to be required to 'put in assurance' to finish her for 16,000_l._;
but, before she was complete, wages alone had amounted to more than
this sum, while the total cost, exclusive of ordnance, reached the
extraordinary amount of 40,833_l._ In May Pett set out for the north
to fell and prepare the 2500 trees required for her in Chopwell and
Brancepeth Woods. The cost of carriage of the timber to the water,
estimated at 1190_l._ at least, fell upon the counties of Durham
and Northumberland, and Bishop Morton of Durham, who had been made
responsible for the provision of this service, had to apply to the
Council for assistance in proportioning out the assessment. The
county of Northumberland objected to the burden to be placed upon it,
and it was suggested that Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the North
Riding of Yorkshire should bear part. By the beginning of September
the timber had begun to arrive at Woolwich, and Pett expected to have
the ship finished in eighteen months.
On the 19th September Phineas found it necessary to protest to the
King against the interference of the other officers, who had 'from
the beginning opposed the King's purpose in building this ship,'[168]
and especially against being made to take material of which he did
not approve, and against the attempt to charge the ship with the
cost of houses then being built at Woolwich. He pointed out that
he could not keep the cost within the estimate if such practices,
which seem to have been customary, were permitted. The Navy Officers
complained to the Admiralty of Pett's action, and he was called
before the Admiralty, when he denied that he had complained to the
King about any of them.[169] Possibly the great disproportion between
the estimated and the ultimate cost of the ship was to some extent
due to the fact that his protest was not successful, though it is
difficult to believe that his original estimate can have been even
approximately accurate. He had also under-estimated by six months the
time required to build her.
[Sidenote: The Last Years.]
The manuscript ends abruptly with Pett's visit to the Lord High
Admiral on the 1st October 1638, and, curiously enough, the
references to him in the State Papers--hitherto frequent--cease
at the same date, with a letter from Northumberland to Pennington
mentioning this visit. Except for one reference in connexion with
a gratuity to be given to Henry Goddard in April 1645, his name is
never again mentioned therein. Yet he remained in the service and
carried on his duties at Chatham until his death.
On 28th June 1642 the King sent him a warrant informing him of
the appointment of Pennington as Lord High Admiral in place of
Northumberland, and directing him to send the standard and all
necessaries for the fleet as Sir John should direct.[170] It will
be remembered that Pennington hesitated and waited before going to
the Fleet, with the result that Warwick, who had been nominated by
Parliament to take command, went on board the flagship on the 2nd
July, and the Fleet went over to the Parliamentary side. On the
20th August Colonels Sir John Seaton and Edwyn Sandis, acting on
instructions from the Committee of Public Safety, went to Chatham
Dockyard, 'which was surrendered to them by Captain Pett when he saw
their warrant.'[171] This was on Saturday evening, and on the Monday
they completed their work by placing a guard on board the Sovereign.
Pett was rewarded for his ready obedience by being included among
the Commissioners of the Navy appointed by Ordinance on the 15th
September,[172] and he was to receive the same allowance as he
already held, although the other captains (except Batten) and John
Hollond were only given 100_l._ a year. From this time until his
death in August 1647, in his seventy-seventh year, he seems to have
remained quietly at Chatham, perhaps too old to take any very active
part in current affairs, for he has certainly left no mark upon
them. His death seems to have occurred unnoticed; the exact date is
unknown,[173] and there is no record of his will--if he made one. The
last entry concerning him in the official records[174] relates to the
payment of his salary up to 29th September 1647, when he had passed
away, but no reference is made to that fact. It is curious that Sir
Henry Vane, the Treasurer of the Navy in 1647, who had corresponded
with Pett, and must have known of his death, has left a blank in
place of his name in the entry in these accounts relating to the
salary of Thomas Smith,[175] who succeeded to Pett's post at Chatham
on the 28th August.
