Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 10

1. Adm. Thomas Graves' fleet sailed from England on 17 May in pursuit of the French fleet under Ternay and as a reinforcement for the fleet under Adm. Marriot Arbuthnot at New York. Graves reached New York on 13 July, one day after the French had reached Newport. The combined fleet of Arbuthnot and Graves arrived off Rhode Island on 22 July, not the 20th as indicated by this letter. By then the French had fortified their posi• {p. 30} tion and forestalled any British attack. Even so, the British fleet's presence curtailed any major offensive actions by the French navy (Mackesy, War for America , p. 328–329, 347–349; Stinchcombe, Amer. Rev. and the French Alliance , p. 135–137, 347–349).