My Last Full Day on OBs 2008 Part I

I began writing about my day on Roanoke Island in an earlier post. To refresh your memory, Dawn and I left Hatteras Village and the lovely cottage "Lightship," heading north to Roanoke Island. There, we'd meet up with Melody & Stephanie and spend the day touring the island, with Melody as our guide.

As a history fanatic, I was giddy with excitement in anticipation of exploring Roanoke Island, the site of the first English Colony in America. The following is an excerpt from National Geographic Magazine:

The story of the first English colony in North America has been fascinating historians and curiosity seekers for a very long time.

The saga began on a summer day 420 years ago when co-captain Arthur Barlowe and a few dozen other Englishmen stood at the railing of their ship and peered anxiously across the water at a strange new world.They had no idea what to expect, but the odor wafting to them from the small islands off the coast of what is now North Carolina filled Barlowe with wild hopes. The vegetation was at its summer peak, and the aroma was like that of "some delicate garden" full of fragrant flowers, he wrote later.

Barlowe was part of an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, an English courtier, to find a place for a colony. Roanoke Island, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by the slender sand dunes that came to be known as the Outer Banks, seemed a likely spot.The soil, Barlowe said, was "the most plentiful, sweet, wholesome and fruitful of all the world." And the Native Americans living on the island were, in Barlowe's opinion, "gentle, loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason."

Based on Barlowe's report and backed by Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh sent an all-male colony of more than a hundred settlers to Roanoke Island in July 1585. For a while things went well.

Among the colonists were a brilliant scientist named Thomas Hariot and artist John White. Hariot set up the New World's first science laboratory, while White made detailed maps and drawings of the Indians and his new surroundings.

Problems soon befell the Englishmen, however. The Indians, angered by the harsh tactics of the colony commander, Sir Ralph Lane, became hostile. Supply ships from England didn't arrive, and food became scarce. So when Sir Francis Drake, on his way home from the West Indies, arrived at Roanoke Island in the summer of 1586, the discouraged colonists opted to return to England with Drake.

When the supply ships arrived shortly after Drake's departure, the crews found only a deserted settlement. Sir Richard Grenville, commander of the supply fleet, left behind 15 men to hold the island and sailed back to England.

Later, at an abbey in Ireland, Hariot started writing a book about the wonderful new land on the other side of the world. But on Roanoke Island, the tiny English garrison left by Greenville was in serious trouble.The Indians had decided they'd had enough of the foreigners and attacked the settlement. The outnumbered Englishmen scrambled into their boat and fled.

They were never seen again.

A second colony of about 115 English settlers—including women and children—landed on Roanoke Island in August 1587. They found only the charred ruins of the village. It was an ominous welcome. But the colonists decided to rebuild and make a new start.

John White, the artist who had returned as governor of the second colony, went back to England to gather more supplies. He intended to return to Roanoke Island right away, but war between England and Spain delayed him.

When White finally reached Roanoke Island in August 1590, he discovered that something had gone terribly wrong on the sweet-smelling island of fruitful soil. The colony was gone.

The only clue left was the cryptic word "Croatoan" carved on a tree. The word could have been a reference to a tribe of friendly Indians who lived south of Roanoke Island. Some scholars think Indians may have killed the colonists; others think the English settlers moved farther inland and married into Native American tribes. A third theory says the colonists were killed by Spanish troops who came up from Florida. No one knows for certain what happened to the colonists.

he site of the settlement began gradually disappearing beneath the vegetation and shifting sands of Roanoke Island.

n 1607 England sent more colonists to the New World. This time they landed up the coast from Roanoke Island and founded a settlement called Jamestown in what is now Virginia. This colony managed to hold on through difficult times, and England had its permanent presence in North America. The Lost Colony of 1587 became a historical curiosity.

Our island tour began with "The Mother Vine." Located at the northern end of Roanoke Island, the Mother Vine and its grapes may have been among those cultivated by the Croatoans who occupied the area. Explorers in 1584 observed that North Carolina was “so full of grapes, as the very beating and surge of the Sea overflowed them. . . .” and pointed out that “in all the world the like abundance is not to be found.” These grapes undoubtedly also provided sustenance for the early settlers of the Lost Colony.

When Ralph Lane served as Governor of Roanoke Island (1585), the settlement was divided between “planters” and “the colony.” The planters unquestionably cultivated grapes where the Mother Vine now stands.

Melody had obtain permission from the owners of the land where the vine continues to this day producing scuppernongs, a native type of muscadine grapes. The 32 feet by 120 feet vine spreads over a trellis which bears its weight. We were awed & amazed by the nearly 500 year old plant. Crawling beneath the wooden support, we viewed the root system of the vine.

Unfortunately, this summer the vine was sprayed

with an herbicide by Dominion Power, when a tendril of the plant threatened a utility pole. The Mother Vine began to brown and experts were called in. Nearly 10% of the vine is expected to be cut back before the damage by the spray is halted. Even then, it may be 2 to 3 years before the full impact of the injury to the creeper can be assessed.

North Carolina's official state toast salutes a land "where the scuppernong perfumes the breeze at night." Let's hope the breeze continues to carry the sweet scent of Roanoke's Mother Vine for many years to come.

Next on our tour (and my next post) - The Island Farm.