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,
Transport in Kent along the North Kent coast from London to Dartford, Gravesend and Strood, before following the Medway Valley (as the Medway Valley Line in 1844-56). Branches off this network gave SER access to Thanet from Ashford via Canterbury (1846), Hastings via the Romney Marsh (1852)and Hastings via Tunbridge Wells (1845–52). SER's major London termini were London Bridge, Charing Cross, and Cannon Street. Kent also had a second major railway, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) which competed extensively with the SER, leading to many Kentish towns and cities having two railway stations and several otherwise uneconomic lines being built. LCDR