[Billingsport, N.J.]
[October] 8th.—This day went with the admiral up to Billings Port reconnoitring the shipping, &c., and Mud, or Fort Island. This evening a smart cannonade from the galleys, and, as we supposed, a battery of ours newly erected at the hospital opposite to Mud Island on the Pennsylvania Shore.1
Henry Duncan, ''Journals of Henry Duncan, Captain, Royal Navy, 1776-1782," edited by John K. Laughton, in The Naval Miscellany (n.p.: Naval Records Society, 1902), 1: 151.
1. This hospital, also known as the Pest House, was located on Province Island. Until the British occupation of Philadelphia the Pest House had been a place of reception for the sick and wounded of the Pennsylvania Navy. A battery composed of two iron I8-pounders was erected there but was not completed until 14 Oct. Duncan must be referring here to the two-gun battery at Webb's Ferry which was the only operational British artillery emplacement on 8 Oct.
