8th. Augt 1778
My Lord—
My Lords Commissrs of the Admty having receivd Information that Jones who commanded the North American Privateer, which lately took the Drake Sloop, & committed other Depredations in the Irish Channel,1 has purchas’d a new Ship and is expeceted to sail from France in a few Days in company with three others, with an Intention, as it is apprehended to plunder & destroy the Bleaching Grounds2 in and about Larne & Carrickfergus, & to harrass the Coast,3 I am commanded by their Lordships to acquaint you therewith & to signify their direction to you so soon as the Three Brothers Arm’d Ship4 arrives at Plymouth from Kingroad, to order her Commander to proceed immediately into the Irish Channel, & to cruize very diligently off Carrickfergus & on the neighbouring parts of the Coast in order to be in readiness to defeat those, or any other Attempts which may be made in the above mention’d Channel, or on the Coast thereof by the said Jones, or any other of His Majestys Enemies; & letting him know that similar directions are given to the Commanders of the several Cruizers, in the said Channels5; For which you will receive An Order in form by the next Post. I am &c
PS
LB, UkLPR, Adm. 2/558, fols. 308–9. Addressed below close: “Vice Adml Ld Shuldham—Plymouth.”
1. For the account by Continental Navy captain John Paul Jones of the capture of HM sloop Drake and other operations in the Irish Channel by the ship Ranger under his command, see Jones to American Commissioners in France, 27 May 1778, in NDAR 12: 755–61.
2. In the 1700s part of the process of bleaching linen was to lay the fabric out on the ground, sometimes for several months, to turn it white. Where the linen was laid was called “bleaching ground.” OED.
3. The information appears to be a confused reference to the intention of the American Commissioners in France to procure the Indien, a warship the French were having built in Amsterdam, and give the command to Jones. It seems likely that the British had seen a copy of Jones’ memorandum dated [4–5 July], above, in which he proposed an operation similar to what Stephens outlines here.
4. H.M. armed ship Three Brothers of 20 guns, Comdr. Hugh Baikie.
5. Williamson’s Liverpool Gazette of 4 Sept. 1778 published such an order, dated 8 Aug., from Stephens to Comdr. Peter Foulkes of the 20-gun H.M. armed vessel Satisfaction at Greenock, Scotland.
