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Sultana Hosts Premiere of Maryland Public Television Documentary Film chronicles epic Captain John Smith 400 Project journey
On May 12th
of last year, twelve men and women set out to retrace the voyages of
Captain John Smith, one of the founders of the first permanent English
settlement in America—Jamestown, Virginia. During
The television premier for On the Trail of Captain John Smith is scheduled for 9:00pm on Friday, April 25. Check local listings for your local Maryland Public Television Station for details.
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the summer of 1608,
Smith left Jamestown in a small shallop, or workboat, along with 14
Englishmen in search of gold and a Northwest Passage to the Pacific.
Though Smith and his men failed in that quest, they succeeded in
recording an ecosystem teeming with fish, crabs, oysters, and waterfowl.
The explorers also recorded their remarkable encounters with the diverse
native peoples that had inhabited the region for over 10,000 years.
Smith’s expedition ultimately opened the Chesapeake to thousands of
European settlers, altering forever the face of the Bay and profoundly
changing the lives of those living around it.
For 121 days during the
spring and summer of 2007, the twelve men and women of Sultana’s Captain
John Smith Four Hundred Project set out to see what Smith and his men
had seen nearly 400 years earlier as well as to blaze a path for the
nation’s first all water National Historic Trail: the Captain John
Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Leaving from
Jamestown, just as Smith had, Sultana’s shallop and crew traversed
roughly 1,800 miles throughout the Chesapeake region making 28 different
public stops in small towns and large cities alike. What is remarkable
about this project is that they traveled just as Smith had—by oar and
sail alone. “On the Trail of Captain John Smith: Rediscovering
Chesapeake Bay” follows the crew throughout their grueling summertime
journey and provides insight into the differences between the Bay that
Smith encountered in 1608 and the Bay that the shallop crew encountered
399 years later. 
Tickets for the April 17th
showing of On the trail of Captain John Smith are $5 for
the general public and free for Sultana Projects’ members. Tickets can
be purchased in person at the Prince Theatre box office (Tuesday-Friday,
10am-5pm) or by phone through the Sultana Projects office at
410-778-5954 (Sultana members must reserve tickets by phone).