greater numbers, they could have killed the colonists when they first arrived. However, Chief Wahunsonacock, whom we call Powhatan (the name of the tribe he came from), was not that simple-minded or murderous. Oh sure, he captured some of the early settlers, including Captain John Smith, but he also responded favorably to some of Smith’s requests for assistance. This is not to say that the relations between the colonists and the Powhatans (the name also used to describe the tribe) were tranquil all the time. In fact, they were not, but in the early years, Captain Smith and Chief Powhatan were able to forge a bond through trade and diplomacy, which was beneficial to both sides. And, of course we all know some version of the story of Pocahontas, aka Matoaka aka Rebecca Rolfe, the daughter of Chief Powhatan who was captured by the settlers in 1613 when she was 16, married John Rolfe, a colonist, 2 years later, and was taken to England by him and paraded around as a “civilized savage” in order to stimulate investment in the Jamestown Colony. Profit motive!!! This is not to denigrate Pocahontas, who certainly made the best of her captivity and who decided, apparently on her own, to stay with the settlers even though at some point she was given the chance to return to her family. Rather, this historical footnote shows the determination of the Virginia Company managers to use whatever tools available – including an “Indian Princess” – to make the Jamestown Settlement profitable.

By the way, the story about Pocahontas saving John Smith by throwing herself on him, when the Powhatans were going to chop his head off? For 250 years the story went unquestioned. Then in the mid-19^th century two historians, Charles Deane and Henry Adams (yes, of the original Adams family), did their best to prove it was bunk. But more recently, Smith’s story of Pocahontas’s intervention to save his life has been considered true, as historians like Stan Birchfield of Stanford, have in turn debunked the biased research and statements of Deane and Adams. See “Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith?” by Stan Birchfield, who cites the treatise of Professor J.A. Leo Lemay of the University of Delaware on the subject.

Okay, Pocahontas apparently saved Captain John Smith, but what saved the Jamestown Settlement economically? TOBACCO. The husband of Pocahontas, John Rolfe, noted that the Native Americans were growing a species of tobacco successfully and realized that there was a growing demand for tobacco in England. He somehow got seeds for the tobacco grown in Spanish colonies in Trinidad and South America. This tobacco was much sweeter and more to the taste of the English. This was no mean task, since the Spanish rulers tried to prevent anyone from stealing their tobacco seeds by making the sale of these seeds to a non-Spaniard a death penalty crime. So credit (or blame) John Rolfe for founding the tobacco industry in America. The popularity of tobacco (it’s addictive, after all) gave Jamestown a stable economy, so that its people could start building a society, not just living from hand to mouth. Too bad the miracle crop was the “evil weed” and not something healthy like soy beans. Curse you, John Rolfe, for getting the early colonists addicted to both growing and smoking tobacco. Even though you got the idea from the Native American tobacco growers, you’re the one that convinced the colonists to plant nearly all their acres with tobacco. I’m surprised the country is not smoking “John Rolfe”, rather than Philip Morris (owned by Altria, maker of Marlboros).

I wish I could end this brief history of the Jamestown Settlement on a happier note, but there you have it – a bunch of tobacco growing cannibals. It was George Percy, president of Jamestown during the “starvation period”, who wrote in 1625 that the hunger was so great “that notheinge was Spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things which seame incredible, as to digge upp dead corpes out of graves and to eate them.” In a May 1, 2013 New York Times article on cannibalism in Jamestown, written Nicholas Wade, he offers the following: “It is unclear how the girl [“Jane” – see above] died, but she was almost certainly dead and buried before her remains were butchered.” “Almost certainly dead” – how comforting. Move over, Donner Party, make room for another historical group in the annals of American cannibalism.

Now it’s time for something completely uplifting and life-affirming – the history of the U.S. Life Saving Service. Before the Coast Guard came into being, the U.S. Life Saving Service was the only ocean rescue game in town. Let’s move forward 150 years from the Jamestown Settlement to 1871, about six years after the Civil War. It was in 1871 that the U.S. Treasury Department founded the Life Saving Service. The Admiral and I visited the first US Life Saving Service Station, which was built and placed in operation in 1874 on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It is called Chicamacomico, the “Land of Shifting Sands.” We did not visit the Station at its original location, which is now under water in the Atlantic Ocean. This Station has been moved 5 times since 1874, three times by storms and twice by humans. We toured the partially restored original Station. This restoration project is in need of funds, so if you would like to help save the life – and the history – of the Life Saving Service – make a donation. The restoration groups are private; this is a labor of love for them.

