Admty Office 27 Sept 1777
My Lord,
We have received your Lordship's Letter of the 23d Instant enclosing a Copy of a Paper delivered to your Lordship by the Marquis de Noailles, containing several Complaints of the proceedings of some of our Armed Ships on the Coast of France in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, and desiring that enquiries may be made into the Circumstances of the Facts, that you may be enabled to send a proper Answer to the French Ambassador: In return We may venture to assure your Lordship that none of the Vessels complained of are Ships belonging to His Majesty; that on the contrary there is great reason to believe they were some of the piratical Vessels fitted out by His Majestys Rebellious Subjects in America, but that unless your Lordship can furnish us with the Names or a more minute & circumstantial description of those Vessels, it will be impossible for Us to cause those enquiries to be made which your Lordship has desired.2 We are My Lord [&c.]
Sandwich C Spencer H Palliser
1. PRO, State Papers 42/51, 221-22.
2. Despite the Admiralty's belief that the offending ships were American privateers, Weymouth acknowledged to de Noailles that they were probably British letters of marque, Vergennes to Sartine, September 28, 1777, AMAE, Correspondance Politique, Angleterre, vol. 525, 35, LC Photocopy.
