They went
first by water to Whitby; from thence they proceeded on horseback
to Gisborough and baited; then to Stockton, where they found but
poor entertainment, though they lodged with the Mayor, whose
house "was only a mean thatched cottage!" Middlesborough and the
great iron district of the North had not yet come into existence.
Newcastle, already of some importance, was the principal scene of
their labours. The timber for the new ship was found in Chapley
Wood and Bracepeth Park. The gentry did all they could to
facilitate the object of Pett. On his journey homewards (July,
1635), he took Cambridge on his way, where, says he, "I lodged at
the Falcon, and visited Emmanuel College, where I had been a
scholar in my youth."
The Sovereign of the Seas was launched on the l2th of October,
1637, having been about two years in building. Evelyn in his
diary says of the ship (l9th July, 1641):- "We rode to Rochester
and Chatham to see the Soveraigne, a monstrous vessel so called,
being for burthen, defence, and ornament, the richest that ever
spread cloth before the wind. She carried 100 brass cannon, and
was 1600 tons, a rare sailer, the work of the famous Phineas
Pett." Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds says that she was
afterwards cut down, and was a safe and fast ship.[32]
The Sovereign continued for nearly sixty years to be the finest
ship in the English service.
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