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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44350	An account of several new inventions and improvements now necessary for England, in a discourse by way of letter to the Earl of Marlborough, relating to building of our English shipping, planting of oaken timber in the forrests, apportioning of publick taxes, the conservacy of all our royal rivers, in particular that of the Thames, the surveys of the Thames, &c. : Herewith is also published at large The proceedings relating to mill'd-lead-sheathing, and the excellency and cheapness of mill'd-Lead in preference to cast sheet-lead for all other purposes whatsoever. : Also A treatise of naval philosophy, / written by Sir Will. Petty. ; The whole is submitted to the consideration of our English patriots in Parliament assembled.	T. H. (Thomas Hale); Petty, William, Sir, 1623-1687. A treatise of naval philosophy.	1691 (1691)	Wing H265; ESTC R28685	111,893	310

a Parade of Officers and gilded Maces going before him hath been long obey'd in the quenching of Fires My Lord I believe the English Nation is doubled in populousness since the ancient Methods were first used of trusting the Care of Conservacy of the Royal Rivers in the Countrey to our Vice-admirals whose so long Non-user of their power relating to the Encroachments on them hath sufficiently appear'd by the many Patents of those Encroachments in the several Countreys granted in the Reign of King Charles the second and the which hath beside the inconvenience of the straitning those Rivers produced another to our Navigation namely the Creating much trouble by innumerable Law-suits to our Navigators who generally inhabit by the sides of those Rivers and where their Ships use to lye And it is pitty but that some Clauses should have been inserted in those Patents to direct a different way of Prosecution in their Case from that of other Subjects and that unless very enormous prejudice had come by their Encroachments to the Royal Rivers the Seamen might not have been put to it to give Compositson-money for the licensing their Nusances It hath been truly observ'd by a late Writer That Seamen are easily tempted to seek good Entertainment in other Countreys if they find it not in their own and that they are apt to change their own Quarters and embarque in Forreign Service sometimes upon a Capricio of their reputing themselves disobliged at home and at other times on their expectance of being better used abroad And in a Remonstrance from Trinity-house to the Earl of Nottingham Lord high Admiral it was certify'd by them to his Lordship that in a little more than 12 Years after 1588. the Shipping and Number of our Seamen were decay'd about a third part It seems by the wise Conduct of the Government then our Sea-men and their numbers were carefully enroll'd But so indulgent was Queen Elizabeth to the Seamen in her Reign that we find in the Act of Parliament 35 Eliz. c. 6. An Act for restraining of New Buildings a particular tender regard is had to the Seamen for there it is said Provided also notwithstanding any thing in this Act it shall and may be lawful for every such Mariner Sailor c. as shall be allow'd by the Lord Admiral a●d the Masters and Company of the Trinity-House for the time being in writing under their Hands and Seals to continue in his habitation in any House that hath been built sithence the said Proclamation near to the Thames-side serving only for the habitation of such Mariner and not to be used for any Victualling-house nor for any House for any Merchandize c. and likewise that any Mariner may hereafter build any House for such purpose and for no other on or near the Thames-side so as it may be distant from the very Wharf or Bank thirty Foot so as People may pass between the said Houses and the said Bank and the Thames c. I speak not this as if I would have any Mariners make any new Encroachments on any of our Royal Rivers especially on the Thames which is already so much straiten'd But I urge it to shew how the Wisdom of the Government then did make it as I may say a fundamental Rule for the Preservation of the River of Thames that even while encouragement was providing for the Sea-men the Walls of the Kingdom yet Houses by the Thames should not be permitted but by the Allowance of the Admiral the great Conservator of all the Royal Rivers and the Trinity-house first had under their Hands and Seals Several of the Members of the Trinity-House dwelling by the Thames-side below Bridge cannot but as they go up and down by Water take notice of the Encroachments as they are making and which of them will eminently prejudice the River and which not and so are the more proper to be consulted in the Case And from hence we may Collect this great Document and so necessary to be thought of again and again by the Conservators of our publick Rivers namely That whatever alteration is made in them by building on them thô never so little ought to be with great Care and with the use of the Consilium peritorum and not by the arbitrage of private Patentees and their Executors but by the Publick Conservators to whose personal Circumspection and Skill that great trust was