Most of them were suited for defence, to prevent the attacks of pirates, which swarmed the seas round the coast at that time.

Shipbuilding by the natives in private shipyards was in a miserable condition.

Mr.Willet, in his memoir relative to the navy, observes: "It is said, and I believe with truth, that at this time (the middle of the sixteenth century) there was not a private builder between London Bridge and Gravesend, who could lay down a ship in the mould left from a Navy Board's draught, without applying to a tinker who lived in Knave's Acre."[8] Another ship of some note built at the instance of Henry VIII.

was the Mary Rose, of the portage of 500 tons.

We find her in the "pond at Deptford" in 1515.