No authentic portrait of Phineas is known to exist. He tells us that
in 1612 his 'picture was begun to be drawn by a Dutchman working then
with Mr. Rock,' one of the ship-painters, but does not say if it was
ever finished. The picture in the National Portrait Gallery, which
shows the stern view of the Sovereign, at one time supposed to be a
portrait of Phineas, is now acknowledged to be that of his son Peter.
Another picture, in the possession of the Earl of Yarborough, has
been exhibited in the past as a portrait of Phineas, but there can
be no doubt that it really represents Sir Phineas (son of Peter of
Deptford and grandson of Peter of Wapping), who was a Commissioner
of the Navy from 1685 to 1689. The ship included in this picture is
probably the Britannia, built by Sir Phineas in 1682.
[Sidenote: Phineas Pett's Character.]
In forming any just appreciation of the character and abilities
of Phineas Pett, regard must be had to the circumstances of age
in which he lived. It was a time of great political and religious
unrest, and expressions of religious devotion which might now be
thought extravagant were then normal, and were apparently not
thought incongruous with dishonesty in money matters. The chronic
maladministration of the Navy, and the arrears in payment of the
relatively small salaries allotted to responsible posts, may to
some extent justify methods of acquiring additional emoluments that
nowadays are judged more severely.
Pett's kindness towards his unfortunate brothers and sisters shows
a good heart, and there must have been something attractive in his
character to secure him the steady support of Nottingham, James
I, and Charles I, which went so far as to shield him against the
consequences of his misdeeds.
The favoured position which he held, and the privilege he enjoyed
of direct intercourse with the supreme heads of the Navy behind
the backs of his immediate superiors, brought Pett into conflict
with the latter on many occasions. It is not necessary to accept
the explanation of Phineas that these incidents were the results of
conspiracies directed against him. To oppose him was a deadly sin;
thus, Burrell, who was 'a worthy gentleman and good friend' when
he stood on Pett's side in the Prince Royal inquiry, became Pett's
'greatest enemy,' engaged in the 'malicious practice' of 'tending
to overthrow me and root my name out of the earth' because he was
appointed one of the Commissioners of Inquiry in 1618.
Pett was evidently interested in the various efforts made in the
early seventeenth century to explore and colonise the coasts of
North America. He frequently refers to his friendship with Button,
and states that he assisted in the selection of the Resolution for
the voyage of 1612. He was, moreover, a kinsman of Hawkridge and an
acquaintance of Foxe; while Gibbons was the master of his ship the
Resistance. The disparaging remark on Waymouth's 'mistaking his
course (as he did in the North-West Passage)'[176] shows that he
was acquainted with the story of the voyage of 1602, but the most
competent modern authorities do not agree with this opinion of Pett
(and of his contemporary Foxe), and hold that Waymouth did in fact
enter the straits subsequently called after Hudson and sail along
them for a considerable distance.[177] Pett was also a member of
the Virginia Company, though he does not mention this fact. His
name appears in the second and third Charters of the Company (1609
and 1612), and in 1611 he subscribed the sum of 37_l._ 10_s._ This
was the lowest subscription allowable for members, but it was a
comparatively large sum for those days.
Evidently Phineas, in spite of his large and growing family, was at
this time fairly prosperous, and had an income considerably greater
than the 54_l._ 15_s._ which represented his official salary and
allowance. No doubt this income was augmented by the trading ventures
in the Resistance and by shipbuilding for private owners and by
various official 'perquisites.' In 1614 it was increased by 40_l._,
granted him by the King under writ of Privy Seal, but in 1617 and
the following years his bad speculations in regard to the Destiny,
the pinnace built for Lord Zouch, the Mercury, and the Spy, made
serious inroads into his capital and burdened him with a load of
debt which seems to have weighed upon him for many years and given
him much trouble. James came to his assistance in 1620 by presenting
him with a patent for a baronetcy which brought him about 650_l._,
and Charles gave him another in 1628 which only fetched 200_l._
His appointment as a Commissioner of the Navy in 1631 increased his
official income to 200_l._, exclusive of the 40_l._ payable on the
writ of Privy Seal. With this substantial addition to his salary he
was in a position to gradually improve his finances, and after 1634
we hear no more of the actions for debt.
