With only 14 more shopping days left before Christmas, we're looking for some good gift ideas for the Bay sailors in our lives.
Today, we're featuring Chesapeake: Exploring the Water Trail of Captain John Smith by John Page Williams of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Williams is a naturalist and a historian, and the book is as much a Sierra Club photo gallery of the Bay as it is a look back in time.
Four hundred years ago, Captain John Smith arrived at the "Bay of the Chespioc," named after a tribe of Native Americans who lived in the area now known as Lynnhaven River. Smith was "restrained as a prisoner" at the time, as several noblemen onboard the ship had accused him of plotting an insurrection (we knew there was a reason we liked the guy). Smith went on to prove that he knew more about expedition and survival than almost any other colonist in his day, forming Jamestown, training settlers to farm and hunt, and eventually exploring more than 3000 miles of the Chesapeake's shores.
Williams was heavily involved in creating the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, a series of waterway trails that connect Maryland, D.C., Virginia, and Delaware, and explore the region Smith encountered 400 years ago. While it's possible to know the waters of the Chesapeake like the back of your hand, Chesapeake provides you with a pair of eyes to see the region as it was in Smith's time.
Williams has written a lovely book that belongs on everyone's bookshelf; if it's not on yours already, put it under the tree.
