 "Sovereign of the Seas")
"YOU have made many requests to me; and now I will make it my request to you - to build this ship."
So spoke Charles I, King of England, to Phineas Pett, Master Shipwright and then head of the greatest family of shipbuilders the world has ever known - a family whose members were brilliantly associated with English naval construction for a period of more than two hundred years. The King's command to Pett was given June 26, 1634, at Woolwich dockyard. But, it is doubtful if even the King himself realized the extent of the undertaking with which Pett was charged, or the striking advances in ship design that were to be developed in the construction of the Sovereign of the Seas. In size, armament and decoration she was to surpass any other ship up to her time. Contemporary ships averaged only about half her tonnage; the largest ship of the earlier Spanish Armada was only 760 tons. The Sovereign of the Seas was of 1637 tons! Forty guns comprised average armament for other ships of her day; the Sovereign of the Seas mounted 102! In this respect, she was more akin to Lord Nelson's flagship Victory as the latter was armed at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, also with 100 guns. Her decoration would require thousands of words to describe, for in this quality she remains even until today, the most beautifully decorated ship ever to sail the seas. The gilded carvings favored by the Stuart kings on their ships reached their zenith with the glorious Sovereign of the Seas. In the year it took to build her, a small army of wood carvers must have been continuously busy to complete their part of the "Great New Ship", as contemporaries then called her. Gold, black and white - yet the skilled combination of these simple colors made her the most beautiful ship of all time!
The King was not without opposition to his plans for the ship. An average ship then cost about 6,500 pounds. The Sovereign of the Seas cost more than ten times this figure, or 65,586 pounds. His counselors attempted strenuously to dissuade him from his purpose. The "Ship Money Taxes" imposed upon his people to build this and other ships were bitterly resented because of their severity - and laid the foundations for his ultimate overthrow and shocking death on the headman's block.
Although Phineas Pett designed the Sovereign of the Seas and supervised her construction, it was his son Peter who, as Master Shipwright at Woolwich, actually directed work on the vessel from the laying of the keel to the launching there on October 13, 1637. Phineas had meanwhile been elevated to the position of Commissioner of the Navy and, as such, his duties required his presence at other English shipyards as well as at Woolwich. Young Peter was only twenty when placed in charge, yet in the years following, he proved beyond doubt to be the most outstanding naval builder of his entire illustrious family.
The Sovereign of the Seas saw service in four great wars: The First, Second and Third Dutch Wars and the English Succession War, in addition to six major naval battles, between the periods of 1652 to 1692. She was rebuilt three times. Originally named Sovereign of the Seas, during her fifty-nine years' service she was also called Sovereign, Royal Sovereign and Sovereign Royal. She was accidentally destroyed by fire at Chatham, England, January 27, 1696.