1. Simeon Deane, Silas Deane's brother, was dispatched in early January on the frigate Belle-Poule, which had been alerted to be ready for his use, with news of the preliminaries and imminent signing of the Franco-American treaties. Beset by bad weather and storm damage, Deane was forced to return to France and by late February was again in Paris, where he received copies of the treaties signed in his absence. Setting out again, he departed from Brest on 8 March in the Sensible. From Casco Bay, Deane traveled overland through Boston and finally arrived, on 2 May, at York, Penna., where the congress had its first reading of the treaties the same evening (Boston Gazette, 20 April; Dull, French Navy and Amer. Independence , p. 93; Silas Deane to Conrad Alexandre Gerard, 1 March, Deane Papers , 2:385; JCC , 11:417–418; Burnett, ed., Letters of Members , 3:214–215).

2. Probably the fleet under Capt. La Motte-Picquet that reportedly was intended to convoy several transports carrying military supplies during the initial stages of their voyage to America, and which sailed from Quiberon Bay about a week before the departure of Simeon Deane and the Sensible (Boston Gazette, 20 April).

3. Capt. Harmon Courter was the original instrument by which the signed treaties were to reach America. The return of Simeon Deane, however, presented a second opportunity and, as luck would have it, Deane arrived at the congress first. Courter sailed in the French frigate Nymphe, Capt. Senneville, from La Coruña, Spain, in mid-March, arriving at Boston on 5 May and at York, Penna., on the 18th (Gérard, Despatches and Instructions , p. 141, note 4; Silas Deane to Courter, 17 Feb.; Courter to Deane, 13 March, Deane Papers , 2:370–371,406–407; Courter to Benjamin Franklin, 5 May, Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S. , 1:413; Boston Gazette, 11 May; James Lovell to Benjamin Franklin, 20 June, Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. , 2:626–627).