[Admiralty Office] 29th Febry 1776
[Extract]
Their Lordships have satisfaction in your recommendation of Captain Wallace, and will as you propose remove h1m into a larger & better Ship than the Rose, the first Opportunity there is for doing so. It is not in their Lordships power at present to comply wtih the Proposal contained in Commissioner Arbuthnots letter of sending two Deck'd Ships for the Protection of the Yard at Halifax; and they Hope from the several other Measures now taking not only for the security of the Province of Nova Scotia but all His Majesty's Colonies in North America, the same will not be found necessary, Their Lordships approve of your appointment of another Officer to the Command of the Gaspee Armed Brig, if on your farther Information concerning her, she is not in possession of the Rebels. Lieut Mouat [Henry Mowat] having informed my Lords that there is a Ship at Boston of Tonage and dimensions very fit to be established as a Sloop, and their Lordships intending that she shall be purchased for His Majestys Service I have it in Command from them to acquaint you therewith and that you may expect their Order for so doing, also for establishing the said Vessel as a Sloop and appointing Mr Mouat to the Command of her, who will return in the Canceaux so soon as she can be got ready which they expect will be in the Course of a few days and there will be sent in her a set of Guns proper to be supplied for the said Sloops use.2 I am &c.
By the Greyhound at Spithead Geo. Jackson DS
1. PRO, Admiralty 2/551, 194-95.
2. Mowat has left an account of this incident, which is entitled: "A relation of the services in which Captain Henry Mowat of the Royal Navy was engaged in America, from I 759 to the end of the American War in 1783," Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society, 2nd series, II, 357-58. He wrote:
... he cruised in Boston Bay to January 1776, when the Ship was found unfit to continue any longer on that Service, And in Consequence thereof was put under orders to proceed to England, carrying Dispatches & Letters from the Commanders in chief representing Captain Mowat's Services and Usefulness on that Coast, And at the same time a request from them, that he might therefore be returned to America without loss of time in a Ship fit to do Justice to his Experience of the Station.
On his arrival he was received with the most gracious approbation of His Majesty, of the Admiralty Board & of the Secretary of State, & had the Step of Master & Commander Conferred on him, but it was to a Ship then at Boston.
Captain Mowat, finding the Ship was in America & considering the time it would take him to join & to prepare her for Sea, expressed to Lord Sandwich & to Lord George Germaine a wish of being appointed to one on the Spot & his hopes that the long time he had Commanded the Canso & the Services performed in her intitled him to the Promotion of a Post Ship.
Lord Sandwich was pleased to observe he had every desire to give him a frigate, but none were ready for Commissioning; & if there were, it would require Months to Man her, urging at the same time the desire of Admiral Shuldham & of General Howe for his Speedy return & adding that there was no doubt on his arrival in America he would be appointed to the first vacant Post Ship on the Station, And the same encouragement was equally given by the Secretary of State.
On this foundation he readily Sett out for America; On his Arrival he found the evacuation of Boston had taken place & the Ship intended for him was left there.
