In Council [Annapolis] 16th. July 1778.
Sir.
You are to proceed with the Gallies Conqueror and Chester, the Boats Plater and Emilia1 and the two Vessels taken up on this Occasion, to Cambridge and there receive into your Charge the Crew of the British Frigate Mermaid now Prisoners of War.2 The Prisoners are to be distributed amongst the Vessels with a View to Convenience and Security; your own Disposition and Prudence, we flatter ourselves, will make it unnecessary for us to give particular Directions as to your Treatment of the Prisoners; with them you are to come too off the Harbour of Annapolis, where you are to receive further Instructions
LB, MdAA, Governor and Council, Letterbook, s1075-6 (MdHR 4007), p. 179. Addressed at the foot: "Commodore Grason."
1. That is, Maryland Navy ship Amelia, Capt. Henry Massey, commanding.
2. On the capture of the crew of H.M, frigate Mermaid, Capt. James Hawker, commanding, see Lt. Joseph Dashiell to Johnson, 11 July, above. On 15 July, Gen, Henry Hooper of the Maryland militia informed Johnson that 140 of the Mermaid's crew were being held at Cambridge, Md. He asked Johnson to arrange water transportation for these prisoners to Annapolis because of Hooper's difficulty in provisioning so many men and because of the “Inconveniency" that the militia guards “must Suffer at this Season in their plantation business." MdAA, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, S989-1269 (MdHR 4570-34/2). On 5 August, the Council informed Daniel Hughes, the County Lieutenant of Washington County, Md., that the "Crew of the Mermaid and two or three other British Prisoners, all that we know of, were sent to and received in Philadelphia.” Maryland Archives 21: 176.
