Christopher Newport
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Christopher Newport (c. 1560–1617) was a British sailor. He is best known as the captain of the Susan Constant, the largest of three ships which carried settlers for the Virginia Company in 1607 on the way to found the settlement at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, which proved to be the first permanent English settlement in North America.
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[edit] Early career
For fifteen years, Newport had been a privateer who raided Spanish freighters off and on in the Caribbean. The spoils from these missions was shared with London merchants who funded them. Over the years he commanded a series of privateer ships, including the Little John, the Margaret, and the Golden Dragon. In August 1592, he captured the Spanish ship the Madre de Dios, off the Azores, taking the greatest English plunder of the century. His ship returned to port in England carrying five hundred tons of spices, silks, gemstones, and other treasures.
In 1605, after another mission to the Caribbean, he returned to England with two baby crocodiles and a wild boar to give as gifts to King James I who had a fascination with exotic animals.
[edit] Expedition which founded Jamestown
It was Newport's experience as well as his reputation which led to his hiring by the Virginia Company of London, which had been granted a proprietorship to create a settlement in the Virginia Colony by King James I. On December 19, 1606, Newport set sail from London with three ships: the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. After a first landing at Cape Henry, Newport's party selected Jamestown for their new settlement in May, 1607.
[edit] Additional missions
In June 1607, Newport returned to England for supplies and more settlers, leaving behind 104 colonists, and the smallest ship, the Discovery. When he returned to Jamestown the next year, most of the settlers had died from starvation, disease, and attacks by the native Americans.
Newport made a fourth trip to America in 1609, as captain of the Sea Venture and "Vice Admiral" of the Third Supply mission, but was shipwrecked off of Bermuda, in an incident which is often credited as the inspiration for Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
Years later (1613–1614) Newport sailed for the British East India Company to Asia. He died in Java (now part of Indonesia) in 1617 on a voyage to the East Indies.
[edit] Legacy
Newport News Point, where the mouth of the James River joins the harbor of Hampton Roads, later part of the independent city of Newport News, Virginia, is widely believed to have been named for him, although the exact history of the subject remains in some dispute.
Christopher Newport University, in Newport News is named in honor of him.
In 2005-2006 playwright Steven Breese wrote Actus Fidei (An Act of Faith), based on the life and times of Captain Christopher Newport, as part of the Jamestown 2007 Festival. This play will receive its world premiere in the Spring of 2007 at Christopher Newport University.
A biography on Captain Newport is due to be published in the Winter of 2006.
[edit] Further reading
- David A. Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of A New Nation, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003
[edit] The New World
Christopher Newport is portrayed by actor Christopher Plummer in Terrence Malick's poëtic movie "The New World".