From the story of his life as now unfolded it is clear that Phineas
Pett was a man of considerable ability and industry, kindly to
his friends, but impetuous and quick-tempered; 'well-in' with the
authorities, and apt to take advantage of that fact when he disagreed
with his equals or superiors. It is probable that he was slightly in
advance of his contemporaries in the profession of shipbuilding,
but not to the extent commonly supposed. Here his autobiography
has stood him in good stead, for it has attached to his name a
personality that makes his existence seem more real and of more
moment to a later age in which his professional contemporaries have
become shadowy names. It is difficult to say what was his real motive
in writing it, but it was probably commenced as an explanation of
his position in regard to the Prince Royal dispute of 1608, and
afterwards continued partly for recreation; partly, perhaps, for
the edification of his children. Pepys appears to have thought much
of it, for he took the trouble to copy it into his collection of
miscellanea; but it is certainly wanting in the candour and honesty
of the celebrated Diary, and seems to have been written in order
to convey a favourable impression to the reader, and explain away
doubtful deeds, rather than as a real revelation of self.
FOOTNOTES:
[94] 'The rage for Bible names dates from the decade 1560-1570, which
decade marks the rise of Puritanism.'--Bardsley, _Curiosities of
Puritan Nomenclature_, p. 39.
[95] Numbers xxvi. 11-13.
[96] _Cott. MSS._, Otho E. vii. fol. 155.
[97] _Misc._ x. 353. There are errors in this transcript, which has
been corrected, so far as possible, from the original.
[98] Double-dealer; probably he refers to Bright.
[99] MS. flattsheate.' Pepys has transcribed this 'flat cheat.'
[100] _Sic_ in transcript, probably 'far.'
[101] _Cal. S.P. Dom._, 26 Feb. 1626.
[102] _Monson Tracts_, ii. 140.
[103] _Miscell._, vol. x. pp. 257-262: _A large and particular
complaint against Phineas Pett relating to abuses in the Navy about
the end of the Queen's and beginning of King James's Reign._ _Cf._
Dr. Tanner's Introduction in _Hollond's Discourses of the Navy_
(N.R.S., vol. vii.). What is probably the same account is calendared
by the Hist. MSS. Commission (_Coke MSS_, vol. i. p. 36) as '1602 Oct
14, 1603 June 19 allegations by George Colyson of abstraction of sea
stores, and other frauds by Phineas Pett.'
[104] _Infra_, p. 18.
[105] _Infra_, p. 70.
[106] _Cott. MSS._, Julius F. 111--the depositions of Pett and
various witnesses; _S.P.D._ James I, xxxi. 51--memorandum drawn up
from the above; _S.P.D._ James I, xli.--report of the Commission,
drawn up by Sir Robert Cotton, with analytical draft and notes
attached.
[107] The capital of Spain from 1601 to 1606.
[108] _Pat. Roll_, 1771.
[109] The names were as follows: Henry, Earl of Northampton;
Charles, Earl of Nottingham; Lord Zouch; Lord Wotton, Comptroller
of the Household; Sir Julius Cæsar, Chancellor of the Exchequer;
Sir Thomas Parry, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; Sir Edward
Phillips and Sir John Doderidge, Serjeants-at-Law; Sir Henry Hobart,
Attorney-General; Sir Francis Bacon, Solicitor-General; Sir William
Waade, Lieutenant of the Tower; Sir Charles Parkins; Sir Robert
Cotton; Sir Thomas Crompton; and John Corbett, a Clerk of the Privy
Council. _Pat. Roll_, 1770.
[110] _Cott. MSS._, Julius F. 111.
[111] _S.P. Dom._ James I, xli. The 'book of reformation' referred to
at p. 37. Northampton also made a report direct to the King, which
deals, however, only in generalities.--_Royal MSS._ 18 A, xxxiv.
