[York, Pa.] May 6th 1778.
Sir
We have received your Letter of the 26th ultimo from Edenton and are sorry to hear of the loss of the Continental Brig Independence under your Command. We have no doubt but you have done all in your power for Saving as much as possible from the wreck & we desire that you will deliver the same to our Agents Messrs Hewes & Smith making out an Inventory thereof and taking their receipts for what you deliver, which you must transmit to the Navy Board at Baltimore.1
As we have immediate service for yourself Officers & men, We desire that on receipt hereof, you will march them to Portsmouth in Virginia, and advise Governor Henry of your getting there to whom we have wrote respecting your employment and you must follow such Instructions as you shall receive from the Governor.2 Messrs Hewes & Smith will advance you Money to pay the Expence of your journey in which you will make dispatch.3 We are sir [&c.]
LB, DNA, PCC, Marine Committee Letter Book, fol. 181 (M332,roll 6). Addressed before opening: "Captain John Young."
1. Young's letter reporting the grounding and destruction of Independence on the bar at Ocracoke Inlet has not been found. Young saved much from the Independence including most of the cargo, all of the stores, the vessel's 4 pounders, and even the brig's bell. Continental Marine Committee to Hewes, Smith and Allen, 20 Feb. 1779, DNA,PCC, Marine Committee Letter Book, fol. 208 (M332, roll 6).
2. The committee's letter to Gov. Patrick Henry of Virginia has not been found, but it appears that the committee asked Henry to obtain two fast ships to carry the ratified treaty with France to the American Commissioners there and suggested that Young and his crew might man one of these vessels. See Henry to Richard Henry Lee, 15 May (H. R. McIlwaine, ed., Official Letters of the Governors of the State of Virginia, Vol. 1, The Letters of Patrick Henry [Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1926], p. 274) and 28 May, below. Young and his crew would not go to France.
3. See the committee's letter to Joseph Hewes and Robert Smith, this date, immediately below.
