The size of the vessels built in Virginia had been increasing steadily. Thomas Ludwell, Secretary of the Colony, reported, in 1655, that there had been built recently, several small vessels which could make voyages along the coast, presumably sloops. Again, in a letter to Lord Arlington, Secretary Ludwell made the following statement: "We have built several vessels to trade with our neighbors, and do hope ere long to build bigger ships and such as may trade with England." Colonel Cuthbert Potter of Lancaster County, who was sent on a mission to ascertain the truth of the reported Indian depredations in Massachusetts and New York, was an early settler in the colony, and had acquired large land holdings in Middlesex County. About 1660, he removed to Barbadoes in his own sloop, the _Hopewell_. In 1665, James Fookes agreed to build for the widow, Mrs. Ann Hack, a sloop that would carry thirty-five hogsheads of tobacco, if Mrs. Hack would supply the plank and a barrel of tar; Fookes agreed to finish the job by the 25th of December. The following summer, at the plantation of Mrs. Hack, Fookes made a formal contract with the brother of Mrs. Hack, Augustine Herrman of Bohemia Manor in Maryland, to build a sloop and have it ready by the following October. Herrman is well-known for his 1673 map of Maryland and Virginia. Twenty years later, the dimensions of the _Phenix_, another vessel built by Fookes, were given: length of keel, forty feet; breadth, fourteen feet, nine inches inside; depth, eight feet, ten inches. In the English _News Letter_ of March 12, 1666, was carried an encouraging news item: "A frigate of between thirty and forty [tuns?], built in Virginia, looks so fair, it is believed that in a short time, they will get the art of building as good frigates as there are in England." At that time, a new fort was being erected at Point Comfort, and it was ordered that every ship riding in the James River should send one carpenter with provisions and tools to work on this fort. In 1667, Mrs. Sarah Whitby, widow of John Whitby, petitioned the King in Council as follows: "The petitioner with other planters in Virginia are owners of the ship _America_, built in Virginia by Captain Whitby, and pray for a license, for the said vessel with six mariners, to proceed to Virginia." The workmanship of the _America_ and her fine appearance had aroused the interest of the English, and expectations arose that Virginia might soon become skillful in building large vessels.