[112] Pp. lxiv and 29 _et seq._
[113] _Pipe Off. Dec. Accts._ 2247. 'New Building the Victory in dry
dock at Woolwich;' _ibid._ 2248, 'Shipkeepers attending the Victory,
now named the Prince Royal'; 'New Building the Victory now named the
Prince Royal.'
[114] The relative dimensions were: _Prince Royal_--length of keel
115 ft.; breadth 43 ft.; depth 18 ft. _Merhonour_--length of keel
110 ft.; breadth 37 ft.; depth 17 ft. Baker built the _Merhonour_ by
contract for £3600.
[115] The _Resistance_.
[116] The _Answer_. He does not include the _Anne Royal_, which had
just been finished.
[117] The _Moon_.
[118] 'There are two kinds of furring, the one is after a ship
is built, to lay on another plank upon the side of her (which is
called plank upon plank). The other, which is more eminent, and
more properly furring, is to rip off the first planks and to put
other timbers upon the first, and so to put on the planks upon
these timbers. The occasion of it is to make a ship bear a better
sail, for when a ship is too narrow, and the bearing either not
laid out enough, or too low, then they must make her broader, and
lay her bearing higher. They commonly fur some two or three strakes
under water and as much above, according as the ship requires,
more or less. I think in all the world there are not so many ships
furred as are in England, and it is a pity that there is no order
taken, either for the punishing of those who build such ships,
or the utter preventing of it, for it is an infinite loss to the
owners, and an utter spoiling and disgrace to all ships that are so
handled.'--Mainwaring, _Seaman's Dictionary_, s.v. Fur.
[119] Add^l. MS. 19889.
[120] _Harl. MS._ 309, f. 68.
[121] _S.P. Dom._, James I, xlv. 33.
[122] See note on p. lxviii. In this case pieces were laid upon the
outsides of the timbers to make the mould broader.
[123] See note on p. 37.
[124] The sweeps are the circular arcs of the mould; see the mould of
the _Sovereign_ on p. xcvi.
[125] 'The Harpings of a Ship is the breadth of her at the bow: also
some call the ends of the bends, which are fastened into the stem,
the Harpings.'--Mainwaring, _Seaman's Dictionary_.
[126] Overhang.
[127] Holes cut through the timbers over the keel to allow the bilge
water to run to the pump.
[128] See note on p. 60.
[129] _I.e._ the overlap of the joint was not sufficient.
[130] The inside planking upon the floor timbers, sometimes called
'seeling' or 'ceiling.'
[131] The rungheads at the ends of the floor timbers, where these
begin to curve upward into the lower (or runghead) sweep.
[132] _I.e._ shortened the futtock sweep.
[133] The moulds fore and aft in which the lower sweeps become
concave instead of convex exteriorly.
[134] Add^l. MS. 18037.
[135] At Hinchinbrook, Hampton Court, and Windsor Castle. See R.
C. Anderson, '_The Prince Royal_ and other Ships of James I,' in
_Mariner's Mirror_, vol. iii. (1913), in which these pictures are
reproduced.
[136] Pepysian MS. 2820.
[137] Add^l. MS. 9299, f. 206.
[138] _Coke MSS. (Hist. MSS.)_, I. 114. See also pp. 124, 125,
_infra_.
[139] Add. MSS. 9294 f. 409 and 9300.
[140] _I.e._ in 1621.
[141] Appendix V, p. 207.
[142] It need scarcely be pointed out that the illustrations in
Charnock's _Marine Architecture_ do not remotely resemble the real
ship.
[143] Burrell quarrelled with the Company in 1626 and was dismissed
their service. He died in 1630.
[144] See especially Playfair, _The Scourge of Christendom_; Corbett,
_England in the Mediterranean_, vol. i., chap. viii.; and Oppenheim,
_Monson Tracts_, vol. iii. p. 94 _et seq._
[145] _S.P. Dom._, James I, cxxxiv. 60.
[146] _I.e._ his wages as captain of the _Mercury_.
[147] _Infra_, pp. 139, 141.
