Gravesend was granted, allowing the men of the town to operate boats between London and the town; these became known as the "Long Ferry". It became the preferred form of passage, because of the perils of road travel (see below). On Gravesend's river front are the remains of a Tudor fort built by command of King Henry VIII in 1543. On 21 March 1617, John Rolfe and Rebecca (aka Princess Pocahontas) with their two-year-old son, Thomas, boarded a ship in London bound for the Commonwealth of Virginia; the ship had only sailed as far as Gravesend before Rebecca fell fatally ill,
Gravesend waylaying a regular steamer (whilst under way in the Lower Hope, off Gravesend) bound for Hamburg. (Gravesend also appears in "The Pickwick Papers"). Gravesend is briefly mentioned in the 1818 novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley during Victor's travels through the United Kingdom with Clerval; ultimately culminating in Victor's residence in the Orkney Islands. Also in the 1902 novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad the narrator has dark aired Gravesend as the perspective from which we continue our gaze of a sky that is mournfully gloomy over London. Waiting for the tide near the shores of Gravesend is the setting