Men of Invention and Industry Part 2

Phineas wished to follow the progress of the Triumph, but finding his brother Joseph unwilling to retain him in his employment, he followed Baker to Deptford, and continued to work at the Repulse until she was finished, launched, and set sail on her voyage, at the end of April, 1596. This was the leading ship of the squadron which set sail for Cadiz, under the command of the Earl of Ess.e.x and the Lord Admiral Howard, and which did so much damage to the forts and shipping of Philip II. of Spain.

During the winter months, while the work was in progress, Pett spent the leisure of his evenings in perfecting himself in learning, especially in drawing, cyphering, and mathematics, for the purpose, as he says, of attaining the knowledge of his profession. His master, Mr.

Baker, gave him every encouragement, and from his a.s.sistance, he adds, "I must acknowledge I received my greatest lights." The Lord Admiral was often present at Baker's house. Pett was importuned to set sail with the ship when finished, but he preferred remaining at home. The princ.i.p.al reason, no doubt, that restrained him at this moment from seeking the patronage of the great, was the care of his two sisters,[19] who, having fled from the house of their barbarous stepfather, could find no refuge but in that of their brother Phineas.

Joseph refused to receive them, and Peter of Wapping was perhaps less able than willing to do so.

In April, 1597, Pett had the advantage of being introduced to Howard, Earl of Nottingham, then Lord High Admiral of England. This, he says, was the first beginning of his rising. Two years later, Howard recommended him for employment in purveying plank and timber in Norfolk and Suffolk for shipbuilding purposes. Pett accomplished his business satisfactorily, though he had some malicious enemies to contend against. In his leisure, he began to prepare models of ships, which he rigged and finished complete. He also proceeded with the study of mathematics. The beginning of the year 1600 found Pett once more out of employment; and during his enforced idleness, which continued for six months, he seriously contemplated abandoning his profession and attempting to gain "an honest and convenient maintenance" by joining a friend in purchasing a caravel (a small vessel), and navigating it himself.

He was, however, prevented from undertaking this enterprise by a message which he received from the Court, then stationed at Greenwich.

The Lord High Admiral desired to see him; and after many civil compliments, he offered him the post of keeper of the plankyard at Chatham. Pett was only too glad to accept this offer, though the salary was small. He shipped his furniture on board a hoy of Rainham, and accompanied it down the Thames to the junction with the Medway.

There he escaped a great danger--one of the sea perils of the time.

The mouths of navigable rivers were still infested with pirates; and as the hoy containing Pett approached the Nore about three o'clock in the morning, and while still dark, she came upon a Dunkirk picaroon, full of men. Fortunately the pirate was at anchor; she weighed and gave chase, and had not the hoy set full sail, and been impelled up the Swale by a fresh wind, Pett would have been taken prisoner, with all his furniture.[20]

Arrived at Chatham, Pett met his brother Joseph, became reconciled to him, and ever after they lived together as loving brethren. At his brother's suggestion, Pett took a lease of the Manor House, and settled there with his sisters. He was now in the direct way to preferment.

Early in the following year (March, 1601) he succeeded to the place of a.s.sistant to the princ.i.p.al master shipwright at Chatham, and undertook the repairs of Her Majesty's ship The Lion's Whelp, and in the next year he new-built the Moon enlarging her both in length and breadth.

At the accession of James I. in 1603, Pett was commanded by the Lord High Admiral with all possible speed to build a little vessel for the young Prince Henry, eldest son of His Majesty. It was to be a sort of copy of the Ark Royal, which was the flagship of the Lord High Admiral when he defeated the Spanish Armada. Pett proceeded to accomplish the order with all dispatch. The little ship was in length by the keel 28 feet, in breadth 12 feet, and very curiously garnished within and without with painting and carving. After working by torch and candle light, night and day, the ship was launched, and set sail for the Thames, with the noise of drums, trumpets, and cannon, at the beginning of March, 1604. After pa.s.sing through a great storm at the Nore, the vessel reached the Tower, where the King and the young Prince inspected her with delight. She was christened Disdain by the Lord High Admiral, and Pett was appointed captain of the ship.

