Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 10

2. The brigantine Fair Play had been sunk inadvertently by a French battery at Guadaloupe in Jan. 1779. Dalton had requested JA's assistance in obtaining compensation from the French government for the loss in a letter of 13 May 1779 (vol. 8:59–60), to which JA's letter of 23 Feb. 1780 was a reply. For the loss of the vessel and the efforts to obtain compensation, see the letter of 13 May, and note 1. {p. 89} No letter from Dalton to JA in July has been found, nor have the documents sent to Francis Dana been located in his papers. However, on 15 and 17 Oct., Francis Dana wrote to Dalton from Amsterdam that he had received Dalton's letter of 21 Jan. containing documents concerning the Fair Play and, after consulting with JA, had decided to visit Paris in an effort to resolve the matter. In a letter of 8 Feb. 1781 from Paris, Dana reported on the efforts that he and Benjamin Franklin had made and were making to obtain adequate compensation (all in MHi: Francis Dana Letterbook).