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 of Dover which is a busy RORO ferry port. Ramsgate is a container port. The Medway Estuary has been an important port and naval base for 500 years. The River Medway is tidal up to Allington and navigable up to Tonbridge. There are two canals in Kent, the Royal Military Canal between Hythe and Rye, which is still extant, and the "Thames and Medway Canal" between Strood and Gravesend. Built in 1824, it was bought up by the railways in 1846 and backfilled. The Port of Dover is the major port. The earliest locomotive driven, passenger carrying railway in Britain