This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to our American stories and the story of Captain John Smith.

Let's return to Juliana Rogers.

So they're funded by a company called the Virginia Company of London. They have three goals for

the group that's heading to Virginia. Number one, find gold. Number two, find the Northwest Passage. So during that time,

they believed there was a waterway that connected the Atlantic to the Pacific, that they would be able to navigate and make it to the Orient.

And the third goal was to find any survivors from the lost colony. Several years earlier, another English expedition went to Roanoke, Virginia,

and the English were never seen or heard from again. Captain Christopher Newport is in charge

of the three ships heading across the Atlantic. Everyone admired Captain Christopher Newport.

He was this tall, one-armed sea captain who actually

fought alongside Sir Francis Drake. So on December 20th, they set sail. And if you go to James Town,

you can see actual replicas of these ships. And it's stunning to see how small they are. So the Susan Constant had 71

people. The Godspeed had 52 people. And the Discovery had 21 people. So in all, there were 105

passengers and 39 crew. Here's a list of who they sent. 50 gentlemen, 12 laborers, four carpenters, four boys, two brick layers, a priest, a sailmaker,

a mason, a blacksmith, a surgeon, a tailor, and a drummer.

It took 144 days, four and a half months.

John would pass the time by telling the crew and the boys his stories of his battles and bragging and I'm sure exaggerating, you know, these amazing stories that he's a hero. And the men and the boys, or the crew, and the boys enjoyed it.

I mean, it's a great way to pass the time to hear these stories.

But many people also did not enjoy it.

And those were those powerful gentlemen that were on board the ship.

In fact, probably the most powerful, from the most powerful family, was on board John's ship.

And they very quickly became enemies. And his name

...