Overview

In 2002, Susan Schmidt retraced John Smith's 1608 voyage on the Chesapeake Bay. In Landfall along the Chesapeake, a cruising guide for Chesapeake boaters and a field log for naturalists, Schmidt compares the beauty of ancestral legacy and childhood memory to her observations on a 100-day voyage in a 22-foot boat. As she circles the Bay counterclockwise from Jamestown, she explores Smith's encounters with Native Americans and the Bay's ecological changes over the past four hundred years. On each river and creek, she quotes Smith's journals on matching wits with Powhatan, meeting Pocahontas, surviving thunderstorms, ambush, and a stingray's barb. Anchored on wild creeks, Schmidt observes swans and dragonflies, lightning and sunsets; in port she interviews colorful characters and working watermen about blue crabs and oysters. Scientists explain the Bay's nitrogen overload, water-level rise, anoxia, Pfiesteria, Kepone, and the Ghost Fleet. Native American chiefs discuss their heritage then and now. Ashore, Schmidt walks on her ancestor's farm, now a military chemical dump, and climbs her grandfather's lighthouse. Despite her despair at bad air quality and diminished fisheries, and her dread of high wind and rough seas, Schmidt expresses gratitude for small-town hospitality and the navigation skills her father taught her.

Full Product Details

Author:   Susan Schmidt
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780801882968

ISBN 10:   0801882966
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   27 May 2006
Recommended Age:   From 18
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   In Print  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Waking up John Smith The James River Jamestown Chickahominy River Downriver to Hampton Roads Heading Out: The Eastern Shore Cape Henry Cherrystone Creek The Lower Shore Tangier Crisfield Nanticoke River Bishops Head Hooper Island Passage Choptank River The Tred Avon Oxford to St. Michaels Wye Island Kent Narrows Chester River Chester River to Bohemia River Havre de Grace Turning South: The Western Shore Gunpowder Peninsula and Pooles Island Baltimore Annapolis Deale to Patuxent River Solomons Washington Potomac River Reedville Road Trip Dividing Creek Fleets Bay Indian Creek Rappahannock River Carters Creek Piankatank River Mobjack Bay York River Mattaponi River Aylett Walkerton and Werowocomoco Acknowledgments Notes Suggested Further Reading Index

Reviews

A delightful read. Quotations from John Smith's voyage of 1608 are coordinated with events, locations, and the contemporary ecological problems of the Chesapeake in an engaging fashion. - Bryan MacKay, author of Hiking, Cycling, and Canoeing in Maryland and Baltimore Trails

A stirring chronicle... recommended for sailors, boaters, and anyone wanting to study the mastery of artful nonfiction. Delmarva Quarterly 2006 Weaving history, environmental concerns, and personal memoir, Landfall along the Chesapeake should find a welcome place on many bookshelves. -- William Bland Whitley Virginia Libraries 2006

Author Information

Author Website:   www.susanschmidt.net

Susan Schmidt, a Virginia native, rows, gardens, and plays music in North Carolina near Cape Lookout and Asheville. A naturalist and poet, she has worked as an English teacher, editor, and policy scientist. A licensed captain, she grew up sailing the Chesapeake Bay, where her family has lived for almost four hundred years.

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Author Website:   www.susanschmidt.net

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