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.? 
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.® 
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,* 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. 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.” § 
From the very beginning, however, Pepys had no very 
favourable impression concerning those sitting with him 
4Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 59, No. 6. 
2 Ibid. vol. 59, No. 7. 
3 Pepys’ Diary, November 28th, 1662. 
4Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 94, No. 74. 
5 Ibid. vol. 96, No. 65. 
8 Pepys’ Diary, March 10th, 1664. 
