Popular today, the name was given to a series of 16th-century naval ships, then in the 17th century to a fleet of ten full rigged pinnaces commissioned by the first Duke of Buckingham.

Fast and maneuverable when compared to a typical ship of the line, when they were under the command of an experienced captain with a crew that retained discipline during battle, many war pinnaces compiled impressive fighting and espionage records.

[Note 4] Lyon's Whelp was the name given to several British naval ships dating back to the 16th century, including at least two that were not financed or built by the Duke of Buckingham.

This Lion's Whelp was loaned to Sir Walter Raleigh and joined the English fleet for the combined Anglo-Dutch attack and expected capture of Cadiz in 1596.

Several years ago, John Wassell worked with the Public Record Office in London and England's Calendars of State Papers to research the ten Lion's Whelps built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1628.

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.

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.

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.

[9] At least one of Buckingham's ten Lion's Whelps saw service with the British Fleet in England's attempt to relieve the Huguenot citadel of La Rochelle.

England hoped that a success would bring the French Protestants into an alliance against Catholic Spain and provide a demonstration of English naval power that would leave King Louis XIII hesitant and fearful.

As an important commander during the Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré (1627) and the attempt to relieve La Rochelle, the Duke of Buckingham revealed a serious lack of understanding and expertise when faced with both army and naval strategic challenges.

Apparently Buckingham insisted on an orderly, slow and methodical organization of his army on the exposed beach, even as French troops and cavalry made repeated lightning attacks, emerging from the protection of the sand dunes.

Later, it was revealed that Buckingham's preparations for the siege of Saint Martin included ladders that proved too short to reach the top of Saint-Martin-de-Re's walls.

This Lion's Whelp and her sister ships the Talbot and the George carried goods and new settlers to Naumkaeg, the Indian name for the territory settled by England's Massachusetts Bay Company at Salem.

After the Duke was assassinated in 1632, his fleet of ten Lion Whelps was taken into the Royal Navy and the estate reimbursed £4,500 according to Captain Penington who had supervised their construction.