[Extract] Dear Sir
. . . Commodore Gillon1 is nearly ready to take his departure for Europe in order to try his Skill in Negociating a Loan Sufficient to equip three Frigates2 for the Service of our State, Our Assembly have granted £500,000 for that purpose, but the purchasing of Vessells, the Charges on Shiping, the Certain loss on the Sales, I imagine will leave but a small Ballance applicable to this use, and will render it necessary for the Commodore to use all his Address, supported by the Great Seal of the State, to establish himself in his post. If you have any Regulations respecting the Rank or Subordination of Officers in the Service of the particular States, when joined with the Continental Navy, be pleased Sir to make me acquainted therewith—3. . .
Raws. Lowndes
Chas Town 17 June 1778—
L, ScU, South Caroliniana Library.
1. Alexander Gillon had been appointed a commodore in the South Carolina Navy on 11 Mar. 1778. Paullin, Navy of the Revolution, p. 435.
2. Gillon had set out to acquire three frigates on behalf of South Carolina and was accompanied by John Joyner, John McQueen, and William Robertson, who were the prospective captains for the vessels. D. E. Huger Smith, "Commodore Alexander Gillon and the Frigate South Carolina," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine Vol. 9 No. 4 (Oct. 1908): 189-219.
3. In his reply of 5 Aug., Laurens wrote nothing about the mission of Alexander Gillon. However, in a letter to Lowndes of 6 Oct. 1778, Laurens included an undated note from French ambassador Conrad-Alexandre Gérard expressing concern about Gillon's mission because "this step executed by a single State in contradiction with the Plan of Confederacy, could hurt in Europe the Idea of the uniformity of the Governments to rely on Congress for the exertion and application of the common forces and it might be misunderstood or misrepresented to the prejudice of the confidence and the consideration Congress has so justly acquired.” Laurens Papers 14: 388.
