Jamestown supply missions

The Jamestown supply missions were a series of fleets (or sometimes individual ships) from 1607 to around 1611 that were dispatched from England by the London Company (also known as the Virginia Company of London) with the specific goal of initially establishing the company's presence and later specifically maintaining the English settlement of James Fort on present-day Jamestown Island. The supply missions also resulted in the colonization of Bermuda as a supply and way-point between the colony and England.

The Jamestown colonists initially chose the fort's location because it was favorable for defensive purposes. Although some of them did some farming, few of the original settlers were experienced farmers, and as hunters they quickly exhausted the area's supply of small game. To make matters worse, the most severe drought in 700 years occurred between 1606 and 1612. Consequently, the colonists quickly became dependent upon trade with the Native Americans and periodic supply from England for their survival. Captain Christopher Newport was tasked with the duty of leading the first three re-supply missions back to Jamestown. However, it was not until a fourth mission under Lord Thomas West that the settlement was finally able to establish both defensive and food security.

The London Company organized a for-profit expedition to establish a settlement in the Virginia territory in late 1606. The expedition consisted of three ships which set sail on December 20, 1606, from Blackwall, with 105 men and boys and 39 crew members. There were no women on the first ships.

The ships in this fleet were:

The fleet headed south-west towards the Azores. Early in the voyage, on February 13, 1607, near the Canary Islands, Captain John Smith was charged with mutiny, and Newport had him arrested and planned to execute him upon arrival in the Caribbean (and later in Virginia). The execution was never carried out, after the colonists landed at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607, and unsealed orders from the Virginia Company designating Smith as one of the leaders of the new colony, thus sparing him from the gallows. Passing Martinique on March 23, they also visited Dominica, on March 28, Nevis, and St. Croix, where they replenished their water and food. By April 6, 1607, the fleet arrived at the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico, where they stopped for provisions before continuing their journey. They landed on Mona and Monito Islands on April 7 and left on April 9, the last stop before the mainland.

After an unusually long voyage of 144 days and the death of only one passenger, they made landfall on April 26, 1607, at the southern edge of the mouth of what they named the James River on the Chesapeake Bay. A party of men then explored the area and had a minor conflict with some local "Indians", so the colonists moved north. On 4 May [O.S. 14 May] 1607, they finally chose Jamestown Island (at that time a peninsula), further upriver and on the northern shore, for their settlement, as it was a location that could be easily defended from attacks by other European states, notably the Dutch Republic, France, and Spain.

However, after the long voyage, their food stores were sufficient only for each to have a cup or two of grain-meal per day. Further, the worst drought in 700 years occurred in the area between 1606 and 1612, affecting the Jamestown colonist's and local Powhatan tribe's ability to produce food and obtain a safe supply of water. In addition to settling, the early colonists were expected to make a profit for the owners of the company. The early settlers were excited by the apparent availability of gold, and from the outset settlers attempted to produce timber for export, given the seemingly inexhaustible supply within Virginia's virgin forests. However, they could not devote much time to developing commodity products, as they were too busy trying to survive. On June 22, 1607, Newport sailed back for London with Susan Constant and Godspeed carrying a load of supposedly precious minerals, leaving behind the 104 colonists and Discovery (to be used in exploring the area).

Using Discovery and some assembled shallops left to the colony, Smith undertook three exploratory voyages of the Chesapeake Bay and along the various rivers seeking a supply of food for the colonists in June, July, and August 1607. However, while leading one food-gathering expedition in December 1607, this time up the Chickahominy River west of Jamestown, his men were set upon by Pamunkey natives, and Smith was captured. After being "saved" by Pocahontas, Smith returned alone to Jamestown just in time for the first supply in January 1608.