The Autobiography of Phineas Pett
[260] The poet, then gentleman of the bedchamber to Prince Henry.
[261] _I.e._ for this special purpose.
[262] A legend concerning the relics of St. Vincent, who suffered
martyrdom at Valencia in A.D. 304. His body on being exposed to
wild beasts was said to have been protected by a raven. During the
Moorish invasion of Spain these remains were removed from Valencia to
Cape St. Vincent, and in the twelfth century were brought by water
from that Cape to the cathedral of Lisbon and placed in the Chapel
of St. Vincent. Two (not three) ravens, who watched over his tomb,
accompanied the ship on its voyage, remaining on watch when the
relics were deposited in the cathedral. The ship and the two birds
appear in the arms of Lisbon.
[263] _I.e._ of ample powers.
[264] See the list and notes at pp. 54-5.
[265] Ante, p. 20.
[266] Rotherhithe; MS. 'Redreife.'
[267] MS. 'Bluther.'
[268] MS. 'Peter.'
[269] A small piece of ordnance without carriage, used for
firing salutes. This was not the 'chamber' used with the early
breech-loading ordnance.
[270] The _Prince Royal_.
[271] MS. 'flower.' 'Floor--are those timbers lying transverse to
the keel, being bolted through it ... and strictly taken, is so much
only of her bottom as she rests upon when lying aground.'--Blanckley,
_Naval Expositor_.
[272] Troublesome, painful.
[273] Lie.
[274] Careless.
[275] The Tuck is 'that part of the ship where the ends of the bottom
planks are collected together immediately under the stem ... a square
tuck' (as in this case) 'is terminated above by the wing transom and
below and on each side by the fashion-pieces' (Falconer, _Marine
Dictionary_). According to Sutherland (_Shipbuilder's Assistant_),
the 'height of the tuck' was taken from the point where the heels
of the fashion-pieces were 'let in upon the posts,' _i.e._ upon the
stern post and false stern post.
[276] Bully, swashbuckler.
[277] A coach or chariot of a stately or luxurious kind.--_N.E.D._
[278] Sir Robert Cecil had been created Earl of Salisbury in 1605.
[279] Considering.
[280] Previously.
[281] MS. 'brew.'
[282] MS. 'Wrong heads.' The upper ends of the floor timbers.
[283] The inside planking from the kelson to the orlop clamps.
[284] Canopy.
[285] Of the East India Company, merchant and sea-captain.
[286] One of the six Masters Attendant of the Navy.
[287] Probably John Watts, who was captain of Denbigh's flagship in
the Cadiz Expedition of 1625 and was knighted; together with Michael
Geere and others, at Plymouth on the return. He was captain of
Buckingham's flagship in the Ile de Rhé expedition of 1627.
[288] Captain Thomas Norris (or Norreys) referred to at p. 119 as
being one of the Commissioners of 1618 and at p. 120 as one of Pett's
'greatest enemies.' From p. 33 it would appear that at one time he
had been a purser.
[289] Perhaps the Captain James Chester referred to in _Naval Tracts
of Sir William Monson_, I. xxxiv. and III. 60.
[290] _See_ Introduction.
[291] Captain Christopher Newport, recommended by Mansell and Trevor
in 1606 for the reversion of one of the principal masters' places. In
1612 he was captain of the East Indiaman _Expedition_. He was removed
from among the six masters by the Commission of 1618, on account of
his employment by the East India Company.
[292] Of Limehouse; master of a merchantman, and a shipbuilder.
[293] Probably the 'Thomas Redwood, mariner, precinct of the Tower of
London,' whose will was proved in 1613 (_Wills. P.C.C._)
[294] Possibly the William Geere granted 'the office of an Assistant
of the Admiralty' in 1604; or Michael Geere granted 'the place of
Assistant to the King's chief officers of the Admiralty' in March
1608, subsequently knighted and a Master of Trinity House.
