Jeff, thank you for your introduction and for your hard work – along with the work of our Annapolis Maritime Museum – to establish America’s first all-water National Historic Trail.
Before I say anything else, I want to thank the crew of the John Smith shallop for giving a stowaway like me the opportunity to experience a piece of a great American story.
It’s a story we’re able to tell and pass on thanks to partnerships with our neighbors in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware…and I want to thank you Congressman Sarbanes for all your hard work.
But it’s also because of local friends who have an abiding respect for the history of our country and our region. So I want to thank the Four Rivers Heritage Area, the Sultana Projects, Friends of the John Smith Trail and PNC Bank for your leadership.
I also want to thank Pat Noonan from the Conservation Fund, Gilbert Grosvenor from National Geographic, and Will Baker from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation – and so many others – for your support.
Our nation was born in 1776, but the journey toward freedom actually began much earlier, exactly 400 years ago, when a small band of settlers courageously endured unspeakable trials and ordeals to carve out a place for themselves in the New World
That journey would take Captain John Smith and his crew throughout the Chesapeake Bay in search of new opportunity for a struggling people. There he battled but eventually befriended and earned the trust of the Native peoples who were the very first Americans. Little did Smith know that his search for the fabled “Northwest passage” would shape the future boundaries, character and course of America.
Smith’s maps would provide us with the first accurate depiction of the Chesapeake Bay – enabling the social and economic development that would empower future generations to reach for independence.
In many ways, John Smith personifies the very best in the American spirit – a yearning for discovery; belief in a more promising future for the next generation; respect for Chesapeake Bay as a source of both commerce and culture; a better understanding of those with whom we share this land.
Today, the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail is an educational resource that inspires us to follow his journey, to unlock the strength of our diversity, to rediscover the roots of democracy.
It will also help us raise the profile of the Chesapeake Bay watershed – the bounty and beauty of these waters, which have always been at the heart of our quality of life. For like John Smith, we too can restore hope in things to come. That is our responsibility – to leave this planet in a better condition than we, ourselves, found it. Not only for our children, but our children’s children. This is the responsibility that ties the generations together. Our grandparents and parents did it for us, and we must do it for our children. But we must also look beyond that generation to the future generations from whom we borrow this land and water.
So, these new trails are important tools not only for education and tourism, but for restoration and conservation. In fact, the State of Maryland will soon enter into an agreement with the National Park Service to determine how we can increase trail access throughout our state as part of that journey, as part of that mission.
And together, we will reestablish Maryland’s prominence as a leader for land and water trail systems – fusing economic prosperity, cultural preservation and access to a healthy, sustainable Bay.
Captain Smith’s journey is one that’s represented by all of you – by the ambassadors, by the young men and women who were putting their backs into this ship. It was fun to do for a couple hours… a couple hours. But what you carry is really a uniquely American spirit – of journey, of discovery, of making a new tomorrow. And I really want to thank you for what you do for all of you.
You know, this Chesapeake Bay gives us an opportunity to lead. It gives us an opportunity as Americans to lead. When we turn around this body of water, we’re going to show the rest of our country what’s possible. There has never been a more heightened sense of awareness, of urgency, about our environment, about our natural resources, about conservation, than there is right now in our country. But it is Maryland’s role in America to be that middle state, that central state, that state around which the other states rally in times of great national challenge and adversity.
And that’s the state we’re going to be again, and that’s what we celebrate today.
I have a certificate to present. When’s a governor without a certificate? And this first one is presented to Drew McMullen of Sultana Projects. Drew, could you please come this way?
The State of Maryland hereby bestows the title of Chesapeake Bay Ambassador to Drew McMullen of Chestertown, Maryland in recognition and appreciation of your commitment and service to all those with a loyal interest in the Maritime State and its beautiful Bay, which harbors the ships of the world.
In testimony whereof, we have caused these our letters to be made patent and the great seal of the State of Maryland to be hereon affixed. Doesn’t that sound gubernatorial and historic? At the City of Annapolis, this 14th day of July, two thousand and seven. Congratulations sir…
I’d like to now present Chesapeake Bay Ambassadors to my Captain and fellow crew members….