[York, Pa.] May 5th 1778
Gentlemen
We request that immediately on receipt hereof you will procure two swift sailing Vessels for Packets to carry dispatches to france, and have the[m] prepared in every respect for the Sea, so soon as the Council of Massachusetts state shall apply for them which will be in a very short time, and you must direct the Commanders to sail agreeable to the orders of the said Council.1 If the Sloop Providence hath not sailed before this reaches she will be a suitable Vessel for one of those Packets, and it is our desire that you detain her for that use.2 We shall only add that it is highly important that those Vessels should be provided and got ready with All possible dispatch. We are Gentlemen [&c.]
LB, DNA, PCC, Marine Committee Letter Book, fol. 145 (M332, roll 6). Addressed before opening: “The Commissrs of the Navy Board at Boston."
1. For background on this order, see Continental Marine Committee to Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, this date, below.
2. Continental sloop Providence was not one of the vessels used to carry the dispatches. The vessels sent from Massachusetts were the Continental Navy packet schooner Dispatch, Corbin Barnes, commander, and the Continental packet brig Arnold, Capt. John Ayres, commander. Continental Navy Board of the Eastern Department to American Commissioners in France, 8 June and 2 July 1778, PPAmP, Benjamin Franklin Papers, vol. 10, fols. 23 and 81.
