At 100 years, Surry ferry has become ‘a lifeline’
Published 1:00 pm Monday, March 10, 2025
The Virginia Department of Transportation celebrated the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry's 100th anniversary on Feb. 26 by recreating the voyage of the first ferry, the "Captain John Smith," right down to the type of vehicles that would have been aboard. Here, antique cars disembark the ferry Powhatan. (Photos by Stephen Faleski | The Smithfield Times)
Capt. Ron Reyes gives a thumbs-up from the third deck of the ferry Powhatan.
Debbie and Jay Pearsall of Williamsburg, in front, and Al and Angelique Jester, in the back seat, board the Powhatan in a 1919 Ford Model T. Al is the great-grandson of the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry’s first captain, Albert F. Jester.
The bridge of the ferry Powhatan includes a single seat for Capt. Ron Reyes.
Capt. Ron Reyes stands on the third deck of the Powhatan.
Al Jester, great grandson of the original Capt. Albert F. Jester, delivers remarks.
Antique cars board the ferry Powhatan at the Surry side.
A cake decorated in VDOT blue and orange celebrates the centennial anniversary of the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry.
The ferry Surry travels in parallel with the Powhatan carrying a more modern selection of vehicles.
The Powhatan, despite being the newest of the VDOT’s four ferries, is still equipped with a traditional ship’s bell.
Passengers get out of their cars to watch the ferry Powhatan depart Surry County.
VDOT workers board cars on the ferry “Surry” docked adjacent to the Powhatan.
A tugboat pushes a barge as the ferry Pocahontas makes its way from Jamestown to Surry County.
It’s been 100 years since Albert Jester boarded a handful of cars and their drivers onto the “Captain John Smith,” a 60-foot-long ferry he’d built to accommodate up to 16 Model T and Model A Fords, and carried them across the James River from Surry County to Jamestown.
That 1925 voyage marked the beginning of the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry, which celebrated its centennial anniversary on Feb. 26 by recreating Jester’s journey, right down to the types of vehicles that would have been aboard.
Around 10 a.m. that day, the Virginia Department of Transportation began boarding dozens of antique cars onto the ferry “Powhatan,” including a 1919 Ford Model T carrying Al Jester, the great-grandson of the original, and his wife, Angelique. The couple traveled more than 450 miles from their home in Ohio for the occasion.
The car itself is owned by Debbie and Jay Pearsall of Williamsburg, members of the Colonial Virginia Model T Ford Club. Also on board were several cars from the Colonial Virginia Model A Ford Car Club and a 1925 Franklin Series 11-A sedan driven by Samuel Kern, a retired naval officer from Virginia Beach.
At 10:15 a.m., an announcement came over the Powhatan’s loudspeaker.
“This is your captain speaking; let’s get going,” Capt. Ronald Reyes said.
After a blast from the ship’s horn, the Surry coastline began to drift into the distance.
Reyes, who goes by “Captain Ron,” said he’s captained the Powhatan for about a year. He’s in his 24th year working for VDOT.
Before that, he served on an ocean-going merchant ship. The roughly 20-minute trip through inland waters from the Surry side of the James to Jamestown is much more leisurely, he said.
VDOT has been operating the ferry since 1945. The Powhatan, built in 2019, is the newest of its four ferries and is capable of carrying up to 70 cars. The “Pocahontas,” another 70-car ferry, dates to 1995. The two oldest ferries are the “Williamsburg,” built in 1983, and the “Surry,” built in 1979, each of which carry 50 cars.
The fleet provides around-the-clock service at no cost to motorists. It’s the only 24-hour state-run ferry in Virginia and transports roughly 936,000 vehicles annually. The ferry has more than 90 employees and an operating budget of roughly $12 million annually, according to VDOT.
“Since 1925, this ferry has been a lifeline,” said Christopher Hall, district engineer for VDOT’s Hampton Roads District.
It predates the first James River Bridge, which was built in 1928 to connect neighboring Isle of Wight County with Newport News, and the first Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge, built in 1966 to connect Charles City and Prince George counties, the latter of which borders Surry to the west. For many of Surry’s roughly 6,500 residents, the ferry remains the fastest route to and from the Peninsula.
Al Jester said his great-grandfather lived in Smithfield and, prior to starting the Surry ferry, had operated a passenger boat service from Battery Park, an unincorporated fishing village in Isle of Wight, to Newport News. A family legend tells of several moonlight excursions from Surry to Jamestown in the 1930s chartered by John Rockefeller, the then-richest man in the world. Rockefeller was at that time financing the restoration of Williamsburg to its 18th century roots. Capt. Jester had reportedly boasted after more than one of these excursions about having been paid very well the next day.
“It’s extremely humbling to be here on this day,” Al Jester said.
At the Jamestown side, passengers gathered at the Jamestown Settlement Education Center, where cake and ham biscuits awaited them. Ham biscuits are a ferry tradition dating to 1926 when S. Wallace Edwards Sr., another early ferry captain, started serving them to his passengers. Edwards’ side business would evolve into Edwards Virginia Smokehouse, a staple of Surry that for 95 years operated along Route 31, the road that leads to and from the ferry’s Surry departure point. Sam Edwards III sold the business to Missouri-based Burgers Smokehouse in 2021, five years after a devastating fire destroyed the Edwards family’s smokehouse in Surry.
The centennial celebration comes amid a proposal to supplement the ferry with a bridge connecting Surry with either James City or Charles City counties. A resolution that would direct VDOT to study the need and options for a bridge passed the state Senate in January and the House of Delegates in February, a year after similar legislation stalled. According to the Times’ coverage of the ferry’s 50th anniversary in 1975, state government officials had similarly discussed the possibility of a bridge to Surry that year, though one was never built.