[148] About 1631. In January 1634 he is stated to have been dead
three years.
[149] He refers especially to his loss on the _Destiny_. For this
use of 'main' in the sense of considerable,' _cf._ 'a very main
loss.'--_N.E.D._
[150] _Infra_, p. 154. The above account has been collected from the
_S.P. Dom._, James I, ccxv. p. 98; ccxxviii. f. 14, 84_a_; ccxxi. 45;
ccxxxii. 27; ccxxxiii. 10; ccxxxviii. 89; ccxlii. 3, 36; ccxlvii. 84;
ccli. 18; cclix. 10.
[151] Appendix VI, p. 210.
[152] App. VII, p. 212.
[153] _Infra_, p. 126.
[154] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I., ccli. 74.
[155] _Infra_, p. 153.
[156] It was 252_l._ 6_s._ 9_d._
[157] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I, cclx. 108, ccxxviii. f. 122.
[158] Appendix VIII, p. 214.
[159] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I, cclxiv. ff. 67_a_, 87_a_.
[160] Storekeeper at Deptford. He seems to have had some knowledge
of design, for in 1626 and 1627 he had been associated with Pett,
Stevens, Lydiard, and Gunter, the mathematician, in drawing up new
rules for ship measurement.
[161] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I, cclxxxvi. 44.
[162] The transverse section at the greatest breadth.
[163] The curves passing through the ends of the floor timbers, as
referred to the plan and elevation respectively.
[164] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I, cclxxxvi. 105.
[165] Add. MSS. 9300 f. 64; 9336 f. 53. _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I,
ccclxviii. 121. In this list, which is dated September 1637, the ship
is not named. The keel length is given as 127 ft., depth from breadth
to top of keel as 19 ft. 4 ins., and breadth as 46 ft. 6 ins.
[166] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I, cccvi. 83.
[167] _Diary_, Jan. 31, 1663.
[168] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I, ccxcviii. 20.
[169] _S.P. Dom._, Chas. I, ccxcix. 2, 12.
[170] _Hist. MSS. Report_, v. 33.
[171] _Hist. MSS. Report_, v. 46.
[172] Firth, _Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum_, i. 27.
[173] He was buried in Chatham Church on August 21.
[174] _Pipe Office Dec. Accts._ 2286.
'Phineas Pett, Esq., another of the said Commissioners and one of the
principal officers of the Navy, for his salary at 200_l._ per annum,
8_d._ per diem for one clerk and 6_l._ per annum for paper, pens
etc., due to him for the same time ended as the former [i.e. _the
year ended September 29, 1647_]
217_l._ 3_s._ 4_d._
'Thomas Smith, Esq., now one of the Commissioners of the Navy in
the room and place of (_blank_) for the entertainment of himself at
200_l._ per annum and two clerks at 16_d._ per diem and 6_l._ per
annum for paper money due to him for 34 days begun the 28th of August
1647 and ended the 30th of September following
22_l._ 9_s._ 4_d._'
[175] Smith, who had been Northumberland's secretary, had been
appointed Secretary of the Admiralty by Ordinance of the same date
as the one by which Pett had been re-appointed a Commissioner of the
Navy in 1642.
[176] _Infra_, p. 71.
[177] See Christy, _Voyages of Foxe and James_ (Hakl. Soc.) and
Asher, _Henry Hudson the Navigator_ (Hakl. Soc.).
[Illustration: (ornate section header)]
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PHINEAS PETT
I, Phineas[178] Pett, being the son of Mr. Peter Pett of Deptford
Strond[179] in the County of Kent, one of her Majesty's Master
Shipwrights, was born in my father's dwelling house in the same town
one All Saints' day in the morning, being the first day of November
in the year of our Lord 1570, and was baptized the 8th of the same
month and year aforesaid in the parish church of Deptford Strond
aforesaid.
