[Extract]

From a Letter brought me by Lieut. Forrest on Sunday Evening [November 26] from your Office, I find the Sloop laden with Wood and Bark I seized off Piscatagua was retaken by the Rebels.² I have by this means lost a Mate, Midshipman, three Seamen and two Marines, whom I put in her to navaigate and secure her Safety to Boston. A Man belonging to the Canceaux being a Pilot I put in to act in that Station, so that he is likewise taken with the rest of the People. These seven men with five short of Complement before, and the men now sent to the Hospital, four of whom are invalids and totally unfit for Service from old Age and other Infirmities and who have been a Burthen on the Ship for some time past, render the effective Men now on board very short indeed.

I have swept the Ship this Morning and find the false Keel broke away from the aft side of the Mainmast to the fore part of the Stern Post, from our striking on the Rocks off Piscatagua; what damage we may have received from running on the Centurion Rock, the Night we came in, we cannot get at, as she hung entirely on the Bulge and slewed round on the Rock as the Flood tide made before we got off. Both these Accidents have been entirely through the Blunders of the Pilot.