SUSAN CONSTANT / GODSPEED / DISCOVERY

[aukepalmhof]

For the 400th Anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown Va. by English Colonists the United, States Post issued a triangle formed stamp in 2007, which depicts the three vessels SUSAN CONSTANT, GODSPEED, and DISCOVERY.
The stamp is designed after a painting of the three vessels made in 1949 by the Artist Griffith Baily Coale.
The triangle form of the stamp has the same shape as the first fort raised by the Jamestown settlers, after their arrival in 1607.

SUSAN CONSTANT her name is also given as SARAH CONSTANT.

She was the largest of the three wooden vessels, with a tonnage of 120 tons burden, with approx. dim. 16.8 x 6.9 x 2.9m.
Armament: 4 minions and 4 falcons.
Crew 14.
She was originally owned by the British merchant firm of Colthurst, Dapper, and Wheatly for merchant trade. Most probably built in or around London on the River Thames in about 1605.
It is known that at least she made one voyage to Spain in 1606, the year she was sold or chartered by the Muscovy Co., London to the Virginia Company in London for an expedition to America.
1606 She appears in court records that she had a collision with the 100-ton vessel PHILLIP AND FRANCIS.

Christopher Newport (1560-1617) before he was a privateer, was appointed as captain of the SUSAN CONSTANT, and she embarked 71male colonists, also on board was supplies and maybe some livestock thought necessary for the first time in the new settlement.
And on 20 December 1606, the three vessels set sail from the River Thames.
Not a good time to sail, and she were soon running in storms in the English Channel, at least on 21 February they arrived at the Canary Islands, where she took on board fresh provision and water.
Then a westerly course was set for the West Indies, where they made landfall in Martinique, for fresh provision and water, before she headed north.
In the middle of April 1607 the three ships entered the Chesapeake Bay and landed on a marshy semi- island on 13 May 1607, the island they named Jamestown Island after King James I. The three vessels traveled a distance of more than 8000 miles before she arrived.
Jamestown became the first English permanent settlement in North America.

After arrival, she made an exploration voyage up the James River, but he was already quickly stopped by the falls at nowadays Richmond, Virginia.
25 May 1607 she was back at Jamestown

22 June 1607 the SUSAN CONSTANT together with the GODSPEED returned to England, loaded with sassafras, clapboard, and samples of ore, arriving at Plymouth on 29 July.
Then one or more voyages were made to Jamestown with supply cargo for the colony.
When the Virginia Company had no further use for the ship she was sold or handed back to owners.

Her ultimate fate is not known, but in 1615 the records give, that she was sailing from Bristol to Marseille.

GODSPEED.

She was a wooden brigantine of around 40 tons burden, bought or chartered from the Moscovy Company, London by the Virginia Company. With an estimated length of 20.72 meters. During the voyage she was under command of Bartholomew Gosnold (1572-1607), he was a lawyer, explorer, and privateer, he died on dysentery and scurvy after his ship arrived in Jamestown
During the voyage, she carried 39 male passengers and 13 crew.

After arrival at Jamestown on 24 May, the settlement was attacked by 200 Indians, and the guns of the GODSPEED were fired to stop the attack.

She sailed back to England together with the SUSAN CONSTANT and made thereafter a few re-supply voyages to Jamestown.

Her fate is not known.

DISCOVERY

She was the smallest ship in the expedition only 20-ton burden and was commanded by John Ratcliff. He died in 1609; he served as the colony’s second President. He was killed by Powhatan Indians.
She carried around 20 members of the expedition. She is given as a small “barck” not any dimensions are given.
When and where built is not known, there are speculations, that she crossed before already the North Atlantic, but not any proof has been found.
After arrival, she stayed behind in the colony and was the workhorse for the new settlement, extensively used by Captain John Smith
She was used for fishing, transport of goods, and exploration voyages, sometimes used for military missions.
She made fishing voyages so far north as Cape Cod.
Two times her guns were trained by Captain Smith, first George Kendall and then another group of unnamed colonists, attempted to take the DISCOVERY and return to England.
The colony did not flourish so well and in June 1610 the decision was made to abandon Jamestown after a winter full of hardship.

In 1609 or 1610 the DISCOVERY left for what was supposed a fishing voyage, but she sailed on to England.
Other sources give that in 1612 she was still in the colony, but the name DISCOVERY is a common name used by many vessels at that time.
So her ultimate fate till now is not known.

The latest “Log Book” volume 36 page 165 has the following:

The ship in the foreground of the stamp is flying the Union Jack and this would have been impossible 100 years before the Act of the Union which combined the English and Scottish flags to form the flag of Great Britain.

Sources: Ships of the World by Lincoln P Paine. Wikipedia the free encyclopedia.
http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/ ... -ships.htm
http://www.jamestown.abc-clio.com/Refer ... yid=859952

Niue 2007 $1 sg?, Scott? and miniature sheet
Antigua 1967 25c sg 210, Scott ?

[john sefton]

The source of the ship design for the Antigua stamp is a watercolour painting by Gregory Robinson of a 1667 fighting ship, the Susan Constant (illustrated in "Gibbons' Stamp Monthly," March 1968, which contains an article showing the development of the stamp design).
The London Company hired Captain Christopher Newport to head its expedition. In December 1606, he set sail from England with his flagship, the Susan Constant, and two smaller ships, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, with 144 men and boys, 40 of whom died while at sea. After an unusually long voyage of 144 days, they arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and came ashore at the point where the southern side of the bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, an event which has come to be called the "First Landing". They erected a cross, and named the point of land Cape Henry, in honor of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James.
Antigua SG208.
Sea Breezes 9/68

[Arturo]

Susan Constant

USA, 1907, S.G.?, Scott; 329