Ship Godspeed Gets Anything But

--The replica ship Godspeed, plagued by ill winds and mishaps, ended a six-month voyage from England--recreating the trip of the New World’s first permanent English settlers, who made the trip a month faster. A crowd of more than 200 people cheered and clapped when the 68-foot wooden square-rigger was towed to the dock at Jamestown, Va., Festival Park to complete its reenactment of the 8,000-mile 1607 voyage. “We’re delighted they’re home and that everyone is safe,” said state Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, a member of the sponsoring Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. The ship fell behind schedule soon after it left London on April 30. What was expected to be a quick 10-week journey for the replica turned into a six-month voyage marred by storms, calms, crew dissension and other delays. After the ship finally docked, Capt. Jon Rolf Christiansen said: “I’ve got to go take a two-hour shower.”

--Jordan’s Queen Noor, in New York this week for Nancy Reagan’s drug conference for first ladies, did some research on her own. Accompanied by Jordan’s minister of health, Zeid Hamzah, the American-born wife of King Hussein stopped in at Phoenix House, a drug rehabilitation center, and spent time with 15 young drug users under treatment. “It was a frank, open and human sharing (of) ideas,” Queen Noor said. “I would have liked to take all of them back to Jordan with me to meet our young people.” In that spirit, she invited representatives from Phoenix House to visit Jordan in the coming year with hopes that a joint program can be established. In her country, the queen said, drug abuse exists on a “modest but evident scale.”

--Tanzanian President Julius K. Nyerere, who is retiring soon, implored his countrymen to stop sending him farewell gifts. Nyerere drew laughter at a rally in Arusha when he said a Land Rover, a tractor, livestock, seeds and $164,000 in cash offered to him would just create storage problems at his little house. Nyerere, 63, has ruled the East African state since 1961 and will undoubtedly be one of the world’s least wealthy former heads of state. He owns no land or business, not even a car, and his monthly salary of $225 is $100 less than any Cabinet minister--at his own insistence.

--The choice may turn some people green, but a new New York publication, Irish American, puts the Rev. Jesse Jackson and New York Mayor Mario M. Cuomo high on the list of honorary Irish Americans. And tennis star John McEnroe’s temper tantrums, particularly when directed at English line judges at Wimbledon, give him a “high rating on his Irishness,” said publisher Niall O’Dowd.