Having appointed you Captain of His Majestys Ship Amazon at Chatham which we have ordered to be fitted & Stored at that Place for Foreign Service, Mann'd with two Hundred & Twenty Men & Victualled for Six Months with all species of Provisions except Beer of which she is to have as much as she can conveniently stow & to be supplied with a proportion of Wine or Spirits in lieu of the remainder; You are hereby required & directed, to use the utmost dispatch in getting her ready for the Sea accordingly & then falling down to Blackstakes take in her Guns & Gunners Stores & proceed to the Nore for further Order.
Given.&c. 7th February 1776 2
Sandwich Palmerston H. Palliser
By &c. G Jackson D S . .
1. PRO, Admiralty 2/100, 390.
2. These orders to ready "for Foreign Service" are typical of similar orders issued for many ships of the Royal Navy as Britain moved to bolster her strength afloat in the early months of 1776.