After his return to Chatham, Pett, at his own charge, built a small ship at Gillingham, of 300 tons, which he launched in the same year, and named the Resistance. The ship was scarcely out of hand, when Pett was ordered to Woolwich, to prepare the Bear and other vessels for conveying his patron, the Lord High Admiral, as an Amba.s.sador Extraordinary to Spain, for the purpose of concluding peace, after a strife of more than forty years. The Resistance was hired by the Government as a transport, and Pett was put in command. He seems to have been married at this time, as he mentions in his memoir that he parted with his wife and children at Chatham on the 24th of March, 1605, and that he sailed from Queenborough on Easter Sunday.

During the voyage to Lisbon the Resistance became separated from the Amba.s.sador's squadron, and took refuge in Corunna. She then set sail for Lisbon, which she reached on the 24th of April; and afterwards for St. Lucar, on the Guadalquiver, near Seville, which she reached on the 11th of May following. After revisiting Corunna, "according to instructions," on the homeward voyage, Pett directed his course for England, and reached Rye on the 26th of June, "amidst much rain, thunder, and lightning." In the course of the same year, his brother Joseph died, and Phineas succeeded to his post as master shipbuilder at Chatham. He was permitted, in conjunction with one Henry Farvey and three others, to receive the usual reward of 5s. per ton for building five new merchant ships,[21] most probably for East Indian commerce, now a.s.suming large dimensions. He was despatched by the Government to Bearwood, in Hampshire, to make a selection of timber from the estate of the Earl of Worcester for the use of the navy, and on presenting his report 3000 tons were purchased. What with his building of ships, his attendance on the Lord Admiral to Spain, and his selection of timber for the Government, his hands seem to have been kept very full during the whole of 1605.

In July, 1606, Pett received private instructions from the Lord High Admiral to have all the King's ships "put into comely readiness" for the reception of the King of Denmark, who was expected on a Royal visit. "Wherein," he says, "I strove extraordinarily to express my service for the honour of the kingdom; but by reason the time limited was short, and the business great, we laboured night and day to effect it, which accordingly was done, to the great honour of our sovereign king and master, and no less admiration of all strangers that were eye-witnesses to the same." The reception took place on the 10th of August, 1606.

Shortly after the departure of His Majesty of Denmark, four of the Royal ships--the Ark, Victory, Golden Lion, and Swiftsure--were ordered to be dry-docked; the two last mentioned at Deptford, under charge of Matthew Baker; and the two former at Woolwich, under that of Pett. For greater convenience, Pett removed his family to Woolwich. After being elected and sworn Master of the Company of Shipwrights, he refers in his ma.n.u.script, for the first time, to his magnificent and original design of the Prince Royal.[22]

"After settling at Woolwich," he says, "I began a curious model for the prince my master, most part whereof I wrought with my own hands."

After finishing the model, he exhibited it to the Lord High Admiral, and, after receiving his approval and commands, he presented it to the young prince at Richmond. "His Majesty (who was present) was exceedingly delighted with the sight of the model, and pa.s.sed some time in questioning the divers material things concerning it, and demanded whether I could build the great ship in all parts like the same; for I will, says His Majesty, compare them together when she shall be finished. Then the Lord Admiral commanded me to tell His Majesty the story of the Three Ravens[23] I had seen at Lisbon, in St. Vincent's Church; which I did as well as I could, with my best expressions, though somewhat daunted at first at His Majesty's presence, having never before spoken before any King."

Before, however, he could accomplish his purpose, Pett was overtaken by misfortunes. His enemies, very likely seeing with spite the favour with which he had been received by men in high position, stirred up an agitation against him. There may, and there very probably was, a great deal of jobbery going on in the dockyards. It was difficult, under the system which prevailed, to have any proper check upon the expenditure for the repair and construction of ships. At all events, a commission was appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the abuses and misdemeanors of those in office; and Pett's enemies took care that his past proceedings should be thoroughly overhauled,--together with those of Sir Robert Mansell, then Treasurer to the Navy; Sir John Trevor, surveyor; Sir Henry Palmer, controller; Sir Thomas Bluther, victualler; and many others.

