Ranger, Brest April 8th 1778.
Dear Sir,
Had not the Wind and Weather declared against us on the 5th: and obliged the Fortunée and the Ranger to put back to Brest I should not have received your esteemed favor of 2d Currt.
As there is an Apparent Mystery in my having quitted the Fleet in Quiberon Bay and in my detention here since my arrival at Cameret the 8th Ulto:—I must inform you that finding Monr: la Motte Picquet a Man in whom I might confide I communicated to him and Mr: Carmichael an enterprize which I had long wished to execute—1 my project met with his entire approbation, and agreeable to his advice I came here along shore—On my arrival at Cameret it was necessary to apply for a Pilot—As the Ranger was there in disguise I went2 an Officer up in Plain Clothes—Comte d’Orvilliers who Commands the Fleet sent me word tho’ he then knew nothing of my intention that if I would wait a day or two a Frigate should Accompany me—I was more induced as the Wind was directly contrary and as it afforded me an Opportunity of Reducing the Ranger’s Yards, which I found Absolutely necessary notwithstanding the Ballast which I had taken in at Quiberon— I finish’d the Reduction of the Yards and Sails in two days and was again ready to proceed—I however waited at Cameret until the 24th without being Joined by the Frigate altho’ I had the utmost reason to expect her every hour—I then received a letter from the director of the Port by Order of the Comte by express desiring me if possible to come up to Brest3 to avert the ill consequences of the then Gale should it shift from West to the N.W. and find me in Cameret—I now understood from the Comte that the Zephir that was destined to accompany me at the first was by the Minister Ordered on a different Service—but the Fortunée of Superior force4 should supply her place to prevent further loss of time I returned to Cameret and Cleaned the Ranger’s Bottom determining to proceed along rather than loose another opportunity—this morning the weather looks promising and we shall again proceed—5 the loss of time here will perhaps make it necessary for me to alter my Plan agreeable to circumstances as Milton said of Adam “the World lays all before me”—6
I have written to Monsieur De Sartine on the Subject of the New Ship at Amsterdam—7 Comte D’Orvilliers has inclosed my Letter and assures me that it will have its wished affect—and Monsr: De la Porte says he will furnish me with 400 Seamen to man the Ship—I have Communicated this intellegence to the Commissioners—8 You will perhaps hear from me again ⅌ return of the Fortunée in the meantime please to present my respects to Mr: Lloyd and acquaint him that all his Letters were carefully delivered to Mr: Stephenson tho’ not before the Ranger had been a day or perhaps two in Quiberon—9 The Officers of La Motte Picquet’s Squadron inform me that they parted from the Brune the Night after leaving Quiberon they find great fault with that Ship’s being too Crank and say she could not carry Sail so as to keep her Station in the Squadron—I myself Observed the Ship to be a little Crank—Yet I cannot [believe] her in danger from that Circumstance, she having an upperdeck and as she is reputed a fast Sailor—I think you will hear of her safe Arrival10—I have the Honor [&c.]
LB, MdAN, John Paul Jones Letter Book, Mss. No. 236, pp. 10–11. Addressed at foot: “John Ross Esqr:/Nantes.”
1. Jones discussed the enterprise, though not its details, in his letter to the Continental Marine Committee, 22 Feb. 1778, NDAR 11: 1033–34.
2. That is, sent.
3. Capitaine de vaisseau Antoine-Hilarion, Chevalier de Beausset to Capt. John Paul Jones, 22 Mar. 1778, NDAR 11: 1113–14.
4. French Navy frigate Zéphyr mounted twenty-six 8 pounders and six 4 pounders; French Navy frigate Fortunée carried twenty-six 12 pounders and six 6 pounders.
5. Ranger left Brest on 11 Apr.
6. Jones is paraphrasing a passage from John Milton’s, Paradise Lost, in which Milton describes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The passage reads: “The world was all before them, where to choose/Their place of rest, and Providence their guide,/They hand in hand, with wand’ring steps and slow/Through Eden took their solitary way.” Paradise Lost, Book XII, line 646.
7. See Capt. John Paul Jones to Gabriel de Sartine, 31 Mar. 1778, NDAR 11: 1139–40.
8. See Capt. John Paul Jones to the American Commissioners in France, 4 Apr., above.
9. As seen in Jonathan Williams, Jr., to Capt. John Paul Jones, 24 Mar. 1778, NDAR 11: 1116, Jones had been given a letter by John Lloyd, a merchant at Nantes, to deliver to William Stevenson, a merchant from Maryland, who was returning to America. Benjamin Franklin Papers, 25: 406–7.
10. La Motte-Picquet’s squadron had escorted a convoy, including the Queen of France (formerly Brune) that had sailed for America. The American commissioners in France had purchased Queen of France from Ross and then loaded the vessel with a cargo of goods “for the public.” See John Ross to the American Commissioners in France, 6 Feb. 1778, vol. 11: 982–83, and the American Commissioners in France to John Ross, 3 May 1778, below.
