the banks of the River Thames, particularly at Ipswich and Shorum. The Lord Admiral was to oversee the "preparation and setting out" for 10 pinnaces of 120 tons each. (Each Lion's Whelp was built to 186 tons.. see below.) Each ship was to have a tender, and adequate supplies of oars, cable, anchors, sails, canvas and 'all other tackling and rigging to be furnished from his 'Majesties Stores', likewise for ordnance and ammunition. "Their Lordships well approving of the said motion did think fit and order the same accordingly." The motive for building these ten ships was the 'enterprise of La Rochelle'. These ten ships would be added to the English fleet that would undertake to relieve the siege of the French Huguenot (Protestant) center of power at La Rochelle imposed by King Louis XIII. Considerable resources must have been available because Phinaeus Pett left this employment at the end of July, which indicates that the ten ships had been completed and launched by that time (~6 months) or shortly thereafter. Thereupon the Duke's fleet set sail for Portsmouth and assignments with the Royal Navy.>ref group=Note>The group that met at Whitehall on 27 February 1627 was impressive. The heart of England's political and military power was present: Lord Keeper (of the privy seal)- Lord Treasurer - Lord President (of the council) - Lord Admiral - Lord Steward - Earl of Suffolk - Earl of Dorset - Earl of Exeter - Earl of Morton - Earl of Kelley - Viscount Wimbledon - Viscount Grandison - Mr. Treasurer – Master of the Ward(robe) - Mr. Chanc(ellor) of the Exchequer - Mr Chanc. of the Duchy (of Lancaster). Although there are no surviving remains of any of the ten Lion's Whelps built by the Duke of Buckingham, it is possible to obtain a portrait of these ships. Dutch marine painters of the period often included detailed examples of Dutch, English and Spanish ships in their paintings. A small oil-on-copper painting by Abraham de Verwer c.1625, that is now in the England's National Maritime Museum, shows Dutch and English war pinnaces saluting each other outside a harbour. The English ship is a good fit to the reconstructed profile for a Buckingham Lion's Whelp as a three-masted war pinnace with a single gun deck that had eight broadside cannon ports. There is a grating or 'flying deck' over the waist, and Royal Arms decorated the