PHINEAS PETT, NAVAL

CONSTRUCTOR.

IN TWO PARTS.--PART II.

IN 1607 Pett first came into personal contact with James I., and

that curiously shrewd and canny monarch soon learnt to appreciate his merits and to recognise him as the foremost shipbuilder of his time. Lord Nottingham presented him to the King at Richmond, when he went there with a cunning model of the Ark for Prince Henry, the Ark being one of the big ships he was building at Woolwich.

His Majesty expressed his high admiration and approval of the work, and then Pett goes on to say, "My ever honoured Lord and old Master did request me to tell his Majesty the story of the three ravens I had seen at Lisbon, which I did with my best expression, though somewhat daunted at first at his Majesty's presence, having never before this time spoken to any king." The story is not given, but it pleased the King, "who accepted all in good part and used me very graciously."

In 1608 Pett tells us how he entertained Prince Henry on one of his numerous visits to Woolwich Dockyard to inspect his work. He gave "a set banquet of sweetmeats and all other fruits the season of the year would yield, with plentiful store of wine, Rhenish, white sack and claret and Greek wines."

The liquid part of the banquet sounds all right, but the solids seem somewhat light and unsubstantial except for such weak vessels as vegetarians. However, it would appear to be quite the correct menu for those days, as Pett always provided the like entertainment whenever the King, or the Prince, or the Lord High Admiral came down to visit him.

In this same year began poor Phineas's great persecution at the hands of Lord Northampton. This nobleman, stirred up by the much-injured Edward Stevens, and strongly backed, as we are told, by "some who were no great friends to the Lord High Admiral and the principal officers of his Majesty's Navy, procured a great and

large commission from his Majesty to inquire into all the abuses and misdemeanours committed by all officers. . . . In this great inquisition it pleased God for the punishment of my sins to suffer me to be grievously persecuted and publickly arraigned."

In this great inquisition it evidently went very hard with Pett and his friends, for he says: "It was prosecuted with such extremity of malice as not only many were brought into great question and tossed to and fro before the Commission at Westminster to their no small charge and vexation, but the government itself of that royal office (the Admiralty) was so shaken and disjointed as brought almost immanent ruin upon the whole Navy."

Pett escaped this danger and went back to his shipbuilding, despite the "malicious practices" of his enemies. In the autumn of 1608 he finished the Ark, which at her launch received the name of the Ann Royal, at the hand of his very good friend, Mr. Oliver Cromwell. Of this gentleman we have frequent mention, but never a word is told us of his nephew, the great Protector, though surely Pett must often have met him at Huntingdon in his youth and early manhood. Diarists like Pepys and Boswell are few and far between. It is only a genius who can realise the importance of the infinitely little, and Pett was too entirely absorbed in his shipbuilding and in combating the "malicious practices" of those who tried to hinder it, to pay much attention to minor matters.

The Ann Royal being out of hand, he laid the keel of a new great ship, and pushed on the work with his usual zeal. His archenemy Stevens, however, left him little breathing time, and soon commenced another and more serious attack on his character and ability as a shipwright. This leads up to the most interesting passage in the diary, wherein we are brought face to face with James I., and told how that curious compound of wisdom and folly held an inquiry in person into Pett's conduct and ability at Woolwich, and did it remarkably well and with great thoroughness. The story is a long one and must be shortened as much as possible, but the King's pompous speeches must be given in extenso, as far as space will permit.

For their final effort at Pett's ruin Lord Northampton and Stevens got the help of one Captain George Weymouth, "a great braggadocio," but of some reputation as a shipbuilder. This man averred that Pett was entirely ignorant and incompetent, that his timber was bad, and the proportions of his ship all wrong. The report he made, and got endorsed by others, was sent to the King by Northampton with a request for an inquiry, to which his Majesty

consented, and nominated his lordship and his co-conspirators to hold it. Pett, however, got to hear what was brewing against him, and knowing the unscrupulous character of his enemies, did what he could to counteract their designs. He determined to write a letter to his friend, Lord Nottingham, to inform him of the position of affairs, but before doing so he offers up a prayer, "desiring the Lord to guide and direct my pen so as it might but tend to His glory and the discharge of my duty." His letter was a manly and straightforward one, giving details of the plot against him and the names of the plotters, finally, with impressive earnestness, begging that an impartial commission of inquiry might be appointed to report on all his doings. The Lord High Admiral was so much impressed by the letter, that immediately on its receipt, at 4 o'clock in the morning, he presented himself at the royal bedside to read it to the King.

The King no doubt was sleepy, but his lordship was insistent, and his Majesty yielded to the pressure and at once revoked the commission granted to Northampton and his friends. A fresh commission was given to Nottingham and three other high officials of the Court, and Northampton ordered to merely attend the inquiry. The latter was just starting with his fellow-plotters to Woolwich when he received the royal command, and doubtless realised the truth of the old adage that "there is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip."

