SHIPS AND SEAMEN 



no officers on board and only a handful of men because everybody else 

 was ashore celebrating Christmas. In such circumstances it was lucky 

 that we were fighting the Spaniards and not the Dutch. At the same 

 time the discipline was becoming very much more brutal and harsh 

 than it had been in Elizabeth's time and in consequence the men had 

 lost a good deal of their self-respect. Flogging was becoming so 

 common that it was said " that some sailors do believe in good earnest 

 that they shall never have a fair wind until the poor boys be duly 

 whipped every Monday morning " — a superstition which still exists in 

 many French fishing boats where a fair wind is sought by turning the 

 ship's boys to the direction from which a breeze is desired and then 

 flogging them. 



The Petts. 



One of the greatest names to be associated with the improvement 

 of ship construction is that of Pett. The first Peter Pett had been 

 appointed Master Shipwright at Deptford in the reign of Edward VI 

 and had held the post until his death in 1589. His elder son Phineas 

 was born in 1570 and was a Master of Arts at Cambridge before he was 

 appointed Master Shipwright at Deptford in 1605. His ships were the 

 finest of their day and he was responsible for many improvements in 

 design : after many promotions he was made Commissioner for the 

 Navy in 1630 and died in 1647. His son Peter was born in 1610 and 

 followed the family tradition. He was made Commissioner at Chatham 

 in 1648 and naturally there was a good deal of feeling against him after 

 the Restoration. He finally fell as a result of the Dutch attack on the 

 Medway in 1667 and he died some three years afterwards. His son 

 chose to follow the law with great distinction. 



Proportions of Stuart Ships. 



In the year 1618 a Royal Commission was appointed to consider 

 the design of His Majesty's ships and the law that they laid down, which 

 applied for many years afterwards, was that the length should be three 

 times the beam, which should itself be three times the depth of hold. 

 Sixteen feet of water they regarded as the maximum draught both from 

 the point of view of sailing — which might well be a subject of discussion 

 — and also because they regarded that as the most that was safe in 

 British rivers and ports. 



Sir Anthony Deane. 



The great shipbuilding figure of the Restoration was Anthony 

 Deane, an East Anglian who was brought forward by Pepys and made 

 Master Shipwright at Harwich in 1664. He worked on a scientific 

 basis and appears to be the first shipwright who had any definite idea 

 beforehand what water his ships were going to draw. He contrived to 

 get into his ships very much more room for water and stores and at the 

 same time keep their gun-ports at a safe height above the water, which 

 was considered a great achievement. 



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