The Lord High Admiral desired to see him; and after
many civil compliments, he offered him the post of keeper of the
plankyard at Chatham. Pett was only too glad to accept this
offer, though the salary was small. He shipped his furniture on
board a hoy of Rainham, and accompanied it down the Thames to the
junction with the Medway. There he escaped a great danger--one
of the sea perils of the time. The mouths of navigable rivers
were still infested with pirates; and as the hoy containing Pett
approached the Nore about three o'clock in the morning, and while
still dark, she came upon a Dunkirk picaroon, full of men.
Fortunately the pirate was at anchor; she weighed and gave chase,
and had not the hoy set full sail, and been impelled up the Swale
by a fresh wind, Pett would have been taken prisoner, with all
his furniture.[20]
Arrived at Chatham, Pett met his brother Joseph, became
reconciled to him, and ever after they lived together as loving
brethren. At his brother's suggestion, Pett took a lease of the
Manor House, and settled there with his sisters. He was now in
the direct way to preferment. Early in the following year
(March, 1601) he succeeded to the place of assistant to the
principal master shipwright at Chatham, and undertook the repairs
of Her Majesty's ship The Lion's Whelp, and in the next year he
new-built the Moon enlarging her both in length and breadth.
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