I was brought up in my father's house at Deptford Strond until I
was almost nine years of age, and then put out to a free school at
Rochester in Kent, to one Mr. Webb, with whom I boarded about one
year, and afterward lay at Chatham Hill in my father's lodging in the
Queen's House, from whence I went every day to school to Rochester
and came home at night for three years space. Afterwards, by reason
of my small profiting at this school, my father removed me from
thence to Greenwich to a private school kept by one Mr. Adams, where
I so well profited that in three years I was made fit for Cambridge.
In the year 1586 at Shrovetide, against bachelor's commencement, I
was sent to the University of Cambridge, and by the means of one Mr.
Howell,[180] a Minister in Essex, I was placed in Emanuel College
with a reverend tutor, President of the house, called Mr. Charles
Chadwick, where I was allowed 20_l._ per annum during my father's
life, besides books, apparel, and other necessaries.
In the year 1589, about the 6th day of September, it pleased God[181]
to call to his mercy my reverend loving father, whose loss proved
afterward my utter undoing almost, had not God been more merciful
unto me; for leaving all things to my mother's directions, her fatal
matching with a most wicked husband, one Mr. Thomas Nunn,[182] a
Minister, brought a general ruin both to herself and whole family.
Some two months after my father's decease or thereabouts, my eldest
sister Rachel was married to one Mr. Newman, Minister of Canewdon in
Essex, a man of most dissolute life, with whom she not long enjoyed,
for God, of his great mercy, took her and delivered her from a most
miserable and slavish life wherein she lived with him; by whom he had
two children, but both died.
By reason of my mother's cross matching, my means of maintenance
being wholly taken from me, and having no hopes of exhibition from
any friend, I was forced after four years continuance in Cambridge,
my graces for Bachelor of Art being passed both in house and town, to
abandon the University presently after Christmas in anno 1590.
At Candlemas after, I, by the instant persuasion of my mother, was
contented to put myself to be an apprentice to become a shipwright
(my father's profession) and was bound a covenant servant[183] to
one Mr. Richard Chapman of Deptford Strond in Kent, one of her
Majesty's Master Shipwrights, and one whom my father had bred of a
child to that profession, my allowance from him to find myself tools
and apparel being bare but 46 shillings and 8 pence per annum. This
man I served almost two years altogether at Chatham in the Queen's
Majesty's Works, and then he died; where I spent all that time, God
he knoweth, to very little purpose.
After my foresaid master his death, I laboured to have served Mr.
Mathew Baker, one of her Majesty's Master Shipwrights also; but by
the working of one Mr. Peter Buck,[184] then Clerk of the Check at
Chatham, and some other back friends, I was crossed in my service
and so put to my shifts, and left to the wide world without either
comfort or friend, but only God.
At this time my eldest brother by my father's side, Mr. Joseph
Pett, succeeded in my father's place, one of her Majesty's Master
Shipwrights, which preferment no doubt God brought him to the better
to enable him to have given his help to us; but we found it clean
contrary, for he was not only careless of us all and left us to our
fortunes, but became also so unkind a brother to two of us, my own
brother Noah and myself, that he was forced to leave his native
country and seek comfort in Ireland with an uncle of ours, own
brother to my mother, called George Thornton, an ancient and well
experienced sea captain; where he shortly after was drowned in the
river of Cork; and myself was constrained to ship myself to sea upon
a desperate voyage in a man of war,[185] not greatly caring what
became of me.
I was shipped on this voyage a little before Christmas in anno 1592,
in a ship called the Gallion Constance of London, of burden of 200
tons or thereabouts, belonging to a gentleman of Suffolk, one Captain
Edward Glenham,[186] for the carpenter's mate, the master carpenter
being one Edward Goodale, born in Deptford. To my setting out to
sea, I found not any of my kindred so kind as to help me, either
with money or clothes, or any other comfort; only another brother I
had by my father's side, Peter Pett, dwelling then at Wapping, that
vouchsafed me lodging and meat and drink till the ship was ready to
set sail; one William King, a yeoman in Essex and a stranger to me,
lent me 3_l._ in ready money to help to furnish my necessaries, which
afterward I repaid him again.