BATH, Maine — In Bath, it's all hands on deck and below deck as a crew of dedicated volunteers work to ready Maine's First Ship for her launch on Saturday.
The all-volunteer crew of more than 100 skilled men and women, has been working for more than 11 years to build a replica of Virginia, the first ship ever built in the new world by Popham colonists. But the plans to build Virginia and help keep Maine’s rich history of boat-building alive started almost 25 years ago.
In 1607, the 120 men and boys who made up the Popham Colony constructed not only Maine's first ship but America's on the bank of Kennebec River close to modern-day Phippsburg.
Local boatbuilder and shipwright Rob Stevens estimated it would have only taken colonists a couple of months to construct what his volunteer crew has taken more than a decade to do.
"They weren't slowed down by electricity," Stevens said, grinning.
The Popham colonists may have worked faster, but they abandoned New England after only 14 months.
In its heyday, the small Maine settlement rivaled Jamestown, but an extremely cold winter, having no women in the colony, and colonists unable or unwilling to make a connection with the Abenaki people are among the reasons believed to have led to the colony's demise. Many of the details of the colony have been lost to history, and so too the record of Virginia. She was used to bring colonists back to England and then made several trips to Jamestown before her record goes cold.
Four centuries later, volunteers formed a nonprofit, Maine's First Ship, wanting to give Virginia a rebirth and keep her history and the history of the Popham Colony alive. Board members and volunteers visited London and Jamestown to research and create a design as close to the original Virginia as possible.
At the building site, which sits in the shadow of Bath Iron Works, men and women, many with little boat-building experience, have formed a community over the past decade, and many are sad to see the building of the ship that has become like an old friend come to an end, but they are excited about its future.
"A lot of people just learn better with hands-on history. If you can engage your body and your mind at the same time, I think the lessons soak in a lot better," Maine's First Ship Vice President Jeremy Blaiklock explained.
Virginia will be carefully lifted by cranes into the Kennebec River at 4:30 p.m. June 4 at the Bath Freight Shed, and the public is welcome to attend. There will be music, food, and entertainment.
Over the summer and fall, volunteers will continue to work on Virginia, outfitting her with traditional rigging and learning how to sail her before she becomes a moving museum and floating classroom, sailing up and down the Maine coast teaching history and sailing lessons to students.