While the commission was still sitting and holding what Pett calls their "malicious proceedings," he was able to lay the keel of his new great ship upon the stocks in the dock at Woolwich on the 20th of October, 1608. He had a clear conscience, for his hands were clean.

He went on vigorously with his work, though he knew that the inquisition against him was at its full height. His enemies reported that he was "no artist, and that he was altogether insufficient to perform such a service" as that of building his great ship.

Nevertheless, he persevered, believing in the goodness of his cause.

Eventually, he was enabled to turn the tables upon his accusers, and to completely justify himself in all his transactions with the king, the Lord Admiral, and the public officers, who were privy to all his transactions. Indeed, the result of the enquiry was not only to cause a great trouble and expense to all the persons accused, but, as Pett says in his Memoir, "the Government itself of that royal office was so shaken and disjoined as brought almost ruin upon the whole Navy, and a far greater charge to his Majesty in his yearly expense than ever was known before."[24]

In the midst of his troubles and anxieties, Pett was unexpectedly cheered with the presence of his "Master" Prince Henry, who specially travelled out of his way from Ess.e.x to visit him at Woolwich, to see with his own eyes what progress he was making with the great ship.

After viewing the dry dock, which had been constructed by Pett, and was one of the first, if not the very first in England,--his Highness partook of a banquet which the shipbuilder had hastily prepared for him in his temporary lodgings.

One of the circ.u.mstances which troubled Pett so much at this time, was the strenuous opposition of the other shipbuilders to his plans of the great ship. There never had been such a frightful innovation. The model was all wrong. The lines were detestable. The man who planned the whole thing was a fool, a "cozener" of the king, and the ship, suppose it to be made, was "unfit for any other use but a dung-boat!"

This attack upon his professional character weighed very heavily upon his mind.

He determined to put his case in a staightforward manner before the Lord High Admiral. He set down in writing in the briefest manner everything that he had done, and the plots that had been hatched against him; and beseeched his lordship, for the honour of the State, and the reputation of his office, to cause the entire matter to be thoroughly investigated "by judicious and impartial persons." After a conference with Pett, and an interview with his Majesty, the Lord High Admiral was authorised by the latter to invite the Earls of Worcester and Suffolk to attend with him at Woolwich, and bring all the accusers of Pett's design of the great ship before them for the purpose of examination, and to report to him as to the actual state of affairs.

Meanwhile Pett's enemies had been equally busy. They obtained a private warrant from the Earl of Northampton[25] to survey the work; "which being done," says Pett, "upon return of the insufficiency of the same under their hands, and confirmation by oath, it was resolved amongst them I should be turned out, and for ever disgraced."

But the lords appointed by the King now interfered between Pett and his adversaries. They first inspected the ship, and made a diligent survey of the form and manner of the work and the goodness of the materials, and then called all the accusers before them to hear their allegations.

They were examined separately. First, Baker the master shipbuilder was called. He objected to the size of the ship, to the length, breadth, depth, draught of water, height of jack, rake before and aft, breadth of the floor, scantling of the timber, and so on. Then another of the objectors was called; and his evidence was so clearly in contradiction to that which had already been given, that either one or both must be wrong. The princ.i.p.al objector, Captain Waymouth, next gave his evidence; but he was able to say nothing to any purpose, except giving their lordships "a long, tedious discourse of proportions, measures, lines, and an infinite rabble of idle and unprofitable speeches, clean from the matter."

The result was that their lordships reported favourably of the design of the ship, and the progress which had already been made.