always committed by the Government the Office of the Admiral having never been granted by Inheritance as some great Offices viz. the Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain have been And there is another instance of the ancient Care of the Government over the River of Thames that is very memorable namely the excellent Institution of the Wardmote Inquest the which thing hath worthily made the Government of the City of London so famous all over the World I have read the Articles of the Charge of the Wardmote Inquest that were in print in Queen Elizabeth 's time whereof the 4th Article is Ye shall swear that ye shall enquire and truly present all the Offences and Defaults done by any Person or Persons in the River of Thames according to the intent and purport of an Act made by our late Sovereign Lord King Edward the 6 th in his High Court of Parliament and also of divers other things ordain'd by Act of Common Council of this City for the redress and amendment of the said River which as now is in great decay and ruine and will be in short time past all remedy if high and substantial Provision and Help be not had with all speed and diligence possible as more plainly appeareth in the said Act of Parliament and the said Act of Common-Council of this City Here the most grave and substantial Citizens are put to it by a promissory Oath to stake their Eternities and in effect to invocate God both as Witness and Revenger about their doing right to that River in their Presentments and I am sure the present State of it being conformable to the Words in that Article relating to its great decay and ruine c. is what they may safely swear in an Oath assertory Howel in his Londinopolis p. 392. speaks of this Article still continuing in Presentments in the Wardmote Inquest When the Government did anciently order the Lord High Admiral and the Lord Mayor to espouse the Interest of this River our Monarchs did not present to them as one did who told a Roman Emperor he offer'd him a Lady who was Vidua indotata As much as it hath been as I may say widdowed and bereaved of that Care it should have found while many now living remember at least a fifth part of it to have been taken in by Encroachers it brings in still a very fair and plentiful Dower to the Lord Admiral and Lord Mayor The Lord Admiral hath been by it enabled to support the Trinity-House by the Ballast-Office and I in my Conscience think it well

endeavour to acquit our selves with all faithfulness and Duty to his Majesty and no less submission to your Lordships as becomes My LORDS Your Lordships c. The Lords of the Admiralty's Commission being determined before they had proceeded to make any Report herein and King Charles the second taking in to himself the Office of Lord High Admiral of England which was transacted by his Brother Mr. Pepys being Secretary and Sir Anth. Dean and Mr. Hewer the one always a professed Friend to the Thing and the other not only so but to that time a Partner also for a twelfth share in the Work being made Commissioners of the Navy the Mill'd-Lead Company could not but expect their Lead-sheathing would soon be restored by the Power of these Gentlemen they having throughly Examined the Matter and informed themselves of the great Benefit and Advantage this Sheathing had and might bring to his Majesty's Service as hath been shewn and by the Post they were in it now becoming their Duty also so that they did not much press their Work waiting only to be called for as soon as it should be thought convenient but much time being lost under these Expectations at length Complaining of this Delay to their late Partner Mr. Hewer he advised them not to Petition the King as they intended but to present a New Proposal to the Board to do the Work per Yard square without any Reflection or Notice of the former Proceedings saying they that had been against it must needs be convinced of their mis-information which had caused the Prejudices they had formerly conceived against Lead-sheathing the whole Matter ●eing so clearly stated and this Sheathing so well vindicated in the Company 's Reply which they had had so much time better to examine and consider of and that they would take this way of application to them well and we needed not to doubt the better and speedier success Wherefore the 20 Decemb. 1686. the Company presented the Proposal following which they leave still before the Navy-Board in hopes at one time or other they will find reason and leisure to take the same into further consideration To the Honourable The Principal Officers and Commissioners OF HIS MAJESTY's NAVY A Proposal of Mr. Kent and Partners concerned in the Work of Mill'd-Lead to Sheath his Majesty's Ships with the said Lead for preservation of their Plank against the Worm which way of Sheathing is plainly much better for Sayling cheaper and more durable than any other way hitherto used IT is humbly offered to your Consideration that when this way of Milling Lead for Sheathing of Ships was first invented it was immediately communicaed to the late King and his present Majesty then Lord High Admiral of England and the Usefulness of the Invention by them well weighed and considered and thought