With the increase in the number of these ships came, of course, the greater need for docks where the vessels could lie in tiers in safety and convenience; so in 1789 the Brunswick Basin was begun in the east end of the Blackwall yard. Two years later the first ship was masted here. This was the _Lord Macartney_, and you may guess of the keenness and smartness of the men when you learn that her bowsprit and all her masts were raised and fixed in the remarkable time of three hours and forty minutes. To-day, with all the modern appliances of cranes and labour-saving devices, this record is worth noting. Two years later was launched from this yard the famous East Indiaman _Warren Hastings_, which, as will be seen presently, was destined to become famous for her achievement in 1806. These East Indiamen, the backbone and beauty of the British Marine, were frigate-built, and stately rather than fast sailers, badly designed, requiring much ballast, and essentially but little improved since the sixteenth century. For during the latter part of the eighteenth century it was the French who were the finest naval architects. But two names become associated with the history of this yard before the close of the eighteenth century, and it is with these two families that the golden age of the sailing ship will ever be remembered. In another chapter we shall see how much the Wigrams and Greens did to make the British ships unique in the annals of sail. It is therefore worth mentioning that in the year 1764 comes the first mention of Robert Wigram. His father had been master of a privateer. After his death the young Robert came to London and was apprenticed to a surgeon. Two years later Wigram took his surgeon’s diploma and then sailed in that capacity in one of the East India Company’s ships. This was the _Admiral Watson_. Subsequently he also served in the _Duke of Richmond_, but about 1770, after acquiring valuable knowledge of the Eastern trade, he became a merchant, and later one of the proprietors of this yard, his son William afterwards becoming one of the directors of the East India Company. It was in 1782 that George Green was apprenticed to the yard, and owing to his ability and other circumstances, was destined also to become later one of the partners. It is interesting also to mention that young Wigram, during his voyage in the _Admiral Watson_, formed a friendship with the second officer, whose name was W. T. Money. We thus see the first association of those three names, Money, Wigram and Green, which are inseparable from the finest fleet of sailing ships in its most historic period.