The Lord High Admiral's Commission held their inquiry at Woolwich, examined all the plotters, chief of whom were Matthew Baker, the shipwright, and Weymouth (nicknamed by Pett " Kilcrow”), and reported that all their charges were baseless and malicious. With this report we are told the King "rested marvellously well satisfied." But not for long, for Northampton, made more bitter by his recent failure, soon began to press for yet another investigation on the ground that the last one was not impartial. In vain the weak and vacillating James urged that it had been held by noblemen who were principal peers of the realm on whose honour and fidelity he could rely. Northampton still pressed his point, till James, worried and tormented beyond endurance, said he should have his wish, but he himself would hold the inquiry in his own sacred person and settle the disputed point of Pett's ability once and for all.

The proceedings at this court of inquiry are most quaintly described by our author. The whole scene is so vividly depicted that we can almost fancy we see the various actors and hear the words they spoke so long ago in Mr. Pett's parlour in Woolwich

Dockyard. James, with all his pomposity and his long-winded speeches, displays a shrewdness, industry, and impartiality which would have made him an invaluable public servant if he had not unfortunately been born a king. Poor Pett, kneeling on his knees for two mortal hours, gives his evidence with fear and trembling, whilst his constant friend Prince Henry stands by his side to encourage him. The Lord High Admiral and the expert witnesses summoned by the King stand on one side of the room, and on the other, Northampton and the witnesses for the prosecution, as we may call them, with sufficient space between to prevent their coming to blows. His Majesty, as we know, was ever anxious to keep the peace.

Early hours were in fashion in those days, so the King drove down from Whitehall and opened his Court at 8 A.M. with a speech, "tending to an exhortation that none on both sides should either accuse for malice or other pretence, or excuse for love, favour or other particular respect, for that his Majesty, representing God's person, would not be deluded or led by any . . . and willed such whose conscience accused them (either of malice or partiality) to give over and depart before they took the oath to be administered to them, threatening severe punishment to those who should be found offenders therein, declaring what danger it was to be perjured to the Majesty of God and the King."

The oath having been administered by the Lord High Admiral, Pett was called as the first witness, and gave his evidence kneeling right before his Majesty at the corner of the table. The charges were many, but the King judiciously reduced them to three principal heads, (1) the point of art, (2) sufficiency and quality of materials, and (3) cost. As regards the point of art, James, omniscient as he usually thought himself, confessed his ignorance, and wisely appointed three assessors to take the necessary measurements and work out the calculations of proportion. These were Sir Thomas Chaloner, Governor to Prince Henry, the learned and Reverend Mr. Briggs, Lecturer on Geometry in Gresham College, and Mr. Ark, Student in St. John's College, Cambridge.

Their examination of the ship naturally occupied some hours in the making, and all this time, Pett says, "I sat upon my knees bated by the great Lord and his bandogs, sometimes by Baker, sometimes by Bright, Clay, and gaping Weymouth, and sometimes confusedly by all and which was worst, his Majesty's angry countenance still bent upon me, so that I was almost disheartened and out of breath, albeit the Prince's Highness standing near me from time to time encouraged me as far as he might without offence to his father,

:

labouring to have me eased by standing up, but his Majesty would not permit it."

What a paltry, little-minded, mean Majesty it was we all know now, but to the loyal Pett no doubt he was resplendent, and none other than the Vicegerent of Heaven on earth.

It was not till the afternoon that he received his first gleam of encouragement, when the King, having thoroughly tested the ship's timbers himself, remarked that "the cross-grained was in the men, not in the timber." The examination of the ship completed, and the King, having received from the experts a favourable report on the question of proportion, and having listened impartially to all the adversaries could say, began to give Pett "some princely encouragement, protesting oftentimes that all this grievous accusation proceeded of nothing but malice."

The trial, in fact, was over, and the verdict manifestly going to be for the defendant, but the royal judge had to make his speech, and this is our author's condensed report of it:

"By this time all these things were performed and his Majesty wonderfully satisfied, and it growing late, his Majesty returned again to the hall, and being placed and the room filled as full as it could be packed, his Majesty began a most worthy and learned speech for conclusion of the business. The scope of his words tending first to a full declaration of the satisfaction he had received touching this great business, wherein he expressed with many effectual speeches what content he received in bestowing his pains that day to so good a purpose. Next his Majesty addressed himself to give thanks to the Lord Northampton for his great care and diligence in searching out such errors in the office of the Admiralty wherein his Majesty and the State were abused, with encouragement for him to go forward with prosecuting his commission, notwithstanding his lordship had been misinformed by being drawn to question this business. Next he directed his speech to Mr. Baker, Bright, Stevens, and the rest of the informers, very bitterly reprehending their malicious practices, more being the effect of their own private ends than out of any conscionable care of the good of his Majesty's service, or benefit of the State with many exhortations to will them to beware how they did abuse the Majesty of God and himself, His substitute, with malicious information. His Majesty then began to show me a very pleasing countenance. Lastly, he cleared all imputations and aspersions cast upon the Lord High Admiral, with recital of his honourable services performed to the honour of the State and his perpetual fame, commending his great

VOL. CCXCIII. NO. 2062.

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