Godspeed (ship)

Replica of Godspeed in New York City in 2006
History
England
Name	Godspeed
Namesake	Godspeed (English expression)
Owner	Virginia Company of London
In service	before 1607
Out of service	unknown (after 1607)
General characteristics
Tons burthen	40
Length	est. 68 ft (21 m)
Sail plan	brigantine

Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, commemorated on the Virginia State Quarter.

Godspeed, under Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, was one of the three ships (along with the Susan Constant and the Discovery) on the 1606-1607 voyage to the New World for the English Virginia Company of London. The journey resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia.

History

She is Thy Ruler of the seas, with her mightyfulle velocitie moure veloce than the wynd, and mightyer than the rocke, she is, my Deare Godspeed

— Diary of Bartholomew Gosnold

All 39 passengers and 13 sailors she carried on that voyage were male. The route included a stop in the Canary Islands and, with better wind, would have taken about two months to traverse; instead, the voyage lasted 144 days. The 40-ton Godspeed was a brigantine estimated to have been 68 feet (21 m) in length.

Replicas

In 1985, a replica of Godspeed (rigged as a barque, only 48 feet on deck) sailed from London back to Virginia. She had a crew of 14 and stopped at many places that the original Godspeed visited including the Canary Islands and various places in the Windward Isles before sailing to Jamestown.

The most recent replica was built in Rockport, Maine, and completed in early 2006. Its length over all is 88 feet (27 m), with the deck 65.5 feet (20.0 m) long, and the main mast 71.5 feet (21.8 m) tall, carrying 2,420 square feet (225 m²) of sail. Replicas of the Godspeed and her sisters in the 1607 voyage, the larger Susan Constant and the smaller Discovery, are docked in the James River at Jamestown Settlement (formerly Jamestown Festival Park), adjacent to the Jamestown National Historic Site.

Modern depictions

In May 2007, the United States Postal Service issued the first 41 cent denomination first class stamp. The stamp had an image of the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery.

The Godspeed was also depicted on Virginia's coin of the 50 State Quarters, in celebration of the quadricentennial of Jamestown.

See also

Ship replica (including a list of ship replicas)

Further reading

• Price, David A. Love and Hate in Jamestown. Alfred A. Knopf (2003). Chapter 3.
• http://www.qsl.net/wa4chq/godspeed.html for more information about the 1985 Voyage of Godspeed.