How to Survive in the Roanoke Colony
Chapter 278: Steamboat (1)

Chapter 278: Steamboat (1)

The Queen of England had died.

I heard the funeral was magnificent, befitting a monarch of her stature and legacy. Countless people reportedly wore mourning clothes of deep midnight black, their faces solemn and drawn with grief as they followed the funeral procession that wound through Roanoke’s cobblestone streets like a somber river. The colony fell silent that day, even the birds seeming to respect the gravity of the occasion with their unusual quiet.

A wax figure recreating her appearance in life was placed atop the coffin, the artisan having captured with remarkable skill the proud tilt of her chin and the knowing gleam in her eyes. The figure wore her royal regalia—crown polished to a brilliant shine, ermine-trimmed cloak arranged just so—making it seem almost as if she were merely sleeping atop her final bed. Those who had cherished her in life shed bitter tears as they bade farewell on her final journey, many dropping to their knees as the procession passed by, whispering prayers or final words to their departed sovereign.

Of course, Raleigh would have been among the most prominent mourners, his tall figure unmistakable in the front ranks, head held high despite the weight of his grief. But he didn’t say he cried when he recounted the day to me later. His voice had faltered briefly when speaking of the moment the coffin was lowered into the earth, but he quickly recovered, clearing his throat. He seemed to think that displaying such raw emotion wouldn’t be manly, though the redness around his eyes when he returned told a different story than his proud words.

Since London had been abandoned, she couldn’t be buried in Westminster Abbey where her ancestors rested, but that probably didn’t matter. She had considered Roanoke her home, after all.

Elizabeth left behind many things. Having lived her entire life as queen of several countries, her legacy was bound to be substantial.

First, according to her will, all her artworks, treasures, and other possessions went to her most favored Raleigh.

Raleigh traveled to England to collect these heirlooms and filled the house where the Queen had lived, making the now-uninhabited mansion in Roanoke quite busy for a while.

He remembered his sovereign and lover in his own way.

The Queen’s fishing boat, cosmetics, and various trinkets were left to Margaret. Margaret wept profusely while handling the Queen’s cosmetics, then put them in a jewelry box and treasured them.

Since Francis Drake had just recently passed away, the various ships ordered at the Chesapeake shipyard on the Queen’s behalf were transferred to his descendants.

The rest, being what she owned as Queen of England and Ireland, would probably be divided among her successors as they saw fit.

"The Queen left you a great deal."

I remarked, watching Raleigh instructing workers to carry the Queen’s belongings. Raleigh shook his head.

His response was unexpected.

"No. Collecting these trinkets is merely for my own satisfaction."

"...Is that so?"

"Yes. Truly."

"..."

"Her Majesty, for me, for Sir Nemo, left behind greater things."

Raleigh turned his eyes away from the workers busily unloading cargo and said to me:

"...For all of us."

"..."

"Perhaps she did it to vex James one more time. But I don’t think so.

This is her expression of gratitude."

Raleigh’s words... might be right. I considered what truly important legacies she had left us.

"Her Majesty expressed gratitude to Sir Nemo. For making her life worthwhile, and for making her death comfortable.

To Sir Nemo, and to this entire community."

...The things the Queen left behind for this entire community.

Raleigh pulled out a document and waved it.

"Here, I will forward the contents of this treaty with her to King James."

The content of the treaty document, which Elizabeth had me sign together with her a few days before her death, was simple:

’The ownership of various ironworks and shipyards owned by the Kingdom of England located in the New World shall be transferred to the Continental Covenant.’

She passed on to us the ironworks and shipyards she had established here. These were facilities built with manpower support and loans from England. Along with this, ownership of Roanoke and other matters were neatly settled.

Iron is often called the rice of industry. It’s used everywhere. And ships remain the transportation means handling most of the world’s logistics until the distant future of the 21st century.

The means to produce these two things became entirely ours.

At last.

I briefly skimmed the treaty document Raleigh handed me, nodded upon seeing Elizabeth’s hastily scrawled name in one corner.

Since she wasn’t a particularly cherished person to me, I didn’t feel the heartache Raleigh did.

Instead, I felt grateful for her consideration.

It was the Queen’s final gift.

With it, our small and fragile community could now accomplish what we hadn’t been able to before.

Monumental things.

"This is how ’Holy Land’ Croatoan and Chesapeake become connected."

The Queen’s legacy led us forward.

==

Croatoan in the south and Chesapeake in the north are more than 180 kilometers apart in a straight line. Making a proper route would make it much longer.

Therefore, connecting the two would inevitably be a major construction project spanning years.

The most crucial point was that Croatoan was an island.

The sea, an obstacle incomparable to forests, rivers, or marshlands, stood between them. In multiple layers at that.

Fortunately, since Croatoan wasn’t an isolated island but a barrier island (islands formed by deposits of sand and gravel lined up along the coastline) in Pamlico Sound, it was relatively easy to reach the mainland through other clustered islands nearby.

Anyway, to overcome the obstacle of the sea, plans were soon drawn up and opinions gathered in Virginia.

Detailed plans for building breakwaters, constructing bridges, and establishing roads on top.

Among these, the highest priority was the various materials needed for constructing those breakwaters and bridges.

Everyone agreed that iron was the most important material regardless of what was being done where. Even supplying tools for workers to use required iron.

The ironworks had already undergone a couple of renovations. This was due to the surge in demand for both steel and wrought iron after innovating the tractor production process and dramatically increasing production numbers.

By applying the reverberatory furnace method previously used for melting bronze to steelmaking through trial and error, iron production leapt forward.

Since then, almost all blacksmiths at the Roanoke Island ironworks had become proficient in either the reverberatory furnace method or crucible steelmaking.

So all they needed to do was officially expand the scale. There were no small number of ironworkers among immigrants from England, where the political situation had become chaotic.