100 CHARLES II. 



a commencement with ten fishing vessels. Orders were 

 accordingly given for the building of these vessels, the 

 intention being that they should " sail to the Shetland Isles, 

 to take the privilege of fishing before other nations." 1 The 

 cost of building these ships was to be 9,000, Harwich and 

 Deptford being selected as towns suitable for building them. 2 

 The king, moreover, still anxious to foster the work of the 

 company, and desirous of seeing its fleet increased as much 

 and as quickly as possible, announced, in November, 1662, 

 his intention of giving 200 to every man who should, by the 

 middle of the following June, build a fishing buss and equip 

 it with all the necessary fishing gear. Samuel Pepys tells 

 how this announcement was first made public by Lord 

 Sandwich, in presence of a large number of naval officers and 

 private gentlemen who had gathered at the funeral of Sir 

 Richard Stayner. 3 



The final steps towards establishing the society were taken 

 by the king on March 12th, 1664, when the Duke of York 

 was appointed as its Governor, 4 and on April 8th, 1664, 

 when a charter under the Great Seal of England was 

 granted in due form to the Corporation for the Royal 

 Fishery. 5 Of this Corporation the Duke of York was 

 Governor, Lord Craven, Deputy Governor, the Lord Mayor 

 and the Chamberlain of London, Treasurers. " Several 

 other very great persons, to the number of thirty-two," 

 are said by Pepys to have constituted the council of 

 governors of the association, appointed " for their lives," 

 Pepys himself being one of these " very great persons." 6 

 From the very beginning, however, Pepys had no very 

 favourable impression concerning those sitting with him 



1 Col. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 59, No. 6. 

 2J6td. vol. 59, No. 7. 



3 Pepys' Diary, November 28th, 1662. 



4 Col. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 94, No. 74. 



5 Ibid. vol. 96, No. 65. 



6 Pepys' Diary, March 10th, 1664. 