The Earl of Nottingham interposed his influence; and the King himself, accompanied by the young Prince, went down to Woolwich, and made a personal examination.[26] A great many witnesses were again examined, twenty-four on one side, and twenty-seven on the other. The King then carefully examined the ship himself: "the planks, the tree-nails, the workmanship, and the cross-grained timber." "The cross-grain," he concluded, "was in the men and not in the timber." After all the measurements had been made and found correct, "his Majesty," says Pett, "with a loud voice commanded the measurers to declare publicly the very truth; which when they had delivered clearly on our side, all the whole mult.i.tude heaved up their hats, and gave a great and loud shout and acclamation. And then the Prince, his Highness, called with a high voice in these words: 'Where be now these perjured fellows that dare thus abuse his Majesty with these false accusations? Do they not worthily deserve hanging?"'

Thus Pett triumphed over all his enemies, and was allowed to finish the great ship in his own way. By the middle of September 1610, the vessel was ready to be "strucken down upon her ways"; and a dozen of the choice master carpenters of his Majesty's navy came from Chatham to a.s.sist in launching her. The ship was decorated, gilded, draped, and garlanded; and on the 24th the King, the Queen, and the Royal family came from the palace at Theobald's to witness the great sight.

Unfortunately, the day proved very rough; and it was little better than a neap tide. The ship started very well, but the wind "overblew the tide"; she caught in the dock-gates, and settled hard upon the ground, so that there was no possibility of launching her that day.

This was a great disappointment. The King retired to the palace at Greenwich, though the Prince lingered behind. When he left, he promised to return by midnight, after which it was proposed to make another effort to set the ship afloat. When the time arrived, the Prince again made his appearance, and joined the Lord High Admiral, and the princ.i.p.al naval officials. It was bright moonshine. After midnight the rain began to fall, and the wind to blow from the southwest. But about two o'clock, an hour before high water, the word was given to set all taut, and the ship went away without any straining of screws and tackles, till she came clear afloat into the midst of the Thames. The Prince was aboard, and amidst the blast of trumpets and expressions of joy, he performed the ceremony of drinking from the great standing cup, and throwing the rest of the wine towards the half-deck, and christening the ship by the name of the Prince Royal.[27]

The dimensions of the ship may be briefly described. Her keel was 114 feet long, and her cross-beam 44 feet. She was of 1400 tons burthen, and carried 64 pieces of great ordnance. She was the largest ship that had yet been constructed in England.

The Prince Royal was, at the time she was built, considered one of the most wonderful efforts of human genius. Mr. Charnock, in his 'Treatise on Marine Architecture,' speaks of her as abounding in striking peculiarities. Previous to the construction of this ship, vessels were built in the style of the Venetian galley, which although well adapted for the quiet Mediterranean, were not suited for the stormy northern ocean. The fighting ships also of the time of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth were too full of "top-hamper" for modern navigation. They were oppressed by high forecastles and p.o.o.ps. Pett struck out entirely new ideas in the build and lines of his new ship; and the course which he adopted had its effect upon all future marine structures. The ship was more handy, more wieldy, and more convenient. She was unquestionably the first effort of English ingenuity in the direction of manageableness and simplicity. "The vessel in question," says Charnock, "may be considered the parent of the cla.s.s of shipping which continues in practice even to the present moment."

It is scarcely necessary to pursue in detail the further history of Phineas Pett. We may briefly mention the princ.i.p.al points. In 1612, the Prince Royal was appointed to convey the Princess Elizabeth and her husband, The Palsgrave, to the Continent. Pett was on board the ship, and found that "it wrought exceedingly well, and was so yare of conduct that a foot of helm would steer her." While at Flushing, "such a mult.i.tude of people, men, women, and children, came from all places in Holland to see the ship, that we could scarce have room to go up and down till very night."

About the 27th of March, 1616, Pett bargained with Sir Waiter Raleigh to build a vessel of 500 tons,[28] and received 500L. from him on account. The King, through the interposition of the Lord Admiral, allowed Pett to lay her keel on the galley dock at Woolwich. In the same year he was commissioned by the Lord Zouche, now Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, to construct a pinnace of 40 tons, in respect of which Pett remarks, "towards the whole of the hull of the pinnace, and all her rigging, I received only 100L. from the Lord Zouche, the rest Sir Henry Mainwaring (half-brother to Raleigh) cunningly received on my behalf, without my knowledge, which I never got from him but by piecemeal, so that by the bargain I was loser 100L. at least."

