[Admiralty Office] 2 April 1777
[Extract] Sir
I have communicated to my Lords Commrs of the Admty your Letters of yesterdays date informing them that you had assembled a Court Martial for the Trial of Captn Stair Douglas upon the Charges exhibited against him & of his having been acquitted by Sentence of the Court. . . . 2
1. PRO, Admiralty 2/554, 318.
2. In the London Chronicle, April 1 to April 3, 177i, an extract of a letter from Portsmouth reads:
The Captain of his Majesty's ship the Squirrel, was tried yesterday by a Court Martial (which had been called at the instance of the West India Merchants,) held on board the Princess Amelia in our harbour. The charge against him was for not accompanying the last Jamaica fleet to England, of which he had the convoy, by which means several of the vessels were taken by American privateers. The trial began at :nine o'clock in the morning, and lasted till four in the afternoon, when he was acquitted, and the Court Martial declared it to be their opinion that the separation of the fleet was owing to stormy weather, and the Captains of the vessels neglecting to obey the signals of the Squirrel.
Upon acquittal, Captain Douglas requested permission from the Admiralty to leave his ship immediately and repair to Bath "for the Recovery of his health." The request was granted on April 2, 1777, PRO, Admiralty 2/554, 320.
