Plymouth 26 Jany 1776
Sir
This, pr express, comes to inform your Excellency that Com[mo]dore Manly, took yesterday off Cohassett rocks after and hours engagement (haveing one man wounded in the breast, not dangerous) Two Ships from white Haven bound for Boston leaden with sea coal, potatoes &c 2 Inc[lo]sd are bills of Loading ー your Excellency will please to direct in what manner I shall conduct with these vessells ー
The prisoners will be treated with kindness & will be sent forward to morrow ー I am getting the Ships to the wharf & shall secure the small articles from pilferers who frequently infest vessels in these circumstances ー I congratulate your Excellency on this reiterated instance of Com[mo]dore Manlys succes[s,] and wish sincerely, that all the servants of the american Republic were equally industr[ious] with Manly ー I am [&c.]
William Watson
N.B. the express brings all the papers taken in the ships P.S. I would acquaint your Excellency that the engagement referred to in my letter, was with a tender of eight guns, and full of men, which had these ships under convoy, which circumstance I forgot to mention through hurry. 3 Yours as before,
William Watson.
1. Washington Papers, LC, except postscript which is printed in Force, comp., American Archives, 4th, IV, 863.
2. Extract of a letter from Whitehaven, June 18, 1776:
On the 25th of January, at 8 o'clock, A.M. the Happy Return, of Whitehaven, James Hall, commander, was taken by the Hancock privateer, Capt. John Manly, and at the time of being taken was within two miles of the Renown, man of war, then in Nantasket road, who did not offer the least assistance, though the wind was off shore, being N.N.W. The same day as the above, at 9 o'clock, A.M. the Norfolk of Whitehaven, was taken in the same manner by the same privateer. At half past nine o'clock, A.M. the privateer and the prizes fell in with two King's tenders, one of which immediately ran in for Boston; but the other engaged the privateer for half an hour, and then left her. The tender and privateer appeared to be a very equal match, and when the tender left the privateer, Captain Manley had but six cartridges left; and he said if both the tenders had attacked him, he should not have fired a gun. At six o'clock they were carried into Plymouth. Almon, ed., Remembrancer [1776], III, Part II, 139-40.
3. Watson had his account badly garbled. Manley's encounter was with the British tender General Gage, from Halifax for Boston. There was no second tender involved, as related in the letter from Whitehaven, quoted in note 2.