Pett fared much worse at the hands of Raleigh himself. His great ship, the Destiny, was finished and launched in December, 1616. "I delivered her to him," says Pett, "on float, in good order and fashion; by which business I lost 700L., and could never get any recompense at all for it; Sir Walter going to sea and leaving me unsatisfied."[29] Nor was this the only loss that Pett met with this year. The King, he states, "bestowed upon me for the supply of my present relief the making of a knight-baronet," which authority Pett pa.s.sed to a recusant, one Francis Ratcliffe, for 700L.; but that worthy defrauded him, so that he lost 30L. by the bargain.

Next year, Pett was despatched by the Government to the New Forest in Hampshire, "where," he says, "one Sir Giles Mompesson[30] had made a vast waste in the spoil of his Majesty's timber, to redress which I was employed thither, to make choice out of the number of trees he had felled of all such timber as was useful for shipping, in which business I spent a great deal of time, and brought myself into a great deal of trouble." About this period, poor Pett's wife and two of his children lay for some time at death's door. Then more enquiries took place into the abuses of the dockyards, in which it was sought to implicate Pett.

During the next three years (1618-20) he worked under the immediate orders of the Commissioners in the New Dock at Chatham.

In 1620, Pett's friend Sir Robert Mansell was appointed General of the Fleet destined to chastise the Algerine pirates, who still continued their depredations on the shipping in the Channel, and the King thereupon commissioned Pett to build with all dispatch two pinnaces, of 120 and 80 tons respectively. "I was myself," he says, "to serve as Captain in the voyage"--being glad, no doubt, to escape from his tormentors. The two pinnaces were built at Ratcliffe, and were launched on the 16th and 18th of October, 1620. On the 30th, Pett sailed with the fleet, and after driving the pirates out of the Channel, he returned to port after an absence of eleven months.

His enemies had taken advantage of his absence from England to get an order for the survey of the Prince Royal, his masterpiece; the result of which was, he says, that "they maliciously certified the ship to be unserviceable, and not fit to continue--that what charges should be bestowed upon her would be lost." Nevertheless, the Prince Royal was docked, and fitted for a voyage to Spain. She was sent thither with Charles Prince of Wales and the Duke of Buckingham, the former going in search of a Spanish wife. Pett, the builder of the ship, was commanded to accompany the young Prince and the Duke.

The expedition sailed on the 24th of August, 1623, and returned on the 14th of October. Pett was entertained on board the Prince Royal, and rendered occasional services to the officers in command, though nothing of importance occurred during the voyage.

The Prince of Wales presented him with a valuable gold chain as a reward for his attendance. In 1625, Pett, after rendering many important services to the Admiralty, was ordered again to prepare the Prince Royal for sea. She was to bring over the Prince of Wales's bride from France. While the preparations were making for the voyage, news reached Chatham of the death of King James. Pett was afterwards commanded to go forward with the work of preparing the Prince Royal, as well as the whole fleet, which was intended to escort the French Princess, or rather the Queen, to England. The expedition took place in May, and the young Queen landed at Dover on the 12th of that month.

Pett continued to be employed in building and repairing ships, as well as in preparing new designs, which he submitted to the King and the Commissioners of the Navy. In 1626, he was appointed a joint commissioner, with the Lord High Admiral, the Lord Treasurer Marlborough, and others, "to enquire into certain alleged abuses of the Navy, and to view the state thereof, and also the stores thereof,"

clearly showing that he was regaining his old position. He was also engaged in determining the best mode of measuring the tonnage of ships.[31] Four years later he was again appointed a commissioner for making "a general survey of the whole navy at Chatham." For this and his other services the King promoted Pett to be a princ.i.p.al officer of the Navy, with a fee of 200L. per annum. His patent was sealed on the 16th of January, 1631. In the same year the King visited Woolwich to witness the launching of the Vanguard, which Pett had built; and his Majesty honoured the shipwright by partic.i.p.ating in a banquet at his lodgings.