to be of such consequence that his Majesty gave the Inventors encouragement and advice to lay the same before the Parliament where a●ter a most strict scrutiny into the Matter in both Houses they obtained in the Year 1670. an Act of Parliament with Terms in it highly expressing the good Opinion they had conceived of this Invention After which by his Majesty's particular direction it was first tryed upon several of his own Ships but the interest several Persons trading in the Materials formerly used in Sheathing had to oppose this Invention did make them very iudustrious to raise Objections against it all which being throughly examined by his late Majesty and a View by him in Person made of the Ship Phoenix after two Voyages to the Streights with the same Sheathing it pleased his Majesty by his Order of 20 th Decemb. 1673. to signifie his pleasure that for the future this way of Sheathing and no other should be used upon his Majesty's Ships by the then Lords of the Admiralty in these words viz. After our hearty Commendations in pursuance of his Majesty's Pleasure signified to us by himself at this Board That in regard of the many and good Proofs which had been given of the usefulness of Sir Philip Howard and Major Watson's Invention of Sheathing his Majesty's Ships with Lead in preference to the doing of it with the Materials and in the manner anciently used and with respect had no less to the charge thereof than the effectual securing the Hulls of his Majesty's Ships against the Worms his Majesty's Ships may for the time to come be sheathed in no other manner than that of Lead without special Order given for the same from this Board These are to authorize you to cause this his Majesty's pleasure ●erein to be duely complyed with And so we remain Your Loving Friends Anglesey Ormond G. Carteret And after two Years further experience the then Navy-Board thought it for his Majesty's Service to Contract with the Mill'd-Lead Partners for the Materials to sheath his Ships at the Rates expressed in their Articles of Agreement during their whole term of their Act of Parliament And thus stood the Matter 'till the close of the Year 1675. at which time as we humbly conceive by the Artifice of the interested Traders was raised a Clamour never heard of before as if this way of Sheathing did occasion a more than ordinary Decay of the Rudder-Irons This immediately put the Partners upon a strict enquiry into the Truth and validity of these Objections and it was not long e're they fully discovered that this decay in the Iron-work proceeded not from the contrariety of the Nature of Lead with the matter of Iron but that the Iron-work lasted or decayed as it was better or worse mixt and wrought by the Smith for such different decays as are charged could never proceed from one common Cause His late Majesty himself was convinced that there was not such corrosive quality in Lead having consulted the Person in England the most skilful in those matters Furthermore Universal Practice both in his Majesties Yards and Merchant Builders has and does at this day make Lead the common security of Iron-work against Rust not only by covering therewith upon all Ships unsheathed and designed for long Voyages the Iron-work about the Rudder but by capping the heads of their Bolts under water with pieces of Lead sized to and nailed over the said Bolts Nor is this all for at this day whatever Merchant Man or Man of War is appointed for a Voyage where the Worm eats the back of her Stem-post and beard of her Rudder are sheathed with Copper or Lead and this even where the Ships also are sheathed with Wood the East India Company it self upon whom we may best depend for Cautions wherever preservation of Ships is in question not omitting in that very case to sheath their Rudders with Lead or Copper which practice certainly could never have prevailed with our Fathers and been followed with so continued a consent to this very day by us of the vicinity of either of these Metals assisted as is by some imagined by salt-water had

its perfection while the Crown there was in War against the most powerful States of Europe united together I shall wonder much if we have not a stock of Brains and Industry enough going to keep our River of Thames What great Pains and Charge the work of meliorating that River cost our Ancestors the Chronicles tell us and how useful for the preservations of it the pains taken in a late Conjuncture when the Cities Charter was in its low estate by the former Commissioners of the Admiralty proved is obvious and therefore the Wisdom of our Ancestors in Complicating the Office of the Lord Admiral with the Lord Mayors in its Conservacy was very profound for the Admiral 's Office being during pleasure we are sure that whoever have that Office are the actual Favourites of the Government and by being so they have with the better success signalized their diligence in the preserving that River It must here in Iustice be acknowledged that the late King James while the Admiralty was in his Hands was not by all the Cares and Business incumbent on the Crown diverted from the Conservacy of the River And if all the particulars of the vast pains taken by Mr. Pepys