Sir
This by our schooner ready to depart serves to announce to you ye happy arrival of the Ship Adams Capt Turner1 he is this minute arrived with a Cargo of Rice on Acct. of your State we shall make ye best sale possible of ye Cargo & dispatch ye Ship Immediately agreeable to request—Capt James2 & Proter3 are here from England we shall endeavor to forward ym. to ye Continent ye best we can
Nothing miterial having occured since ye Departure of ye Nantes4 & Penet5 which we hope may be safe arrived ‘ere this We beg Leave to remain with respect Sir [&c.]
penet DaCosta freres & Co.
Nantes June 30h. 1778/.
L, M-Ar, Mass. Archives Collection, vol. 205, (2d ser., Revolution Letters to the Board of War and various State officials, 1775–1783), fol. 380. Addressed at top: “Samuel Philip Savage Esqr.”
1. Massachusetts State trading ship Adams, Capt. Luther Turner, master. For more on this voyage see: Massachusetts Board of War to Luther Turner, 20 Feb. 1778, NDAR 11: 385; Massachusetts Board of War to Morris, Pliarne, Penet & Co., 25 Feb. 1778, NDAR 11: 426; George Williams to Timothy Pickering, 22 Mar. 1778, NDAR 11: 757–58; John S. Cripps & Mey to President of Massachusetts Board of War, 3 Apr., NDAR 12: 27–28; and President of Massachusetts Board of War to Penet, DaCosta Frères & Co., ca. 9 June, above.
2. Capt. Richard James commanded Massachusetts State ship Union on a voyage to Nantes, France. Union was captured in early March 1778 and taken into Falmouth, England, by the privateer Lapwing, of London. See “Extract of a Letter from Falmouth, March 7,” NDAR 11: 1066. For the fitting out of Union, see Richard James to Massachusetts Board of War, 18 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 155; Minutes of the Massachusetts Board of War, 26 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 207; and Minutes of the Massachusetts Board of War, 30 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 234.
3. Capt. Joseph Proctor commanded Massachusetts State trading ship Gruel also on a voyage to Nantes. Gruel was captured some distance off Nova Scotia on 3 Feb. 1778 by H.M. frigate Milford. Journal of H.M.S. Milford, 3 Feb. 1778, in NDAR 11: 271. Milford evidently escorted Gruel to England. For the fitting out of Gruel, see Maj. Gen. Eyre Massey to Gen. Sir William Howe, 2 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 16–18; Timothy Parsons to Massachusetts Board of War, 17 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 149; Minutes of the Massachusetts Board of War, 21 Feb. 1778, NDAR 11: 395; George Williams to Timothy Pickering, 22 Mar. 1778, NDAR 11: 757–58.
4. Massachusetts State trading brigantine Nantes, Capt. Joseph Chapman, master, arrived at Nantes on 3 March 1778. Jonathan Williams to the American Commissioners in France, 3 Mar. 1778, NDAR 11: 1058–59. Nantes returned to Boston on 1 July. Massachusetts Board of War to Penet, DaCosta Frères & Co., 2 July. M-Ar, Mass. Archives Collection, vol. 151 (Letters from the Board of War, 1776–1780), p. 186.
5. Massachusetts State trading snow Penet, Capt. John Harris, master. For the fitting out of brigantine Penet, see John Bradford to Thomas Morris and William Lee, 9 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 74; Minutes of the Massachusetts Board of War, 23 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 192–93; Minutes of the Massachusetts Board of War, 30 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 234; and George Williams to Timothy Pickering, 22 Mar. 1778, NDAR 11: 757–58.
