author
Phineas Pett
1570–1647
A master shipwright in the great age of the Stuart navy, this remarkable builder helped shape some of England’s most important warships. His own memoir also leaves a rare firsthand record of dockyard life, ambition, and court politics in the early 1600s.
1 Audiobook
The Autobiography of Phineas Pett
by Phineas Pett
About the author
Born on November 1, 1570, at Deptford Strond, Phineas Pett came from the famous Pett family of shipbuilders. He became one of the leading English shipwrights of his time and later served as First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard.
He is best remembered for his work on major royal ships, including the Prince Royal, and for the reputation he earned during a period when English naval design was becoming more ambitious and sophisticated. Sources describe him as a central figure in the Stuart navy’s shipbuilding world.
Pett also left behind a memoir of his life and work, preserved in the British Library and published centuries later. That account makes him especially valuable to readers today, because it offers a rare personal view of naval administration, professional rivalry, and shipbuilding in early modern England.