therein while he was Secretary of the Admiralty were enumerated they would fill a much larger Volume than what I here send your Lordship His concerning himself so much and so often in the behalf of Petitioning Seamen who conceiv'd themselves injured by the Agents of Patentees requiring Money of them for their Ships lying on the Shoar and his Frank interceding with the King as Admiral for them and effecting their being speedily righted and that without any Fee of Office expected or paid are things fresh in the Memories of those who live by the Thames-side below Bridge And the truth is to a Person so knowing in the Office of the Admiral it must needs be known that Seamen being more than other Subjects compell'd to serve the Crown in times of Peace and War and at the Crowns own Rates both at home and abroad are entituled to a more tender Protection from the Crown than other Subjects are And that the Seamen being call'd to such Service by the Admiral 's Warrant will in the Case of any general pressure happening to them wherein the King's Name is used expect that the Admiral shall apply to the Crown in their behalf as knowing that no Admiral ever refused or delay'd in such Case to take the trouble of patronizing them My Lord I have now almost done troubling you for the present and yet according to a Jewish Proverb that Molestus ubi se molestum agnoscit no● est molestus shall hope I have not done it at all But I shall chiefly fortifie my hopes of my not having so done by the Consideration of its being no trouble to you but an Obligation for any One to furnish your great thoughts with any useful Materials for the promoting the service of your Prince and Countrey in such a critical season as this that calls so loud for that Old heathenish Virtue of the Pietas in Patriam to awaken it self among English Christians We may well believe our Chronicles that tell us of a Porter who slept fourteen dayes and nights together when we have seen so great a part of a whole Nation asleep four or five Years and much longer The last Reign save one was a time wherein men made pleasure their business and when the Nation suffer'd more by Lethargy than the Plague But as Nature doth now call upon us to make Business our Pleasure and to build Work-houses as well as Play-houses so it may be supposed that our World is as weary of sleeping as ever it was of waking and that Reasons for Mens being publick spirited and nobly active in all the publick Spheres in Magistracy to which they are call'd may be patiently heard and that it may seem a reasonable Request since we see in things natural some inanimate things to serve the Nature of the Universe do sometimes forgo and quit their particular Nature and as for example water to prevent a Vacuum which Nature abhorrs doth ascend that Magistrates would go on in their own natural Course to what lyes in the plain way of their Duty and what is incumbent on them by moral Obligations Faxit And that he may neither be a shame to nor ashamed of his Countrey who hath the Honour of being My LORD Your Lordships most Humble and most Devoted Servant T. H. ERRATA In the foregoing Letter to the Earl of Marlbourgh PAge 2. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14. for Britannij r. Britanni ib. for Robora r. Robore p. 18. l. 3. after the word Corporation close the Parenthesis p. 26. for Moral r. Morals p. 46. for raris r. Ranis p. 54. for Mr. Ioseph Coting r. Mr. Ioseph Colinge p. 59. for Hydrautica r. hydraulica p. 77. l. penult instead of a Point of Interrogation make a Comma p. 87. for the Year 1670. r. 1630. p. 97. for patriotly r. particular p. 98. for Thorna r. Thoma p. 105. l. 18. for Sub-conservators r. Subconservator p. 110. l. 3. for making r. speaking p. 110. l. ult for are r. is p. 114. l. 13. dele perhaps THE New Invention OF MILL'D-LEAD FOR Sheathing of Ships against the Worm better for Sailing and Cheaper above Cent. per Cent. than the old way with Boards As also For Bread-rooms Scuppers Furnaces c. The Objections Answers Proofs and Proceedings between the Officers of the Navy and the Mill'd-Lead Company before the late Lords of the Admiralty and Council-Board submitted to Consideration ALSO The said Mill'd-Lead from many Years Experience as well as the reason of the thing it self proved to be much better and cheaper for Covering of Houses Gutters Pipes Furnaces for Dyers Copperas-works Lining of Cisterns and other Vessels for Brewers Dairies and all purposes whatsoever where Sheet-Lead is used than Cast-Lead can be and the Plumbers suggestions decrying the same proved to be idle scandalous and false LONDON Printed in the Year 1691. A TABLE OF The Principal Matters in the following Discourse of the New Invention of MILL'D-LEAD THe substance of the Navy-Officers Report to the Lords of the Admiralty October 28. 1682. giving their Opinion against any further use of Lead-sheathing p. 1. The Companies Reply thereto together with their whole Interest and Right in this Affair entirely submitted by them to his Majesty and their Lordships p. 2. An Accompt of the Company 's first becoming Masters of this Invention and their submitting it to the Censure of his Majesty in Parliament Anno 1670. p. 3. The Parliaments strict Inquisition into and most ample Approval of the said Invention in an Act passed in favour of the same p. 4. The first Essay made thereof by the Company upon the Phoenix in March 1670 1. and successively on other of his Majesties Ships p. 6. The studyed Obstructions nevertheless raised and long

