The smallest of the three vessels that reached Virginia in April, 1607, was the little pinnace Discovery, a favorite type of small vessel in that period. The first English vessel known to have been built in the New World was a pinnace. A colonizing expedition to Raleigh's colony on Roanoke Island left Plymouth, England, on April 9, 1585, with a fleet of five vessels and two pinnaces attached as tenders. A storm sank the tender to the Tiger, Sir Richard Grenville's flagship. On the 15th of May, the fleet came to anchor in the Bay of Mosquetal (Mosquito), and a landing was made at St. John on the Island of Puerto Rico. Here an encampment was made to give the men time to refresh themselves and to build a new pinnace for the Tiger. A forge was set up to make the nails, and trees were cut and hauled to camp on a low four-wheeled truck for the boat's timber. The ship's carpenters made speedy headway, launching and rigging the pinnace in ten days. They set sail from St. John on the 29th of May, the new pinnace carrying twenty men and, on the 27th of July, anchored at Hatoraske on the way to Roanoke.

The second English vessel known to have been built in North America was also a pinnace. The members of the second colony of Virginia left Plymouth, England, on the last day of May, 1607, under command of Captain George Popham, and located at "Sagadahoc in Virginia" at the mouth of the Kennebec River. There they set up fortifications which they called Fort St. George. After finishing the fort, "the carpenter framed a pretty pinnace of about thirty tons which they called Virginia, the shipwright being one Digby of London." This little vessel is known to have made two voyages across the Atlantic.

On June 7, 1609, a fleet of seven ships and two pinnaces left Plymouth, England, for Jamestown. After a few days out, one of the pinnaces returned to England, but the other, the little Virginia, remained with the fleet as the tender to the flagship Sea Venture. Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant Governor under Lord De La Warr, and Sir George Somers, Admiral of the fleet, embarked on the Sea Venture, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, Vice Admiral. These three men were leaders of the expedition and in order to avoid any dispute as to precedence, they agreed—very unwisely, it was disclosed—to sail on the same ship "with several commissions sealed, successively to take place one after another, considering the uncertainty of human life."