Qualla: Cape Henry

Cape Henry: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carmen Shields from United States, CC BY 2.0. After 144 days at sea, three small ships rounded the sandy point and found shelter. It was April 26, 1607. The men aboard the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery — 104 of them, all male, ranging from gentleman adventurers to indentured laborers — had been at sea since December. They erected a wooden cross in the dunes, knelt down, and gave thanks. They named the cape for the king's son: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Then they pushed back into the Chesapeake to find a more defensible site upriver, where they would build Jamestown. The First Landing happened here.

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Image: Carmen Shields from United States | CC BY 2.0

Cape Henry: Gateposts to a New World

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Comingdeer, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cape Henry forms the southern jaw of the Chesapeake Bay's mouth. Across the water to the north stands Cape Charles, named for Henry's younger brother — the future Charles I, who would lose his head to Cromwell. Together the two capes form the Virginia Capes, the eighteen-mile-wid...

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Image: Comingdeer | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cape Henry: The Light That Would Not Go Out

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. By 1791 the new United States needed a lighthouse here. Congress authorized one — the first federally funded public works project in American history — and President Washington personally approved the contract. The Cape Henry Lighthouse, completed in 1792, threw its beam across t...

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Image: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cape Henry: The Battle That Won the Revolution

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994, Public domain. Most Americans think Yorktown won the war. Sailors know better. On September 5, 1781, just off these capes, French Admiral de Grasse fought British Admiral Graves in what came to be called the Battle of the Capes — the most consequential naval engagement in American history. De G...

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Image: Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994 | Public domain

Cape Henry: Pirates, Pines, and a State Park

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District from United States, Public domain. Less heroic moments mark the cape, too. In 1700, three accused pirates — John Houghling, Cornelius Franc, and Francois Delaunée — were gibbeted here, their bodies hung in iron cages as warning to other crews. The First Landing State Park now covers much of the cape itself: 2,888 ...

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Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District from United States | Public domain

Cape Henry: What You See From Above

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fritz Geller-Grimm, CC BY-SA 2.5. From altitude, the cape resolves into a clean geographical fact: the sandy hook where the Atlantic narrows into the largest estuary in North America. The two lighthouses rise from the dunes, the older one stubby and pale, the newer one black-and-white striped. Naval Station Norfo...

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Image: Fritz Geller-Grimm | CC BY-SA 2.5