from this sort of Sheathing They give it as their Opinion that it will not be for his Majesties Service that the same be longer used upon his Ships but that the Ships so Sheathed may have their sheathing stripped off and new Iron-work supplied where defective as well to prevent any further damage from the longer Continuance of the said Sheahing upon them as that they may be in a condition of service whenever on a sudden occasion the same may be called for To which Report and the Matters of Complaint wheron the same is grounded importing a vehement suggestion of ruine likely to attend the Ships and Service of his Majesty in Case this Method of Lead-sheathing should be continued The said Sir Ph. Howard and Compa. do make this plain Return viz. THat as their first interesting themselves in this undertaking was wholly founded upon the hopes they had of being enabled to contribute somewhat thereby to the Service of the Royal Navy and those hopes confirmed by as ample Instances of Publick approbation as were ever given to any precedent Invention so do they still give his Majesties Service the same entire preference to all considerations of private advantage that either has or can arise to them from the same undertaking And therefore are not only contented but desirous that in case your Lordships shall after perusal of this Paper hold the reasonableness of the said Officers Advice for suppressing the further use of Lead-Sheathing sufficiently demonstrated by what they have offered as the grounds thereof in that collection of Complaints No Considerations relating to the Interest or Right of this Company may stand in the way of whatever his Majesty and your Lordships shall think most for his Service to determine concerning it A Deduction of the whole Matter relating to the Lead-sheathing of his Majesty's Ships with what this Company do in their Duty hold themselves bound on this Occasion to offer of their own Reflections and Sentiments thereon IT was in the Year 1670. when this Company becoming Masters of this Invention of Milled-Lead they soon met with Encouragement not only from sundry Officers and Builders of the Navy but from his Majesty himself and his Royal Highness then Lord High Admiral of England to an immediate exposing the same to practice But such was their backwardness to presume upon falling into the exercise of an Invention though never so self-convinced of its Efficacy and Safety whose first Experiments and future use were principally to be made upon a Subject of so high consideration as that of the Royal Navy of England without passing the most strict and solemn probation a matter of that kind could and ought to have in a Government like this subsisting by Navigation namely That of his Majesty 's in Parliament that they in the same Year brought this their Invention into the Parliament then sitting Where after all the severities of Scrutiny capable of being exercised in each of the Houses successively and publick Conferences had with all Persons qualified for giving Advice therein and those attended not only with the prejudice all new Propositions ordinarily meet with but from opposition of the Persons interested in the preservation of the old ones whereof more hereafter it not only received full Approbation by being passed then into an Act but had the same done in Terms the most expressive of the Conviction and Satisfaction wherewith his Majesty and Parliament passed the said Act with regard both to the Invention and Inventors as by part thereof following appears viz. An Act for granting unto Sir Philip Howard Knight and Francis Watson Esquire the sole use of a Manufacture Art or Invention for the benefit of Shipping WHereas it appears upon Examination that Sir Philip Howard Knight and Francis Watson Esquire by their great Charge and Industry have found out a New Manufacture Art or Invention to preserve Ships and other Uessels under Water with certain Commodities chiefly of the growth of his Majesties Dominons which is much cheaper and more smooth and dureable than any way by Deals for Sheathing or Pitch Tarr Rozin Brimstone or any Graving hitherto used Now for the Encouragement of Ingenuity and Industry in the like cases and to the intent that the said Sir Philip Howard and Francis Watson may be protected in the use of the said Manufacture Art or Invention and have encouragement to make the same publick for the benefit of his Majesties Dominions in general c. This being done and the said Company not only invited but by his Majesty commanded to apply themselves forthwith to the putting in use this Invention upon some of his own Ships they by his Order and on Terms adjusted with the Officers of the Navy proceeded to the making the first Experiment thereof at Portsmouth upon the Phoenix in the month of March 1670 and not long after did the like upon several others of which these following were part viz. Dreadnought