Good success have they with their skill, and carefully keep so precious a pearl, lest otherwise amongst many friends some foes attain unto it." The late Peter Bolt, member for Greenwich, took pride in being descended from the Petts; but so far as we know, the name itself has died out.

In 1801, when Charnock's 'History of Marine Architecture' was published, Mr.Pett, of Tovil, near Maidstone, was the sole representative of the family.
Footnotes for Chapter I.
[1] This was not the first voyage of a steamer between England and America.

The Savannah made the passage from New York to Liverpool as early as 1819; but steam was only used occasionally during the voyage, In 1825, the Enterprise, with engines by Maudslay, made the voyage from Falmouth to Calcutta in 113 days; and in 1828, the Curacoa made the voyage between Holland and the Dutch West Indies.

But in all these cases, steam was used as an auxiliary, and not as the one essential means of propulsion, as in the case of the Sirius and the Great Western, which were steam voyages only.
[2] "In 1862 the steam tonnage of the country was 537,000 tons; in 1872, it was 1,537,000 tons; and in 1882, it had reached 3,835,000 tons."-- Mr.Chamberlain's speech, House of Commons, 19th May, 1884.
[3] The last visit of the plague was in 1665.
[4] Roll of Edward the Third's Fleet.

Cotton's Library, British Museum.
[5] Charnock's History Of Marine Architecture, ii.