St Martins 21 June 1778
Honoured Sir,
I take this Oppertunity of Acquainting you that on the 16h instant I arrived here and was in high spirits that I should get away next Day but unfortunately found that the Brig would not float to high Springs there not being 7 feet water in the Dock1 therefore to make all the Dispatch that was in my power got a bark along side and took out 28 Pipes in Order to lighten her just as we were going to heave her out of the Dock, Mr Luther recieved a Letter from the Agent at Nantes2 for to stop the Brig by all means & not to let her go without further Orders, as he wrote that you sent for the Vessel without his knowledge therefore Mr Luther insisted that the Brig should not go out of the Dock untill it was determined by you and the Agent what should be done, I have been to Rochelle along with Mr Luther to see what the Wine could fetch by the Pipe and to know whether the Vessel must be Condemned by the Court of Admiralty in Case the Vessel and Cargoe should be sold here but got no Satisfactory Accompt about it3 please to send me Orders as soon as possible that I may know in what manner I must conduct myself Mr Gardner joins me in Compliments to you and all the Officers on board this from [&c.]
Patrick Fletcher
LB, MiU-C, Abraham Whipple Papers. Notation in left margin: “P. F./to/A W/June 21—.”
1. In a letter of this date, Fairholme & Luther explained that they had moved the prize brig Lord Grosvenor to their dock for better security from “Guernsy & Jersy Privateers that hover about this place.” MiU-C, Abraham Whipple Papers, Letter Book.
2. That is, Jean-Daniel Schweighauser. See his letter to Whipple of 16 June, above.
3. In their letter to Whipple of 21 June, Fairholme & Luther reported that they had been offered “but £200 per pipe by a person who never tasted it, we expect if put to sale it would give from 3 to 400 Livres.” MiU-C, Abraham Whipple Papers, Letter Book. Livres tournois were sometimes called “French pounds,” so presumably the offer for the wine was 200 livres tournois.