pilots of the king's ships, but it was entrusted with the supply and transport of many kinds of stores. A letter written by Sir Edward Howard on the 22nd of March 1513 gives a very pleasing instance of the minute personal interest which the king took in his ships. The document has been so damaged by time and accident that a large part of it is illegible, but from what can be deciphered we learn that Sir Edward gave the king a minute account of the performances of all the vessels in his squadron, during a cruise from the mouth of the river to the Channel. Fragments of sentences tell how the one sailed very well, and how "your good ship, the flower, I trow, of all ships that ever sailed," did something which the damaged state of the paper conceals, and then "came within three spear-lengths of the =Kateryn= and spake to John Fleming, Peter Seman, and to Freeman, master, to bear record that the =Mary Rose= did fetch her at the tail." "The flower of all ships that ever sailed" was apparently the =Mary Rose= herself, Howard's own flagship, the same which was destined to come to such a disastrous end in the Solent some thirty years later. Sir Edward tells how she "fet" the =Mary George=, and in all ways proved herself "the noblest ship of sail ... at this hower that I trow be in Christendom." When they came to anchor, the admiral noted down the order in which the vessels forming his squadron came up to the Road: "The first after the =Mary Rose= was the =Sovereign=, then the =Nicholas=, then the =Leonard= of Dartmouth, the =Mary George=, the =Harry= of Hampton, the =Ann= of Greenwich, the =Nicholas Montrygo=, called the =Sancho de Garra=, and the =Katherine= and the =Mary=." That the king's officers were encouraged to keep him so minutely informed of the performances of his ships is proof enough of the interest Henry took in his navy.