Christopher Pett

Christopher Pett (1620–1668) was an English shipbuilder for the Royal Navy and part of the Pett dynasty of shipbuilders. He is mentioned in the Diary of Samuel Pepys.^[1]

He was born on 4 May 1620, the eleventh child of many children to Phineas Pett, shipbuilder to the King, and his wife Ann Nicholls.^[1]

In 1647, he was appointed Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard in place of Peter, who moved to be Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard.^[2]

In the 1660s, he began building private yachts, over and above his Royal Navy commissions, as part of a current fashion, including a yacht for Sir William Batten.^[1]

He died suddenly in March 1668.^[1]

• HMS Speaker (1650) 50-gun ship of the line launched at Woolwich Dockyard
• HMS Antelope (1652) 56-gun frigate launched at Woolwich Dockyard
• HMS Swiftsure (1653) 56-gun ship of the line launched at Deptford Dockyard
• Rose, 6-gun pink (1657) launched at Woolwich
• Hart, 8-gun pink (1658) launched at Woolwich
• HMS Richard (1658) 70-gun ship of the line launched at Woolwich
• Anne, 8-gun yacht (1661) launched at Woolwich
• Charles, 6-gun yacht (1662) launched at Woolwich
• Henrietta, 8-gun yacht (1663) launched at Woolwich
• HMS Royal Katherine (1664) 84-gun ship of the line launched at Woolwich
• HMS Falcon (1666) 42-gun ship launched at Woolwich
• HMS Greenwich (1666) 58-gun ship of the line launched at Woolwich
• HMS St Andrew (1670) 100-gun ship of the line launched at Woolwich, one of the largest ships built at that date with a crew of 730 men. Begun by Pett finished by his brothers.

His widow Ann Pett wrote to Samuel Pepys to help her gain a pension from the King. She later married shipwright Daniel Furzer.^[1]