Williamsburg and Jamestown

When I visited Williamsburg and Jamestown in Virginia recently I found it pleasantly surprising. Ten years ago my family and I had visited Williamsburg but hadn't had time to visit Jamestown and the re-creation of the of the original ships like the Susan Constance. I found the Susan Constance amazing in that it has a brick firplace up front for cooking and a whipstaff to steer the boat that is connected below to a tillar as steering wheels hadn't been invented in 1608 yet. The cannons were also much lighter than I am used to seeing in more recent wooden ships. If you are in the area be sure to see Jamestown and the ship recreations that actually are sailed. A docent said because they sail they must legally be fitted with emergency engines that one does not see on the tour.

We also visited the blacksmith shop in Williamsburg where they say they have made 20,000 iron nails for traditional construction of buildings there. While we were there watching they made a drawknife by heating the iron in the stove and bellows and then beating it into the drawknife shape.(a drawknife is a crude plane for planing off rough wood). I greatly enjoyed one night walking through Williamsburg with the wooden torch fires built at about 6 to 7 feet in elevation on iron grates and tourists set up in line like soldiers in the revolutionary war and being fired upon with blanks from guns by traditionally dressed minutemen. Around this Fort like area was a wall of wooden 4 to 6 inch thick spikes facing out toward the countryside. What a fun experience as long as one can stand the heat and humidity this time of year.