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a blustering December day in 1607 a ship was working its way up the James River in Virginia. It was the English ship Sea Gull, Captain Christopher Newport, bringing what was called the "First Supply" to the infant colony at Jamestown, planted seven months before.

Seventy new colonists swarmed the decks of the vessel, their gaze eagerly bent forward to discover their goal, the little cluster of cabins over which floated the red cross flag of England, now visible far away up the river.

A strong northerly wind was blowing, hurrying the broken cloud-rack across the sky. It was the remains of a gale which had swept the coast the day before, when the Sea Gull and her consort, the Phœnix, were striving to