Mathew Baker - Rivalry With The Pett Dynasty

Rivalry With The Pett Dynasty

There is reason to believe that Mathew Baker may have been raised in the household of Peter Pett, who was associated from 1570 with the shipworks at Dover. The son of Peter Pett, Phineas, and his son, Peter, both endured the ill will of those in the boat building fraternity who, spurred by jealousy, wished to see the Pett shipwright dynasty fall. Mathew Baker and Phineas Pett quarreled and, according to Pett, over the next ten to twelve years, Baker lost no opportunity of 'doing him a bad turn'. This seems to be borne out by Baker's own comments.

Phineas Pett, a free radical among the established Master Shipwrights, took the bold initiative of sweeping aside Mathew Baker's grand principles of 'Shipwrightry'. The other shipwrights saw him as a dangerous upstart and made unsuccessful several attempts to thwart his advancement. However, Phineas Pett eventually became the subject of an enquiry in 1621 so serious that King James was forced to intervene. Stern criticism had been leveled against Pett by members of the Navy Commission, led by Burrell. At the behest of Mathew Baker, a party of 'diverse Master Shipwrights' of the Thames complained that Pett, amongst other outrages, was found employing the practice of 'furring' to broaden the width of the Prince Royal. They alleged he had misjudged the calculated width under Baker's system. He had, in fact, introduced modifications into the methods of Baker and the older shipwrights, such as his adjustments of the width of the floor and the shape of the bows.

Perrin, in his introduction to Pett's autobiography, explains that "this indictment cannot be lightly set aside. Mathew Baker was the most prominent shipbuilder of that day, Bright and Richard Meryett (or Meritt) were Government Shipbuilders of long experience, while Nicholas Clay, John Greaves and Edward Stevens were private builders of considerable standing in their profession." These men sided with Baker on who was competent to undertake the refit of the Prince Royal built under Pett. Pett's own reference to this matter in his autobiography is "touching the cross-grained timber, his Majesty protested very earnestly the cross grain was in the men and not in the timber!".

Thus, having "maliciously certified the ship unserviceable and not fit to be continued the 24th of February succeeding, by special command from His Majesty, who well understood their malicious proceedings, the selfsame surveyors were again sent to Chatham and under their hands certified that the ship might be made serviceable for a voyage into Spain with the charge of £300/~ to be bestowed upon her hull and the perfecting her masts, which certificate was returned under their hands and delivered to His Majesty." The Prince Royal was brought to the docks at Chatham on March 8, 1623 and re-launched a fortnight later.