Page:The history of yachting.djvu/228

 104 Queen Katherine at Portsmouth, named the Solalis, a Portugese name meaning the flower columbine, which was length of keel, 74 feet; breadth, 21 feet 6 inches; depth, 10 feet; draught, 9 feet 6 inches; 180 tons burden. She carried a crew of 75 men and 16 guns; and Pepys relates that the Queen had seriously purposed entering a nunnery, but afterward "gave life to all frequent divertisements on the river Thames in her vessel." In August, 1670, the Queen, in the Solalis, visited her early home at Lisbon, being convoyed by one of the King's ships of war.

Sir Anthony Deane, the ablest and most scientific shipbuilder of his day, built a number of successful and famous vessels, his masterpiece being the Harwich, named for the port where she was launched in 1674. This vessel was 993 tons. Her dimensions had been copied from the French warship Superbe, which lay off Spithead with the French fleet during the war with the Dutch. In 1675 the King went to sea in the Harwich escorted by a squadron; and Pepys reported officially that "the Harwich carries the bell from the whole fleet, great and small."

In early life Deane was a mariner, but, soon after the restoration of King Charles, he, having served an apprenticeship in the dockyards, was appointed assistant master-shipwright at Woolwich. Here, fortunately for him, he attracted the favorable notice of Pepys, who became his patron, and lost no opportunity to further his interests. As a naval architect Deane justly achieved