Questions arising out of these privileges, and disputes between Lord Zouch and the captains of vessels, on the subject of wrecks, occur incessantly among the documents in the State-paper Office, which almost supply a history of the period. In the beginning of the year 1626, Buckingham had commenced his naval operations by sending to impress twenty of the best merchant-ships in the Thames or elsewhere; “such,” were his instructions, “as shall be most ready to go to sea, and most able to do his Majesty’s service in his present employments.”[24] Footnote 24: State Papers, edited, 1626. The impressment of these vessels does not seem to have been successful in this instance; and although the captains to command them were appointed by Government, they found great difficulty, as has been before stated, in manning their ships. Great, meantime, were Buckingham’s endeavours to clear the seas of pirates, as well as to recover that dominion over the narrow seas upon which encroachments had been made. The Duke now began to be assisted by Sir Edward Nicholas, whose name appears at this period as the writer of the Duke’s answers to suitors, and who was evidently regarded with much confidence by Buckingham.[25] Footnote 25: State Papers, edited, 1626. Although a fleet of twenty sail, of the king’s ships, and others had been prepared so early as the 6th of January, 1625-6, for a service of six months,[26] yet it was not until June that the Duke suddenly left the court, and, with all the haste of his impetuous nature, went on board the fleet at Dover so unexpectedly that his secretary Nicholas could not join him before he set out, but was a few hours too late. Neither had due preparations been made; shoes, shirts, and stockings were wanting for three thousand men; the surgeons’ chests were not supplied with medicines; many of the soldiers’ arms were wanting; the colonels and captains begged to have new colours; the soldiers to have hammocks; and it was represented to the Duke that their food ought not to be so inferior as it then was to that of the sailors.[27] Footnote 26: Brodie (vol. ii., p. 147) says that only ten sail of the hundred ships that formed Buckingham’s fleet were the king’s ships; but it seems from these letters that the number was much greater. Footnote 27: State Papers, vol. lxvi., No. 19. The Duke, according to Sir Henry Wotton’s statement, was personally employed on either element; both “Admiral and General,” there seems to have been a deficiency of discipline; several murders were committed by the soldiery, and an enforcement of martial law was recommended.