2. The date is estimated, based upon a comparison with existing muster rolls. For example, Benjamin Seabury is shown as Lieutenant on board the Alfred, but in that ship's muster roll he is entered as "Run May 1st, 1776." Similarly, William Grinnell is listed as a lieutenant in the sloop Providence, and the Providence muster roll shows he entered her from the Columbus on April 15, 1776. On that same muster roll, Henry Tillinghast is listed as surgeon, transferred from the Alfred, May 12, 1776, but Tillinghast is not on the above list for the Providence. Thus, it narrows down to a list prepared after April 15 and before May 1, 1776. It is a safe assumption that this arrangement of officers went to Congress, or rather the Marine Committee, with Hopkins' letter of May 1, 1776.