[Augt. 1778] Saturday 15th
[Sanduy Hook WbN½No. 104 Miles] AM at 5 Saw 7 Sail in the WSW Qr. bore away for them & heard a Great Number of Guns fired1 at 6 found the Above Ships to be the french fleet, 6 of them at Anchor 2 of the largest of which are Dismasted, one of them all her three masts gone the other her foremast Bowsprite & Maintopmasts gone2 the Rest of the squadron under Sail Consisting in all 11 Ships Sounded 28 fms Browns and Black Specks the 2 Dismasted Ships NW 2¼ Miles at 7 hauld our Wind being Chaced by one of the french fleet at 8 the french ships at Anchor bore NbE½E about 9 miles the Ship in Chace of us Appears to be a 74 Guns Ship the french ship still in Chace of us bearing N½E about 3 Miles—at 11 the french Ship about 2 Miles astern she hoisted her Colours & fired a shot at us she left off Chace and hauld her Wind & Steerd to the NE: Do. we Shortned Sail at Noon the french Ship EsE 6 Miles Distant— Moderate and fair the first part Middle and latter thick Hazey Wr. PM ½ pt. 1 Saw 2 sail in the SW: Sounded from 17 to 10 fms Brown Sand & Black Specks— ½ pt. 2 made sail and hauld our Wind, at 4 Saw a sloop Steering to the Westward at 3 lost sight of the 2 Sail find that their is a ship to Windwd. of the Sloop also Spoke the Sloop being a Reble Privateer of 10 [guns] & 37 Men out 14 Days from Boston took 35 Men out of her & Sent a petty officer & 7 Men onbd. her she is Called the Retalliation3 at 8 the Ship prove’d to be the Venus in Chace of the Above Sloop.4 The Venus & our Prize in Company—at 10 lost sight of our Prize.
D, UkLPR, Adm. 51/331, fols. 137–38.
1. Likely the engagement between H.M. ship-rigged sloop-of-war Senegal, Capt. John Ingliss, and the French ship of the line Hector, Capitaine de vaisseau Pierre de Cheylan, comte de Moriés du Castellet. Inglis later reported that during the chase he had fired at the French rigging and had also been “struck...several times” before his capture. UkLPR, Adm. 1/5310, fol. 466
2. For the state of the French fleet, see Chevalier de Bruyères-Chalabre to Vice-amiral comte d’Estaing, 14 Aug., above. The entirely dismasted ship was likely French Navy ship of the line Languedoc; the other French Navy ship of the line Marseillais.
3. According to testimony of two of its officers, First Lt. Samuel McClintock and Second Lt. Samuel Tidcome, Retaliation was a Massachusetts privateer sloop of 70 to 75 tons, commanded by John Cary of Boston. It carried 10 carriage guns, 8 swivel guns, and a complement of 37 men, most of whom were from the Casco Bay region of present-day Maine. It was owned by a group headed by Philip Moore and Nathaniel Tracy, both of Boston. UkLPR, H.C.A. 32/440/15, no. 2 and no. 3.
4. H.M. frigate Venus, Capt. William P. Williams.
