2. The date is tentative. On November 27, the Naval Committee offered a commission to Dudley Saltonstall. The last name on the list, Simeon Sampson, was suggested in a letter from James Warren, dated November 14-16. This letter, posted at Watertown, should have been received by Adams in Philadelphia ten days later. Adams probably began his list about November 5, the day he wrote to Warren and Elbridge Gerry, asking that they suggest names.

3. Charles Alexander's appearing twice would indicate that Adams added names without checking those previously entered in the list.

4. Identification of the names, with spelling corrected, is as follows:

Isaac Sears, then in New York and a leader of the Liberty Boys.

Thomas Randall, retired New York sea captain and member of the Provincial Congress.

John Hanson, sea captain from Annapolis, Maryland.

Christopher Miller, sea captain from New York, who in 1776 was appointed to command one of the Continental frigates building at Poughkeepsie.

Dudley Saltonstall, brother-in-law of Silas Deane, who was offered command of one of the ships outfitting in Philadelphia. See note 2.

Esek Hopkins, brother of Stephen Hopkins, who, on November 5, had been offered the command of the fleet outfitting in Philadelphia.

Abraham Whipple, famous as leader of the party which burned the Gaspee in Narragansett bay in 1772, and who was en route from Providence to Philadelphia in the Rhode Island sloop Katy.

Daniel Souther, Massachusetts sea captain, later commissioned in the Massachusetts Navy.

Thomas Moore, captain of a galley in the Pennsylvania Navy.

Thomas Read, brother of George Read, later commissioned in the Continental Navy.

Charles Alexander, captain of a galley in the Pennsylvania Navy, later commissioned in the Continental Navy.

Michael Corbet, a Massachusetts sea captain.

Samuel Davison, captain of a galley in the Pennsylvania Navy.

Clement Lempriere, South Carolina sea captain, who commanded the sloop which in July, 1775 took a quantity of powder from a ship off St. Augustine harbor.

Jeremiah O'Brien, sea captain of Machias, famous for the capture of the British sloop Margaretta in June.

James Cargill, Penobscot ship master, but at that time a militia captain.

John Lawrence, New York sea captain who had recently arrived from London with valuable intelligence.

Nathaniel Falconer, Pennsylvania sea captain, with a notable record of voyages for a decade prior to the Revolution.

Simeon Sampson, Plymouth, Massachusetts sea captain.

The identity of James Dougherty has not been established, but Adams may have had in mind Henry Dougherty, a galley captain in the Pennsylvania Navy.