[295] In 1618 'Captains Geer and Moore' were engaged 'in receiving
and inventorying the _Destiny_ and her furniture, the goods of Sir
Walter Raleigh.'--_Cal. S. P. Dom._, November 2, 1618.
[296] A servant of the East India Company.
[297] Of Limehouse, mariner.
[298] See Introduction.
[299] MS. 'Cleye.' Referred to at p. 33 as 'Nicholas Clay of Redriff,
shipwright and yardkeeper.' Nominated in the Charter of 1605 as one
of the 'Assistants' of the Shipwrights' Company. The name is there
spelt 'Cley,' but he signed as 'Nycholas Clay.'
[300] Referred to at p. 33 as 'Thomas Graves of Limehouse, shipwright
and yardkeeper'; the indictment is, however, signed by 'John Greaves'
(see Introduction), and it may be noted that 'John Graves' was
nominated an 'Assistant' by the Charter of 1612. Probably Pett has
made a mistake in the forename.
[301] Probably Robert Tranckmore, who with Jonas Day was employed
in 1627 in making a dry dock, etc., at Portsmouth. These two with
Pett were also ordered to report on the faults in the ships built by
Burrell.
[302] Clerk of the Check at Woolwich.
[303] Brother of Sir Peter Buck, Clerk of the King's Ships. It
appears from p. 33 that he was an under clerk to Sir Peter.
In October 1607 Thomas Buck and William Holliday were granted
'protection' for a year, and this was renewed in September 1609. On
31st July 1609 Thomas Buck and John Clifton were granted the moiety
of all forfeitures, etc., incurred by officers of the navy for frauds
against the Crown.
[304] John Clifton (see preceding note); he had been purser in the
_Answer_ in the Spanish voyage of 1605.
[305] In October 1604 he was granted with others a reward of 5_s._
a ton for building five new ships. He was a friend of William
Adams, the navigator, who refers to him in his letter from Japan of
October 23, 1611, to the East India Company. It would appear that he
and Diggens (and possibly Woodcott) would more properly have been
included under 'shipwrights.'
[306] Probably the William Bigatt who was master of the _Lion_ under
William Borough in 1587. See 'The Mutiny of the _Golden Lion_' in
Oppenheim, _Administration of the Royal Navy_, p. 382 _et seq._
[307] Of Stepney.
[308] Became in 1610 one of the six principal masters. Newport's
reversion (see note 7, p. 54) was granted 'after the placing of John
King.'
[309] Possibly Arthur Pett, the navigator of 1580. He was one of the
members incorporated by the second charter of the Virginia Company in
1609.
[310] Possibly referred to in Court Minutes of the East India Company
(_Cal. S.P. East Indies_, 407) of April 1608: 'Gratifications to
Diggins, Burrell, Kitchen and Woodcott.'
[311] This may be the 'old Thomas Fuller' who died in the East India
Company's ship _Thomas_ in 1612.
[312] MS. 'Write.' In 1604 the Lord Mayor was directed to appoint
Richard and Robert Wright joint packers of woollen cloths, &c., and
porters of strangers' goods in and out of the port of London. It is
not, however, clear that this is the same man.
[313] Of Ratcliff. Mentioned in the grant to the North-West Passage
Company. _Cal. S.P. Colonial_, July 26, 1612.
[314] Granted in August 1604 the usual allowance for building five
new ships. William Adams, who died in Japan in 1620, had been for
twelve years apprenticed to Diggens, and refers to him affectionately
in his letters to the East India Company. (See _Letters received by
the East India Company_, vol. i.)
[315] Probably the 'Edward Jordan, mariner,' mentioned in the Pipe
Office Dec. Acct. for 1613 (No. 2251).
[316] Principal master workman of the East India Company; see
Introduction.
[317] Brother-in-law of Phineas. A shipbuilder at Ratcliff; nominated
as a warden in the shipwrights' charter of 1605.
[318] Nominated as an 'Assistant' in the shipwrights' charter of 1612.
