A half-length portrait to left in a brown coat and dark full-bottomed wig. Deane, the son of master mariner Anthony Deane (d. 1659), was a naval architect and shipwright. He served his apprenticeship at Woolwich under the master shipwright Christopher Pett. Deane gained rapid success at Woolwich, becoming assistant master shipwright in 1660, aged 22. He was a close friend of Samuel Pepys when he was Secretary to the Navy Board, dedicated his manuscript of 'The Doctrine of Naval Architecture' to him in 1663 and, through his influence, became Master Shipwright at Harwich in 1664. In 1666 Pepys observed that Deane was 'the first that hath come to any certainty beforehand of foretelling the draught of water of a ship before she be launched'. Deane was knighted in 1675 and became Master Shipwright at Portsmouth in 1668, Comptroller of Victualling in 1676 and Commissioner of the Navy for general business between 1680 and 1688.
As a shipbuilder, he gained a reputation for constructing fast vessels, whether royal yachts or large ships of the line. He also made a considerable fortune from private business. Deane was elected to the Royal Society in 1681. He had no further naval service after the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 and was briefly imprisoned, along with Pepys, in 1689-90.