Christopher Newport

Christopher Newport was born around 1561 in England. Little is known about his early life. He went to sea as a teenager during the time of the Anglo-Spanish War, a series of conflicts between Spain and England to determine who would dominate Europe. Newport gained experience as a seaman. He also became a privateer in the West Indies for Queen Elizabeth I. This proved to be dangerous; Newport lost his arm during a privateering venture off the coast of Cuba. He would go on to serve under Sir Francis Drake while attacking Spanish ships at Cadiz and then during the attack of the Spanish Armada.

After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, he was appointed to the office of a principal master of the Royal Navy. Soon after this, he was approached by the London Company, who offered him the chance to command the English expedition to the New World. His fleet (the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed) departed London in December 1606. (Bartholomew Gosnold and John Ratcliffe were the captains of the Discovery and the Godspeed.) They arrived in the Chesapeake Bay in April 1607. When they landed at Cape Henry, they opened a box of orders from the London Company. These orders designated some of the men – including Newport, Gosnold, Ratcliffe, and John Smith – as members of the governing council of the new colony. They established the settlement of Jamestown along the James River. Newport continued sailing up the James until he reached the fall line (near modern-day Richmond). He returned to England in June 1607.

In his absence, the Jamestown colony began to fail. It was his return in 1608 with supplies that enabled the colony to sustain itself. On his third supply trip in 1609, his ships wrecked in Bermuda. He and his crew were temporarily stranded as they rebuilt the ships. He left the Virginia Company (the renamed London Company) in 1612 and joined the East India Company. He died during his third voyage to the Indies in 1617.

Read more about the individual explorers:

Francis Drake | Christopher Newport | James Cook | John Smith | Walter Raleigh

Find out about their watercraft:

How They Got There | Once They Arrived

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English Exploration