The Chicamacomico Station is one of ten Stations built on Hatteras Island. There were 29 stations in all. The area off the Coast of the Outer Banks near the Hatteras Lighthouse is called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”, because of all the ships that have wrecked there. And so, there was and is clearly a constant need for life savers up and down Hatteras Island. The head of each Life Saving Station was called the keeper and his/her crew members were called “surfmen”. These folks were strong swimmers dedicated to saving the lives of ships that wrecked near their Stations. From 1871 to 1915, when the U.S. Coast Guard came into being, the keepers and surfmen of the U.S. Life Saving Service went to the rescue of 178,741 persons in distress and of this number, 177, 286 were saved. Wow. One family with generations of surfmen at Chicamacomico is the Midgett family. In 1899 Rasmus S. Midgett performed heroic rescue efforts when the ship, Pricilla, was driven ashore three miles south of the Gull Shoals Station by the storm of August 17, 1899. In that incident he alone saved ten men’s lives. He had to run into the stormy waters and pounding surf 10 separate times, but each time he brought back a different man. According to one of the poster boards at the Chicamacomico Station, “[T]hese waters are least forgiving during hard winter northeast blows, and the merciless hurricanes of late summer. The men of the USLSS didn’t wait on shore for conditions to improve before attempting rescues. Their motto, as put by a veteran keeper: “The book says you have to go out. It don’t say nothing about coming back.”” James Charlet, manager of the Chicamacomico site, said the following about the USLSS keepers and surfmen: “These men did superhuman things. They are heroes unmatched before or since.”

One of the superhuman rescues that is highlighted for visitors is the rescue of crew members from the SS Mirlo, a British petroleum tanker which was carrying much needed fuel from the Gulf of Mexico during the First World War. Another member of the Midgett family figures prominently in this story of heroism. As James Charlet recounts, at 4:30 p.m. on August 19, 1918, the man in the watch tower reported that a ship had been badly damaged, either by a mine or a torpedo. The captain of the SS Mirlo changed course to the west, in hopes of reaching the shore and safety for his crew of 51. But five miles from shore a second explosion hit the SS Mirlo. Aware of the danger caused by the explosions to the petroleum the ship was carrying, the captain ordered the crew members to abandon ship. The SS Mirlo had only two lifeboats, each with a capacity of 18. Both boats were loaded with the crew members. The first lifeboat hit the water safely, but the second boat capsized, spilling out its crew, many of whom could not swim, still several miles from land. A third explosion split the SS Mirlo’s hull in two, and 6 and ½ thousand tons of gasoline went out of the ship into the Atlantic, floating on top of the water and quickly igniting. Nineteen members of the crew remained on the stern deck and were engulfed in the flames. At 5 p.m. the six man crew of Chicamacomico launched surfboat No. 1046 (on display at the Station) into heavy surf. A few miles offshore they found the first lifeboat. Captain John A. Midgett Jr., head of the station, saw an opening in the wall of flames and in the opening, he saw the capsized lifeboat. As Midgett’s team came closer to the capsized boat, and as their own boat started blistering from the heat, they saw six crew members come out from under the lifeboat boat – and they rescued them! But in the meantime, the unbearable heat from the flames all around evaporated all the gas in the surfboat. Did this stop the indomitable Captain and his crew? No way! They started rowing! And they didn’t row immediately to shore, not when there were more Mirlo crew members to be saved. They rowed south for nine miles – NINE MILES – and finally they found the second lifeboat, which still had 19 men on board – somewhat charred, but still alive. They attached the second lifeboat to theirs and – against the wind and the tide – they rowed all the survivors back to Chicamacomico. This guy Midgett was a giant among men. So were all of his surfmen. Of the 51 men on the SS Mirlo, 42 survived. What a feat! James Charlet has told this story of valor many times. But this is what he says about it: “I tell the story with my heart and still sometimes get choked up. Most people have never heard this. Why do we forget these heroes?” Because of you, Mr. Charlet, and the volunteers at the Chicamacomico Station, we will never forget. Thank you.