[319] Thomas Cole of Woodbridge and Thomas Pryme of Yarmouth were
nominated 'Assistants' in the shipwrights' charter of 1605.
[320] MS. 'Androes.'
[321] Shipbuilder at Gillingham, see p. 24. He was also a shipwright
in Chatham Yard.
[322] Referred to at p. 93 as 'friends in the navy.'
[323] See Introduction.
[324] MS. 'directed.'
[325] See Introduction.
[326] The transverse section of the ship at the greatest breadth.
[327] Henry Briggs (1561-1630), mathematician. First Professor of
Geometry at Gresham College.
[328] The futtocks or foothooks are the timbers between the floor
timbers and the top timbers. The floor timbers, lower and upper
futtocks, and top timbers, when put together, form a complete
frame-bend.
[329] Redness being a sign that the wood was past its prime and
beginning to decay.
[330] Entirely.
[331] To be dressed or smoothed with an adze.
[332] The timbers, popularly called 'ribs,' forming the frame.
[333] Carefully.
[334] Marvel at, Lat. _admirari_.
[335] Result.
[336] Thomas Button. Knighted 1616; died 1634.
[337] MS. 'and.'
[338] John Legatt, or Legate, Clerk of the Check at Chatham, granted
in 1604 the reversion of the Clerkship of the Navy after Peter Buck,
sen. (_Pat. Roll_, 1655). He appears, however, to have died before
Buck, probably in 1615.
[339] An allusion to the well-known line of Horace (_De Arte
Poetica_, 139): 'Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus'
(Mountains are in labour, a silly little mouse will be born).
[340] MS. 'veryest bable and drowne divell.' This has the appearance
of a seaman's saying, but I have not met it elsewhere. 'Bable'
(bauble) is used contemptuously for 'a mere toy, applied to a
machine, etc., considered too small or weak for actual work'
(_N.E.D._), as in the following passages:
' ... the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast ...
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis ...
... where's then the saucy boat
Whose weak untimbered sides but even now
Co-rivall'd greatness?'
SHAKESPEARE, _Troilus and Cressida_, I, iii.
' ... his shipping
Poor ignorant baubles--on our terrible seas
Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd
As easily 'gainst our rocks.'
SHAKESPEARE, _Cymbeline_, III, i.
The word 'bawble' is also used by Anson in speaking of the _Tryal_
sloop, which the Spaniards at Juan Fernandez could not credit with
having rounded Cape Horn.
'Devil' seemingly refers to the 'poor devils' forming the crew: it
does not appear to refer to the seam in the ship's bottom to which
that name is sometimes given.
[341] Referring to his voyage in 1602. _See_ Introduction.
[342] Granted October 27, 1607.
[343] Apparently John Pory, who, from his letter to Dudley Carleton
of January 3, 1610 (_S.P. Dom., James I_, lii, 1), appears to have
been connected with the Lord Treasurer. This would be the traveller
and geographer of that name, then M.P. for Bridgwater, but settled in
London.
[344] Probably John Keymer, the author of _Observations upon the
Dutch Fishing_.
[345] Reproof.
[346] By William Burrell.
[347] Of 1100 tons; wrecked on her first voyage in 1613 and burnt by
the Javanese.
[348] Of 250 tons.
[349] MS. 'strokes.' The ship is struck (lowered) upon the launching
ways when the blocks and wedges on which the keel is supported are
driven out and the weight of the ship taken upon the cradle, the
bottom of which rests upon, and slides along, the launching ways.
[350] According to the account of the captain of the _Peppercorn_
(_Egerton MS._ 2100) this was on 30th December. The _Peppercorn_ was
launched on 1st January, 'and the great ship the _Trade's Increase_
... a little removed, but not launched. The 2nd day Tuesday the
_Trade's Increase_ was half her length removed but not launched for
the dockhead was too narrow for her passage. The 3rd day ... she was
launched.'
[351] An account of this tournament is given in Birch, _Life of
Henry, Prince of Wales_, p. 182 _et seq._
[352] Satisfaction, content.