Page:Memories of Virginia.djvu/119

 of the God speed of 40 tons, under command of Captain Gosnord; the Sarah Constant, 100 tons burden, under command of Captain Newport, and the Discovery, of 20 tons, under command of Captain Ratcliffe. May 13, 1907—only three hundred years ago—yet what progress: To-day in line of battle a wonderful sea view of the great battleships lying at anchor in Hampton Roads, the haven of the pioneers, where scores of mighty warships stand a monument to the centuries. The illumination, I believe, was the grandest naval display ever seen on sea or land; perhaps another of such brilliancy and renown may never be seen, certainly not under the same conditions. While looking at the wonderful display from a point of land thrust out like an arm to save men of the sea, I reflected upon the history of Hampton Roads, and it gave me pleasure that the Jamestown celebration is on the Estate of Denbigh; that the salute of "Welcome" is sounding over the Roads from Fortress Monroe, the original headquarters of your ancestor, overlooking the wonderful harbor known to every mariner of old ocean, that is reached through a gateway of waters admitting the voyager to a sheltered inland sea known to all the world since the May Day discovery, 1607, a haven of safety. How many noble ships, under flags of every nation, have entered the gateway of the James? How many anchors have been cast, how many sails furled, how many tempest-tossed mariners with "Thanks to God for deliverance," have found the spit of land a point of comfort?

To the students of naval history the harbor of Hampton Roads must ever possess