[York, Pa.] April 6th 1778
Sir
We have received yours of the 4th instant and are much pleased to hear of the Virginia having got to Sea, yet are sorry that you and M' Fanning were so unlucky as to be left behind.1
There is no employment for you at the Northward, therefore you are at liberty to engage in any business that you think proper and when vacancy happens we shall inform you. With regard to Mr. Fanning we have wrote to Captain Thomas Read of the Brig Baltimore that should he want an Officer, to apply to Mr. Fanning which we hope will be agreeable. You will deliver over the men belonging to the Virginia to Captain Read and we will order the payment of such wages as is due to them We are Sir [&c.]
LB, DNA, PCC, Marine Committee Letter Book, fol. 137 (M332, roll 6). Addressed at top: "Captain Thomas Plunkett.”
1. Continental Navy frigate Virginia, Capt. James Nicholson, commander, had sailed from Annapolis on 30 Mar. but had run aground and been captured on 31 Mar, See Nicholson to the Continental Marine Committee, 2 Apr., above. Plunkett, the senior Marine officer on the Virginia, and Lt. John Fanning, Continental Marines, had been left behind on the Virginia's tender when the frigate departed. Smith, Marines in the Revolution, p. 464.