Henrietta Mary Lyon Bristol Foresight Vulture Rose Hunter Harwich c. But your Lordships may be pleased here to be informed That however upon the stamp given it by Parliament this Company were so let in by the Officers of the Navy to the exercise of their said Invention yet was it not without fresh assaults from some who were interested in the benefit arising from the labour and the Materials employed in the bringing on and stripping off the Wood-sheathing in whose place this was to succeed And by their Arts and Industry were Sir Philip Howard and Company in a restless manner urged to give Answers all over again to the Objections formerly raised against them and their Invention in Parliament namely Its excess in charge above the ancient method its rough lying on Ships sides to the prejudice of their Sailing It s liableness to galling from the Cables and cracking when brought on ground It s tediousness in bringing on and off Aptness to foul and difficult in cleansing Lastly Its undurableness and doubtful efficacy in what was chiefly expected from it against the Worm But so convincing were the Solutions brought as before to every particular and the same so confirmed by a three years proof by this time made of the whole and more especially by a Personal view had by the King himself of the Phoenix then come in and Careened at Sheerness in the Year 1673. after two Voyages to the Streights That his Majesty to put an end to the unreasonable importunities till then continued upon himself and them on this Subject was pleased by his then Commissioners of the Admiralty to give a final Declaration of his Opinion and Pleasure concerning it in an Order from those Lords to the Officers of the Navy bearing date the 20 th of December 1673. as followeth viz. AFter our hearty commendations in pursuance of His Majesties Pleasure signified to us by himself at this Board that in regard of the many and good proofs which had been given of the usefulness of Sir Philip Howard and Major

Watson's Invention of Sheathing his Majesties Ships with Lead in preference to the doing of it with the materials and in the manner anciently used with respect had no less to the charge thereof than the effectual securing the Hulls of his Majesties Ships against the Worm his Majesties Ships may for the time to come be Sheathed in no other manner than that of Lead without especial Order given for the same from this Board These are to Authorize you to cause this his Majesties Pleasure herein to be duly complyed with And so we remain Your Loving Friends Anglesey Ormond G. Carteret Notwithstanding which such was the Reluctancy or Caution wherewith the Officers of the Navy did yet think fit to proceed in the adventuring to give any Encouragement to this Invention That not adjudging a three Years proof available in this Case they thought expedient to take two Years more and the benefit of what Observations they could either make or collect from the several Lead-sheathed Ships employed on Southern Service within that time the better to enable themselves without mistake to determine concerning the execution of his Majesties said Order which indeed after the five Years end they did comply with by entering into a solemn Contract with Sir Philip Howard and Company for the future sheathing his Majesties Ships with Lead and this with such alacrity and fulness of seeming Conviction concerning it's advantageousness to the King that besides their voluntary exchanging many and good proofs c. the terms of his Majesties said Order into sufficient proof and Experience of the Goodness and Usefulness of the Invention of Milled-Lead and Nails for the Sheathing and preserving Ships against the Worm they would not permit the said Company to reserve to themselves any part but would secure to the King in the said Contract a Title to the whole term then remaining of the time for which they were by the Act of Parliament invested in the sole benefit of their Invention and whereof there was then twenty years yet to come And thus stood this Matter at the close of the Year 1675. when it might reasonably have been thought that it had come to such and so deliberate a settlement as no new scruples could have been raised about it on the part of the Navy Officers or any occasion of fresh disquiet created to this Company But so it was ordered or at lest fell out that no sooner were all things thus seemingly satisfied and established at home but a new Cry and of a quite new kind breaks out from abroad of a quality discovered in our Lead-sheathing tending if not timely prevented to the utter Destruction of his Majesties Ships namely That of the Eating into and wasting their Rudder-Irons and Bolts under water to such a degree and in so short a space of time as had never been observed upon any unsheathed or Wood-sheathed Ships Nor lay this long unseconded by concurrent Advices from Portsmouth in reference to some of them that were sheathed with Lead and then in that Harbour and the Accompts thereof circumstanced with such particularities as seemed to obtain Credit not only with the Navy Officers but his Majesty and the Lords of the Admiralty and even this Company too at least so far as to excite in