Philadelphia 14th Decr 1775
[Extract]
I have the Pleasure to acquaint you that upan considering our Instruction for a Navy the Congress have agreed to build thirteen Ships of War, a Comee is to be this Day appointed with full Powers to carry the Resolve into Execution, Powder and Duck are ordered to be imported, all other Articles it is supposed may be got in the Colonies; two of these Vessels are to be built in our Colony, 1 in New hampshire and etc; the particulars I would not have mentioned; the Ships are to be built with all possible Dispatch.
The fitting out our small Fleet go[es] on well:...
1. Bernhard Knollenberg, ed., Correspondence of Governor Samuel Ward, May 1775 ー March 1776 (Providence, 1952), 142-44. Hereafter cited as Knollenberg, ed., Ward Papers.
