He received me kindly, but held out little hope of my desire being fulfilled. "Would that I could, Aubrey," he remarked sorrowfully. "My whole time is spent in writing to Master Samuel Pepys praying for money to pay the arrears of both seamen and workmen. God knows, the poor wretches are hard put; but the money that should go for the defence of the realm finds its way into the hands of His Majesty’s favourites. There is a new ship to be launched this month, but there is not a man belonging to her except the officers, whose work is to look about them. Never did we require cordage and hemp more than we do now. Fifteen ships now in port are making demands for rope, and what we have in store signifies nothing. The blockmakers and joiners have gone away, refusing to work any longer without money; the sawyers threaten to do the same. I am even now going the rounds of the yard, so if you will bear me company you can see for yourself to what straits we are put." So saying, the commissioner led the way to the dockyard, past the ropehouse to the building slips, where a tall vessel lay ready for launching, yet hardly a workman was to be seen. Instead, a mob of women and children followed Sir Thomas at a distance, reviling and cursing the king, the commissioner, and the navy in general by reason of the non-payment of their husbands’ and fathers’ wages. "Faith, ’tis hard on them," remarked Sir Thomas; "but for foulness of tongue they out-vie the daughters of Billingsgate. Now, we’ll make for yonder workshop, for there will be found the only reliable men working in the dockyard." But alas for the commissioner’s hopes! On entering the shop he found that, instead of being diligently employed, the men were listening to a heated discourse from a malcontent from another part of the dockyard. This last straw raised Sir Thomas’s ire. Seizing a stout cudgel from one of the men, he struck out right and left at the astonished party till bruised and cut pates became the order of the day. Then, having thoroughly cowed the malcontents by taking more pains in the use of the stick than in any business for the last twelve months (as he afterwards expressed it), he sent for the guard and clapped three of the ringleaders in the stocks. "You see, Aubrey," he exclaimed on our return to his house, "how I am put upon. Though I would gladly serve His Majesty in great and small matters, yet how can I when the lack of money hangeth like a millstone round my neck? As for you, the moment I can get you a vessel I’ll do my utmost, but, as things are, I can hold out but little hope." I thanked him and withdrew, feeling sick at heart at the prospect of a life of idleness when I might be serving the king at sea.