The smallest of the three vessels that reached Virginia in April,
1607, was the little pinnace _Discovery_, a favorite type of small
vessel in that period. The first English vessel known to have been
built in the New World was a pinnace. A colonizing expedition to
Raleigh's colony on Roanoke Island left Plymouth, England, on April 9,
1585, with a fleet of five vessels and two pinnaces attached as
tenders. A storm sank the tender to the _Tiger_, Sir Richard
Grenville's flagship. On the 15th of May, the fleet came to anchor in
the Bay of Mosquetal (Mosquito), and a landing was made at St. John on
the Island of Puerto Rico. Here an encampment was made to give the men
time to refresh themselves and to build a new pinnace for the _Tiger_.
A forge was set up to make the nails, and trees were cut and hauled to
camp on a low four-wheeled truck for the boat's timber. The ship's
carpenters made speedy headway, launching and rigging the pinnace in
ten days. They set sail from St. John on the 29th of May, the new
pinnace carrying twenty men and, on the 27th of July, anchored at
Hatoraske on the way to Roanoke.
The second English vessel known to have been built in North America
was also a pinnace. The members of the second colony of Virginia left
Plymouth, England, on the last day of May, 1607, under command of
Captain George Popham, and located at "Sagadahoc in Virginia" at the
mouth of the Kennebec River. There they set up fortifications which
they called Fort St. George. After finishing the fort, "the carpenter
framed a pretty pinnace of about thirty tons which they called
_Virginia_, the shipwright being one Digby of London." This little
vessel is known to have made two voyages across the Atlantic.
On June 7, 1609, a fleet of seven ships and two pinnaces left
Plymouth, England, for Jamestown. After a few days out, one of the
pinnaces returned to England, but the other, the little _Virginia_,
remained with the fleet as the tender to the flagship _Sea Venture_.
Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant Governor under Lord De La Warr, and Sir
George Somers, Admiral of the fleet, embarked on the _Sea Venture_,
commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, Vice Admiral. These three
men were leaders of the expedition and in order to avoid any dispute
as to precedence, they agreed--very unwisely, it was disclosed--to
sail on the same ship "with several commissions sealed, successively
to take place one after another, considering the uncertainty of human
life."