Capt. John Smith's 1608 Chesapeake Voyage 
History
John Smith began his voyage at Cape Henry on June 2, 1608, and returned to Jamestown on September 7. He traveled with thirteen men in an open ship's boat, perhaps 24-30 feet, powered by seven pairs of oars and a sail. Few of his crew, who were either gentlemen or released convicts, were willing or able to row; half at any time were lying ill in the bilge. A similar vessel is Silver Chalice, a tender to Elizabeth II, which is found at the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island.
In spring of 1608, Smith's crew assembled their ship's boat in Jamestown. On the way back to England, the ship Phenix towed Smith's boat to Cape Henry. From there he crossed the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and followed the Eastern Shore north, passing Tangier Sound and Smith Island. After exploring the Nanticoke River for 30 miles, they crossed the Bay's western shore at Calvert Cliffs. They sailed north to the South and Severn rivers, then turned south. They proceeded 100 miles up the Potomac River to Little Falls. At the mouth of the Rappahannock, a stingray bit Smith's hand, so the company returned for two days to Jamestown. On the second leg, Smith sailed directly north to the Sassafras and Susquehanna rivers. On his way south he entered the Patuxent and Rappahannock rivers.
John Smith never found gold or cross-continent passage
to India, but he befriended native tribes, recorded the wildlife, and
composed remarkably accurate maps. Known to schoolchildren for being saved
by Pocahontas, John Smith was a controversial
character in his own time. None of his contemporaries gave Smith as much
credit for valor and leadership as he did in his own writing. In 1608
Smith related his first year in Virginia in A True Relation (of such
occurences and Accidents of Note as hath Happened in Virginia since the
First Planting of that Collony). Smith's accounts of his Chesapeake
voyage appeared in 1612 in his Map of Virginia (with a description of
the Countery, the Commodities, People, Government, and Religeon.)
Other viewpoints on the 1608 Chesapeake voyage appeared in chapters of The
Proceedings of the English Colony in Virginia, co-authored by Walter
Russel and Anas Todkill, which was published with Smith's map. In 1624
Smith revised his earlier accounts of Jamestown and his Chesapeake voyage
in his Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer
Isles.