Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/138

 have made for this ship; and excellent company and a good discourse; but above all, I do value Sir William Petty.' The pleasant prospect was, however, soon to be overclouded, and dire disaster was impending, for in the following year the ship perished in the Irish Channel, in a great storm, which, in the words of Anthony Wood, 'overwhelmed a great fleet the same night; so that the ancient fabric of ships had no reason to triumph upon that new model, when, of seventy sail that were in the same storm, there was not one escaped to bring the news.'

Notwithstanding this disaster, Sir William still continued to believe in the correctness of the principles on which the vessel was constructed, and only awaited a favourable opportunity to apply them again in practice. 'Honoured friends,' he wrote in a circular to the subscribers for the ship, 'I wish I were able to repair what all of our friends have suffered.... 'Tis my unhappiness to believe that this designe will not dye, and therefore I should be glad to receive somewhat for a fourth adventure, which I can with the same confidence as upon the third proceeding. I am not much discouraged, and am less ashamed at anything that has happened. I have willingly deceived nobody, nor have I been much deceived myself. The greatest do not always hitt their marks. This adversitie will try and steady the resolution.'

The controversy which raged around the double-bottomed ship kept Sir William in London and the neighbourhood. Evelyn relates how about this time he was at the Durdans, in Surrey, where he found Sir William and Dr. Wilkins and Mr Hooke, 'contriving chariots, new rigging for ships, and a wheele for one to run races in, and other mechanical inventions,' and perhaps, he says, 'three such persons together were not to be found elsewhere in Europe for facts and