all a desire of Enquiry into the true grounds of it In order to which leaving it to the Navy Officers to give your Lordships an Accompt of theirs as we shall by and by of our own Endeavours therein it pleased his Malesty and my Lords of the Admiralty not only by several Orders to recommend to the said Officers the general matter of this Enquiry but upon a suggestion made to them by this Company of their apprehending this evil to arise from some defectiveness in the Iron-work it self with a tender of their service towards finding out the full truth thereof to direct the Officers of the Navy by no less than four several Orders within the Months of April and May 1678. to receive from the said Company what Rudder-Irons should be so provided by them and employ no other upon any Ships to be thenceforward sheathed with Lead than what were so provided since which being full four Years and an half this Company has nevertheless been so far from having any opportunities given them by the said Officers of doing his Majesty the service by these Orders expected That the first and only sight or knowledge we had of what progress they in all that time made towards the decision of this matter is what your Lordships were pleased so lately to surprize us with in this their Report wherein the whole supposed Consumption of the Iron-work of his Majesties Ships and all the ruinous Consequences apprehended therefrom to the Navy are expresly laid on Lead-sheathing and that only and grounded this their sentence upon no other Inducements for ought appears than the particulars of Complaint accompanying the said Report The Truth Consistences and Conclusiveness of which Complaints for proving the chargeableness of this evil on Lead-sheathing your Lordships will we doubt not see through upon a bare review of the said Complaints joyned with this their Reasoning therefrom as follows 1. From Sir Iohn Norbrough's saying That in Iuly 1678 the Plymouth's Rudder-Irons began to be much eaten doubting his being forced thereby to send her home that Winter from the incapacity he was in of getting her recruited abroad and Sir R. B's adding in September 1682. that had she not been supplyed with new Rudder-Irons before her coming out of the Streights she had been in the same ill condition with another Ship he had then newly spoken of whereas we are under no doubts of Sir I. Narbrough's owning to your Lordships what he has lately done to some of us that she had no supply of fresh Rudder-Irons abroad but came home with her old ones and those it seems in so good case that Sir R. B. could not distinguish them from Irons of a new supply 2. From Sir R. B's descripition of the ill condition of the Harwich's Iron-works discovered at her cleaning in 1682. in their being eaten away to nothing so as to make it matter of wonder that she sunk not in the Sea whereas besides her said Iron-works having been fastened in her five Years and an half without any Complaint heard of concerning them all her Voyage or at her coming home in Iuly 1679. Sir R. B. must be thought subject to some mistake or both he and the Surveyor of the Navy made accountable for a breach much less easily answered for both of the general Laws of the said Navy and their particular Instruction therein by suffering a Ship of her Value and coming home in so sinking a condition to lye afterwards above three Years in Harbour unsearched 3. From Sir Iohn Kempthornes Complaint in Iune 1677. of the Dreadnought's Rudder-Irons being within a Year and an half and that in Harbour so eaten as not to be fit for her being adventured to Sea

been ever found of so pernicious and certain ill effect upon the very matter they are employed to secure Nor does what is thus approved of in the general and universal practice of England want its Confirmation by the like of Forraign Nations to wit the Dutch Portuguese's Spaniard the first of which like us do generally sheath their Rudder-Irons and the back of their posts with Lead or Copper upon all Ships bound in the way of the Worm and for the two latter not only the Rudders but the whole Bodies of their Ships under water even of the Gallions themselves have of long time been and are well known at this day to be entirely sheathed with Lead which concurrence of these two latter Nations seems in this case so much more considerable than any other by how much not only their Voyages are the longest their hazards therein from the Worm the greatest and Cargoes the most valuable of all that Navigation knows but for that the Hulls of their Ships abound the most with Iron-work as having all which in the fastening of our Plank is performed with Wooden Trunnels done by them with large Spikes of Iron In fine were this spoil of Iron-work chargeable with nothing but what is contained in the Lead and Nails these pretended effects of theirs would be constant and uniform in all Ships alike sheathed whereas nothing is more frequent than the instances of their Inequality and this Company dare put the whole Credit of their Cause upon that one Issue viz. of ever finding an equal Consumption of the Iron-work under water whether upon the same or different Ships at any one time or equal distances of time The