After passing through a great storm at the Nore, the vessel reached the Tower, where the King and the young Prince inspected her with delight.

She was christened Disdain by the Lord High Admiral, and Pett was appointed captain of the ship.
After his return to Chatham, Pett, at his own charge, built a small ship at Gillingham, of 300 tons, which he launched in the same year, and named the Resistance.

The ship was scarcely out of hand, when Pett was ordered to Woolwich, to prepare the Bear and other vessels for conveying his patron, the Lord High Admiral, as an Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain, for the purpose of concluding peace, after a strife of more than forty years.

The Resistance was hired by the Government as a transport, and Pett was put in command.

He seems to have been married at this time, as he mentions in his memoir that he parted with his wife and children at Chatham on the 24th of March, 1605, and that he sailed from Queenborough on Easter Sunday.
During the voyage to Lisbon the Resistance became separated from the Ambassador's squadron, and took refuge in Corunna.