Bristol Cove of Cork 24th Janry 1776
Sir
In my last Letters of the 21st & 22d instt, I mention'd the arrivals of the Solebay, Friendship Arm'd Ship, and the Actaeon ー and yesterday I received a Letter from Captain [James] Reid, that he put into Crook: Haven the 12th instt, and that the Pigot Hospital Ship was forced in by bad weather the day before ー Captain Reid complains that the Thunder Bomb is weakly Handed, and Fourteen short of Complement; I have therefore wrote to Lieutt Hay at Cork to send me fourteen of the Seamen he has lately raised, in order to compleat her Complement on her arrival at this Port. ー The Thunder Bomb Tender arrived the 12th instt at Castle Haven ー I received a Letter of yesterday's date from Captain [Anthony] Hunt, informing me of his arrival at Kinsale, with His Majesty's Ship Sphynx, and that he had met with so strong a Gale at No Et, that he was oblig'd to run into Latte 46°28' No Longtd 10°36' Wt. Captain Hunt transmitted to me your Letter of the 3d instt acquainting me with the accident that had befallen the Levant Victualler, and the measures taken in consequence thereof, and with their Lordships directions to me, not to leave a Frigate to wait for her alone, should all the Ships & Vessels, which are to accompany me, be arrived, before the Victualler, whose Master, in that case, would have Orders to wait for Convoy. ー The Thirty four Rebel American Prisoners who arrived in the Solebay, I have distributed among the Ships of the Squadron, agreeable to their Lordship's Order of the 27t past. ー Be pleased Sir to inform their Lordships that the Rendezvous I have appointed, is from three to Ten Leagues So Wt from Cape Fear in North Carolina, with directions to make the Land every day. I am Sir [&c.]