The agent here tells me, he is without cash, and in debt on the public account. I fear he has been neglected. I shall, however, defer saying anything further on his subject till I shall be better informed. Should an opportunity offer of writing to your Excellency from Port Royal, I shall embrace it, if not, I shall take the first after my return. As the government here will, I hope, advance the money necessary for preparing the frigate for sea, I am anxious that you may have the earliest intelligence of it, that timely provision may be made for the payment.
Of the fleet mentioned in my letter of the 20th instant, only nine were taken or destroyed.
_7 o'clock._--I had written thus far, when Captain Harding called upon me. He has made out an estimate of the ship's wants, and given it to Mr Bingham, without having made a copy for me, which it is now too late to do to go by this vessel.
On our return from Port Royal, the captain will transmit particular accounts of everything respecting the ship, which he ought to communicate. He has been too much engaged to prepare his despatches to go by this vessel, and, therefore, postpones writing for the present, especially as he would have leisure only to repeat the general account of our misfortune contained in my letter.
St Pierre's, Martinique, December 24th, 1779.
My former letters to your Excellency of the 20th and 22d instant, (a triplicate of the former, and a duplicate of the latter are herewith enclosed) have already informed Congress of the disaster, which imposed upon us the necessity of coming hither. But as that necessity has been and still continues the subject of much inquiry and investigation, it is proper that the facts from which it arose be minutely stated.
On the 7th day of November last, between the hours of five and six in the morning, in latitude 41 03 N. and longitude 50 39 W. the Captain being in bed indisposed, and the master and second lieutenant on deck, the ship going nine knots an hour in a brisk breeze and rough sea, but by no means hard weather, her bowsprit and all her masts gave way in less than three minutes. The day was employed in clearing the ship of the wreck, and getting up a little sail; towards evening a heavy gale came on. During the night, the tiller was lashed fast, and she lay too very well, the wind blowing hard at south east. The next morning the shank of the rudder was found to be so much wrenched and split, that the Captain then told me he thought it a greater misfortune than the loss of the masts. There were two French gentlemen on board, who, it was said, and I believe with truth, were well skilled in maritime affairs, having been bred to that business from their infancy, viz. Monsieur Roche, a Knight of the Order of St Louis, and a Captain Remuy, of Marseilles. Either this day or the next, I am not certain which, M. Gerard remarked to me, that without any previous counsel, it seemed to be the unanimous opinion of all the naval officers on board to go to the West Indies, and that he believed it would be best, though he said he was at first inclined to oppose it. The first expedient to steer the ship was by the cable and a spar; below the split in the rudder there was a bolt with two rings, to which it had been intended to fix a chain for the purpose of steering the ship in case of such accidents, but the fixing the chains had been omitted; through this ring the Captain passed a chain, and to each end of it fastened a strong rope, which was conducted over the quarters, and this was the second mode of steering her; but from the uncommon breadth of the rudder by which its power became unusually great, and the acuteness of the angle between it and the chains rendering a greater force necessary than if it had approached nearer to a right angle; the bolt, though to appearance a good one, broke nearly in the middle, and came out.