complaint of Ships that have passed this way of sheathing affording a most ample proof of this inequality by having some of them loaden with Complaints and every one different from the rest and at different times from it self whilst we are yet to be told whether the rest are not as we are sure by the long lasting of the Iron-work some of them were free from all ground of this Complaint and upon Information of several Masters of Ships and other Sea-faring Men even upon Ships that were sheathed with Lead or not sheathed at all they have found the Rudder-Irons of some to decay much sooner than others which they alwayes imputed to the Smiths different mixture welding and working of the Iron To justifie therefore the goodness and usefulness of this their Invention the Partners in the Year 1678. made a Proposal to the then Navy Board to furnish the Rudder-Irons for the Ships they should sheath in which they would take care themselves of the good mixture welding and working thereof which Proposal was thought so reasonable that upon it several repeated Orders to that Board were made by the Lords of the Admiralty Thus stood the matter in the Year 1678. about which time some differences arose amongst the Partners themselves which gave an interruption to their Proceedings and an opportunity to those whose Interest it was by reason of their respective Trades to decry this Invention though it was apparently of so great advantage to the Kings service but at present all differences being reconciled and the Interest in the Act of Parliament fallen into such hands as are both willing and able to set it on foot they thought it their Duty to lay a new Proposal before your Honourable Board which they do the more gladly for that they know you all to be Persons throughly acquainted with and skilful in these Matters and most Zealous in the Profits and Interests of his Majesty They crave leave to begin with reminding you of some Arguments which no doubt have formerly lain before some of you of the advantage that will accrue by the use of this way of sheathing above that of Wood. First That the only competent and allowed defence of Ships against the Worm before this of Lead-sheathing was the paying the Hulls from the waters edge downwards with Stuff and laying the inside of a sheathing board from inch and quarter to three quarters thick all over with Tarr and Hair to be brought over the forementioned stuff and being well nailed graving or paying the outside of the said Board all over with another composition of Brimstone Oyl and other Ingredients which is called Wood-sheathing Secondly Concerning which however united the opinions of us English men may be thought to have been touching the same it seems to this Company grounded not so much upon the real perfection thereof as the profit that attends it to the Builders interested in the working of it and consequently leaving them under no temptation either to look out for a better themselves or give encouragement to any discoveries made towards it by others And that indeed the so universal reception given to Wood-sheathing is rather due to this than its own real sufficiency you will be Judges of from the following Notes 1. That if not the most at least the most essential of all the Ingredients employed in that method of Sheathing are of forraign growth which they make use of not so much for the sake of the Nationality of its Argument though yet that is such as the Parliaments of England have ever laid great weight upon in all their Deliberations upon Trade and particularly in the Act relating to this very Invention but from a consideration which the Books of the Navy sufficiently confirm the force of viz That being Forraign such has sometimes been the scarcity thereof here even when their use has been the most wanted that they have been either not to be had at all or at Prices much exceeding the ordinary Market whereas the Materials used by the Cop●rtners are of the Product of England and so can never be wanting 2. That the Wood-sheathing hath been alwayes observed and confessed to be very apt to gather filth and of no less uneasiness when foul'd to be throughly cleansed again 3. That from its roughness and the multitude of Nail-heads standing out from the Ships side or otherwise and the thickness of the sheathing it self Ships sheathed with Wood have ever been complained of as lessened thereby in that only quality upon which our Friggats most value themselves and have their service in preference to others calculated from namely their Sailing All these Arguments they humbly hope have given you full satisfaction of the preference this way of sheathing ought to have and likewise hope they have answered all Objections to it They crave leave therefore to begin their new Proposal with these Assertions 1. That this sheathing with Lead at the first hanging on is if at all very inconsiderably dearer than a good Streights sheathing with Wood. 2. That the Wood-sheathing never lasts above a Voyage or two and when stript the old sheathing is worth little or nothing 3. That this Lead-sheathing with some small repairs will preserve the Plank from the Worm which is the true intent of sheathing Ships till it shall be