Some of the best known anecdotes of HENRY’S life exhibit the interest he felt in naval matters. That tendency may, perhaps, have taken its birth in a London incident of March, 1604. The Earl of NOTTINGHAM, Lord High Admiral, was then in the flush of Court favour. The Prince had been but for a few months in England, and his sight-seeing had not, as yet, included the baptism[26] of a ship. [Sidenote: ORIGIN OF HENRY’S INTEREST IN NAVAL AFFAIRS.] The Admiral prepared that novelty to please him. It was at the Tower that the Prince first examined the ‘_Disdain_’ (15 March, 1604). Whether at the same time he made his first acquaintance with the most famous inhabitant of the Tower is matter of mere conjecture. [Sidenote: _Life of Pett_, MS. HARL., vol. 6279 (B. M.). (Cited by Birch, p. 39.)] RALEGH, at all events, was there[27] on the day when Phineas PETT moored his new vessel off Tower Wharf, for the Prince’s delight. Before any long time had passed, RALEGH was busy in the composition of a _Discourse of a maritimal voyage, and of the passages and incidents therein_, with a like object. The acquaintance, however began, was improved with every passing year. Of the many hopes which came to a sudden end eight years afterwards, few, it is probable, were more sanguine or more far-reaching than those of the King’s keenly watched and dreaded prisoner. [Sidenote: HENRY AND RALEGH.] For England, RALEGH saw in Prince HENRY a wise and brave king to come. For himself, he saw not only a generous friend, but a man who might be the means of giving shape and substance to many patriotic schemes with which a brain that could not be imprisoned had long been teeming. There is evidence that on more than one topic of public policy RALEGH’S counsel made a deep impression on HENRY. One instance of it will be seen presently. But apart altogether from such positive results as admit of testimony, their intercourse is memorable. It must have been by virtue of some congeniality of nature that a youth in HENRY’S position so quickly leapt—across many obstacles—to an appreciation, alike of the circumstances and of the character of RALEGH, which still commends itself to those who have looked into them most searchingly. The estimate has been many times confirmed by the investigations of history, long afterwards, but it was strongly opposed to the broad current of contemporary opinion. A heart larger than the average may have its divinations, as well as the intellect that is more acute and better furnished than the average. [Sidenote: THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE NAVAL DOCKYARDS.]