[Halifax]
I must beg leave to mention that the Hancock is exceedingly fit in every Respect for His Majesty's Service; and, in the Name of myself and the other Captors, desire to offer her to your Lordship for that purpose, if it is your Pleasure she should be purchased, at whatever Valuation the Officers of the King's Yard here may put upon her. — Her Dimensions are in the Paper No 3;2 and Captain Fotheringham informs me, that whilst he was on board her, she went (tho' foul) Thirteen Knots, and could have carried much more Sail than she had out.3
[Endorsed] 7 In Lord Howe's Lre of the 28 Aug 1777
1. PRO, Admiralty 1/487, 496.
2. See next entry.
3. Hancock was taken into the Royal Navy and renamed Iris.
