Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/134

 his invention should be known in England, and brought to the notice of the King. In the attempt to obtain Royal patronage for his undertaking, it is not unlikely that he was aided by the interest of Pepys, who filled an important post at the Navy Board, and had easy access to the Duke of York. In October 1663, a vessel built on the new model was despatched from Dublin. Sir William gave his crew and their families an entertainment on the night of embarkation, to encourage them.

'Having sent their wives and children in Ringsend coaches, he provided them a banquet of burnt wines and stewed prunes, apple pyes, gingerbread, white sopps and milke, with apples and nutts in abundance; and all this besides meat, tongues, and other more solid food for the men themselves; and soon, after much crying and laughing and hopeing and fearing, he got them all to part very quietly one from another, intimating to the women that if they succeeded, there was a fleet to be built of double bottomed vessels, whereof every one of their husbands would be a captain; and in time it was not unlikely that they themselves would be ladyes; unto which they simperingly said, wiping their eyes, that more unlikely things had come to pass. Two of the crew, none of the worst, are volunteers. The substance of the speech which Sir William made to them was: "That he himself was no seaman, nor could tell what other vessell they might encounter with at Dublin, were able to doe: but the intention was to send them with a vessel to His Majesty, which though full of ugly faults and eyesores, being built for a fresh-water Lough and to be carried eight miles on land, was to outsayle any other vessel whatever; and to endure all the hazards of the troublesome passage from hence to London. Wherefore, he advised them, if they did not believe he should answer these ends, they should not venture their lives to make them and him ridiculous; for, said he, the seamen and carpenters will have noe mercy upon you; nor will the Court, with the Port, spare you; the players will make scenes of your double bodies, the citizens will make pageants of your vessel upon my Lord Mayor's day; but the comfort is that the King will be your judge."'