Thomas Shelburne 4

Chapter 2
Thomas stood looking over the side of the ship in disbelief. He had never been on a boat before, water on all sides. They were still on the River Thames, headed east for the English Channel. Soon they passed another dock full of ships, but they did not stop. They were already fully stocked.

"That's Gravesend," he heard Mrs. Margaret Forrest say to Anne Burras, her young maid. "They say that's where they finally ran out of bodies to bury after the Plague."

Thirteen year old Thomas caught the eye of fourteen year old Anne, whose look of uncertainty was not dissimilar to his. As it turned out, she and her mistress were the only women on board. Indeed, they would be the first women to come to Jamestown. At least Anne's father was on the ship as well, a tradesman.

Thomas of course would have no chance for romance with Anne or any woman for years. He was less than a nobody. He was an accident, destined to go down in history as "Others" who were on the second supply ship to Jamestown.

He stood at the side of the boat looking out for several hours. No one seemed to pay him any mind. He met a couple boys, Milman and Helyard. They were the cabin boys of Captain Newport and Captain Waldo. But unlike him, they had known they were going on this ride. Also, they would be dead within a year.

Finally, the land began to recede and Thomas became afraid that Leviathan would leap from the water and snatch him to his grave. Or perhaps as the ship began to sway he would lose his footing and fall into the water. He hesitantly made his way to Wynne's cabin.

"How long will the trip take?" Thomas finally asked.

"Captain Newport has cut it down to two or three months, I hear. He goes north following the curvature of the earth rather than south and across."

"Months?!" Thomas exclaimed. "Is there even that much ocean?"

"Much, much more even. Have you heard of Christopher Columbus?"

A brief back and forth of Thomas' head said no.

"You must really come from far inland, boy. A little more than a hundred years ago Columbus set out to find a shortcut to the East Indies. He thought he could go around the earth by going west and come back around on the other side."

"Did he?"

"Not exactly," Wynne continued. "He hit land and thought he had made it, but it turns out he was only half way there. The earth is indeed round like a ball. But where we are going is only half way around."

"What is it like in this New World?"

"I hear it is beautiful beyond belief, forest that stretches beyond what the eye can see, rivers full of fish that are bigger than you could imagine, gold to make a man rich."

"Does it have mountains or is it flat like the lowlands?"

"Flat, I'm afraid, from what I've heard."

And so the conversation went on for a time. Wynne of course knew almost as little as Thomas, but he thought he had knowledge. Also, Captain Wynne would be dead in a year.