See, for instance, the Index to the Journals of Records of the Corporation of the City of London (No. 2, p. 346, 15901694)under the head of "Sir Walter Raleigh." There is a document dated the 15th November, 1593, in the 35th of Elizabeth, which runs as follows:-- "Committee appointed on behalf of such of the City Companies as have ventured in the late Fleet set forward by Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, and others, to join with such honourable personages as the Queen hath appointed, to take a perfect view of all such goods, prizes, spices, jewels, pearls, treasures, &c., lately taken in the Carrack, and to make sale and division (Jor. 23, p. 156). Suit to be made to the Queen and Privy Council for the buying of the goods, &c., lately taken at sea in the Carrack; a committee appointed to take order accordingly; the benefit or loss arising thereon to be divided and borne between the Chamber There were three sisters in all, the eldest of whom (Abigail) fell a victim to the cruelty of Nunn, who struck her across the head with the fire-tongs, from the effects of which she died in three days. Nunn was tried and convicted of manslaughter. He died shortly after. Mrs. Nunn, Phineas's mother, was already dead.
It would seem, from a paper hereafter to be more particularly referred to, that the government encouraged the owners of ships and others to clear the seas of these pirates, agreeing to pay them for their labours. In 1622, Pett fitted out an expedition against these pests of navigation, but experienced some difficulty in getting his expenses repaid.
See grant S.P.O., 29th May, 1605.
An engraving of this remarkable ship is given in Charnock's History of Marine Architecture, ii. p. 199.
The story of the Three, or rather Two Ravens, is as follows:-- The body of St. Vincent was originally deposited at the Cape, which still bears his name, on the Portuguese coast;and his tomb, says the legend, was zealously guarded by a couple of ravens. When it was determined, in the 12th century, to transport the relics of the Saint to the Cathedral of Lisbon, the two ravens accompanied the ship which contained them, one at its stem and the other at its stern. The relics were deposited in the Chapel of St. Vincent, within the Cathedral, and there the two ravens have ever since remained. The monks continued to support two such birds in the cloisters, and till very lately the officials gravely informed the visitor to the Cathedral that they were the identical ravens which accompanied the Saint's relics to their city. The birds figure in the arms of Lisbon.
The evidence taken by the Commissioners is embodied in a voluminous report. State Paper Office, Dom. James I., vol. xli.1608.
The Earl of Northampton, Privy Seal, was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports; hence his moving in the matter. Pett says he was his "most implacable enemy." It is probable that the earl was jealous of Pett, because he had received his commission to build the great ship directly from the sovereign, without the intervention of his lordshipThis Royal investigation took place at Woolwich on the 8th May, 1609. The State Paper Office contains a report of the same date, most probably the one presented to the King, signed by six ship-builders and Captain Waymouth, and counter signed by Northampton and four others. The Report is headed "The Prince Royal: imperfections found upon view of the new work begun at Woolwich." It would occupy too much space to give the results here.
Alas! for the uncertainties of life! This noble young prince--the hope of England and the joy of his parents, from whom such great things were anticipated--for he was graceful, frank, brave, active, and a lover of the sea,--was seized with a serious illness, and died in his eighteenth year, on the 16th November, 1612.
Pett says she was to be 500 tons, but when he turned her out her burthen was rated at 700 tons.
This conduct of Raleigh's was the more inexcusable, as there is in the State Paper Office a warrant dated 16th Nov., 1617, for the payment to Pett of 700 crowns "for building the new ship, the Destiny of London, of 700 tons burthen." The least he could have done was to have handed over to the builder his royal and usual reward. In the above warrant, by the way, the title "our well-beloved subject," the ordinary prefix to such grants, has either been left blank or erased (it is difficult to say which), but was very significant of the slippery footing of Raleigh at Court.
Sir Giles Overreach, in the play of "A new way to pay old debts," by Philip Massinger. It was difficult for the poet, or any other person, to libel such a personage as Mompesson.
Pett's method is described in a paper contained in the S.P.O., dated 21st Oct., 1626. The Trinity Corporation adopted his method.
Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds, Kt., p. 94.
Pett's dwelling-house at Rochester is thus described in an anonymous history of that town (p. 337, ed. l817):-- "Beyond the Victualling Office, on the same side of the High Street, at Rochester, is an old mansion, now occupied by a Mr. Morson, an attorney, which formerly belonged to the Petts, the celebrated ship-builders. The chimney-piece in the principal room is of wood, curiously carved, the upper part being divided into compartments by caryatydes. The central compartment contains the family arms, viz., Or, on a fesse, gu., between three pellets, a lion passant gardant of the field. On the back of the grate is a cast of Neptune, standing erect in his car, with Triton blowing conches, &c., and the date 1650."Symonds, Memoirs of Life and Services, 94.
