Governor Wentworth reports in 1730 that New Hampshire manufactured timber "into beams, planks, knees, boards ... and sometimes into house-frames."[212] But long before this it had been exported to England for naval purposes, and on two occasions at least the Massachusetts Government bought the goodwill of the home authorities by a timely present of masts. In particular, however, this timber was used by the colonies for shipbuilding, which became an industry of importance, and in later years those employed in it actually excelled the English shipwrights. In 1631 Winthrop built a thirty-ton vessel, soon to be followed by others of a hundred and even three hundred tons; and seven years later the first New England vessel sailed safely across the Atlantic into the Thames. Although in 1643 Massachusetts could only boast five ships ranging from one hundred to five hundred tons, yet in 1665 the colony had one hundred and ninety-two ships of all sizes; and in 1708 possessed two hundred, twenty of which were over one hundred tons burthen. Rhode Island ran Massachusetts very close in this shipbuilding race. Between 1690 and 1710 her vessels are said to have increased six-fold, and in 1740 the inhabitants could proudly boast that they owned no fewer than one hundred and twenty ships. Connecticut never competed in this form of industry, and in 1708 she is reported to have had only thirty vessels. New Hampshire too carried on her over-sea traffic by means of strange vessels, possessing only five ships of her own. In 1748, although trade was supposed to be in a very depressed state, five hundred and forty ships sailed from Boston, a fact which showed a considerable export and import commerce.