Description:During the 1590s attention was focussed on improving the security of the Navy incase of foreign assault. Documents in the Sutherland Papers suggest that the security of the Navy was threatened in the 1590s in the form of suspected attacks on the Queen’s ships at Chatham. A letter dated January 1590 addressed to William, Lord Cobham from Lord Howard of Effingham refers to ‘certaine intelligence’ about a suspected attack ‘againste her Majesties Navie in harboure nowe at Chatham’.
In order to ensure the security of the ships, Howard orders ‘that the beacons theraboute maie be watched and looked unto’ and suggests that ‘if anie suspected person doe hange loitering theraboute he may be…apprehended’.
Lord Howard’s letter reflects that the threat of attack against England’s Naval Forces was constantly present at the end of the sixteenth century.