From this period to the year 1637, Pett records nothing of particular importance in his autobiography. He was chiefly occupied in aiding his son Peter--who was rapidly increasing his fame as a shipwright--in repairing and building first-cla.s.s ships of war. As Pett had, on an early occasion in his life, prepared a miniature ship for Prince Henry, eldest son of James I., he now proceeded to prepare a similar model for the Prince of Wales, the King's eldest son, afterwards Charles II.

This model was presented to the Prince at St. James's, "who entertained it with great joy, being purposely made to disport himself withal." On the next visit of his Majesty to Woolwich, he inspected the progress made with the Leopard, a sloop-of-war built by Peter Pett. While in the hold of the vessel, the King called Phineas to one side, and told him of his resolution to have a great new ship built, and that Phineas must be the builder. This great new ship was The Sovereign of the Seas, afterwards built by Phineas and Peter Pett. Some say that the model was prepared by the latter; but Phineas says that it was prepared by himself, and finished by the 29th of October, 1634. As a compensation for his services, his Majesty renewed his pension of 40L.

(which had been previously stopped), with orders for all the arrears due upon it to be paid.

To provide the necessary timber for the new ship, Phineas and his son went down into the North to survey the forests. They went first by water to Whitby; from thence they proceeded on horseback to Gisborough and baited; then to Stockton, where they found but poor entertainment, though they lodged with the Mayor, whose house "was only a mean thatched cottage!" Middlesborough and the great iron district of the North had not yet come into existence.

Newcastle, already of some importance, was the princ.i.p.al scene of their labours. The timber for the new ship was found in Chapley Wood and Bracepeth Park. The gentry did all they could to facilitate the object of Pett. On his journey homewards (July, 1635), he took Cambridge on his way, where, says he, "I lodged at the Falcon, and visited Emmanuel College, where I had been a scholar in my youth."

The Sovereign of the Seas was launched on the 12th of October, 1637, having been about two years in building. Evelyn in his diary says of the ship (19th July, 1641):--"We rode to Rochester and Chatham to see the Soveraigne, a monstrous vessel so called, being for burthen, defence, and ornament, the richest that ever spread cloth before the wind. She carried 100 bra.s.s cannon, and was 1600 tons, a rare sailer, the work of the famous Phineas Pett." Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds says that she was afterwards cut down, and was a safe and fast ship.[32]

The Sovereign continued for nearly sixty years to be the finest ship in the English service. Though frequently engaged in the most injurious occupations, she continued fit for any services which the exigencies of the State might require. She fought all through the wars of the Commonwealth; she was the leading ship of Admiral Blake, and was in all the great naval engagements with France and Holland. The Dutch gave her the name of The Golden Devil. In the last fight between the English and French, she encountered the Wonder of the World, and so warmly plied the French Admiral, that she forced him out of his three-decked wooden castle, and chasing the Royal Sun, before her, forced her to fly for shelter among the rocks, where she became a prey to lesser vessels, and was reduced to ashes. At last, in the reign of William III., the Sovereign became leaky and defective with age; she was laid up at Chatham, and being set on fire by negligence or accident, she burnt to the water's edge.

To return to the history of Phineas Pett. As years approached, he retired from office, and "his loving son," as he always affectionately designates Peter, succeeded him as princ.i.p.al shipwright, Charles I.

conferring upon him the honour of knighthood. Phineas lived for ten years after the Sovereign of the Seas was launched. In the burial register of the parish of Chatham it is recorded, "Phineas Pett, Esqe.

and Capt., was buried 21st August, 1647."[33]

Sir Peter Pett was almost as distinguished as his father. He was the builder of the first frigate, The Constant Warwick. Sir William Symonds says of this vessel:--"She was an incomparable sailer, remarkable for her sharpness and the fineness of her lines; and many were built like her." Pett "introduced convex lines on the immersed part of the hull, with the studding and sprit sails; and, in short, he appears to have fully deserved his character of being the best ship architect of his time."[34] Sir Peter Pett's monument in Deptford Old Church fully records his services to England's naval power.