This is my Photograph of Captain John Smith’s Statue on Jamestown Island overlooking the Historic James River. The statue is only a few feet from the waters of the James and is actually within the site where the original fort stood, which Smith designed and built, almost 400 years ago as evidenced by recent archeological excavation sites on the island.

Captain John Smith (January 9, 1580 - June, 1631) was an English adventurer and soldier, and one of the founders of the Jamestown, Virginia settlement. He was one of 105 settlers who sailed from England on December 19, 1606, and landed in Virginia on April 26, 1607. (The settlers established Jamestown, which is located on an island in the James River, on May 24, 1607, and it became the first permanent English settlement in North America.) John Smith was an arrogant and boastful man, often tactless and sometimes brutal. Physically strong and worldly wise, he made an excellent settler. However, his personality, his obvious qualifications and his low social position infuriated many of the colony's leaders and settlers. Despite this, he was named to the first Council in May 1607. By the end of the first year, most of the settlers had died of starvation or disease. The colonists were ill equipped to be settling in a wilderness. Many were gentlemen who knew nothing of hard labor, much less how to build a house. After that disastrous first year, Smith imposed order by forcing everyone to work. He learned the Indians' language and became the colony's principal Indian trader. Captain Smith traveled as far as what is now Richmond, Virginia in 1607. On another trip later that year, Smith was taken captive by the Chief of the Powhatan Indians and was condemned to death. Pocahontas (1595-1617), daughter of the Indian chief, saved Smith's life. During the summer of 1608 he led a 3000-mile expedition in an open boat to explore and map the Chesapeake Bay (as far north as Baltimore) and its principal rivers. On their return trip, they also went up the Potomac River (up to Washington, D.C.). Smith almost died while returning to Jamestown; he caught a stingray that stung him and almost killed him. That area of the Rapahannock River is still called Stingray Point. Captain John Smith was an able leader who understood both the Indians and the settlers' needs and the colony prospered. On September 10, 1608 the Council elected him Governor of Virginia for a one-year term.

The Statue by William Couper was erected in 1909.