July 78
Thursday 30
At Anchor off Dyers Island [R.I.]
[at] Midnight struck Top Gallt. Yds: & Mast Unbent all the Sails & lowered the Fore Yard [at] 6 AM hove close to Rhode Island & drop'd the Sm. Br: in 3 fm: hove off ⅓ a Cable & Moor'd Ship wh. the Stream Anchor & Cable aStern off shore a Cables length, got [on] Shore 10-9 pdrs: wh Amunition & all the Powder, unrigg'd the Fore Yard & got on shore likewise all the Bending sails wh Spars to Erect Tents for the People & Provision, at 5 this Morning one of the Enemys Ships of 64 Gun1 senterd the Harbour2 by the Narragansett passage after a Short Cannonade, & [an]chd off the So. End of Prudence [Island]
Moor'd within Dyers Island ⅓ Cables Length from Rhode Island Light Airs and fair Wr. Struck the Fore Topmast & got all ye. Provisions. & [Bo]atsns. Stores on shore as well as the Gunners. all the Peoples Hammocks & Chests [an]d Erected Tents,
D, UkLPR, Adm. 51/181, part 7.
1. French Navy ship of the line Sagittaire, Capitaine de vaisseau François-Hector, comte d'Albert de Rions
2. That is, Narragansett Bay.