Boston 21 Sept 1777 —
[Extract]
. . . The Ship2 by the Sailing Masters account, is owned by Capt [Charles] Flynn and several others, is hired and Commissioned by the Lords Commissioners of the Post Office, the Question, then arises whether a Vessell hired and Commissioned by the Commissioners of the Post office, whose instructions, are, not to Engage or Fight any Vessell whateyer, if they can possibly avoid it, — is a Kings Ship of Warr?3 — This Capt Harding denys — and endeavors to prove the Contrary, by Capt Flynns having a Commission sign'd by the Lords of the Admiralty. Captain Harding will set this affair impartially before you. I have read the Commission and warrant, taken from Capt Flynn — In this affair I cannot have Capt Hardings advice and assistance, we are now opponants, but doubt not of our Conducting to approbation.4. . .
1. Conn.Arch., 1st Series, IX, 191, ConnSL.
2. Weymouth packet captured by the Connecticut Navy ship Oliver Cromwell, Captain Seth Harding.
3. By Congressional resolve, October 30, 1776, the whole value of a ship of war or British privateer captured by a Continental Navy vessel was awarded the captors. Connecticut had accepted the same regulations. See Volume 6, 1464.
4. Libel against the Weymouth packet was published in the Independent Chronicle, Boston, September 25, 1777. In what Eliot characterized as "the most important Tryall since the commencement of Hostilities," the verdict gave the entire prize, as a warship, to Captain Harding and crew of Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Eliot, Jr., to Governor Trumbull, October 29, 1777, Conn.Arch., 1st Series, IX, 208a, ConnSL.
