Papers of John Adams, volume 7
1779-01-01
I have the Honor to pay my most respectful Compliments of Season wishing prosperity to all your undertakings.
We are without any Arrivals since I had the Honor to write you the 5th Ultimo. By Letters from Nantes I am inform'd the Chasseur is 329 image Loaded and all is ready for the other Ship which contrary winds have detaind near two Months at Isl of Rhé not more than 24 hours sail from Nantes.1 I rejoice to learn a Convoy is appointed as we may thereby promise ourselves more protection than merchant Ships could otherways give to each other. The continued advices of Captures has Stagnated all private expeditions. Premiums out or home are at 60 P Cent which absorbs the Capital. I have the Honor to be respectfully Sirs Your very hhb Servant
| Loss's sustained at this | |
|---|---|
| Ships going or coming from the West Indies taken | 48 |
| Ships going or coming from the United States | 56 |
| lost on the Coast of America and the Islands | 31 |
| 135 |
Most of them ships from 200 to 500 tons.
The Chasseur and the Governor Livingston (see Bondfield's letter of 9 Jan., below).
1779-01-01
These are to Request you to give your asistance To Benjamin Clark, William Folger, John Locke, Frances Macy, John Headon, Thorndrick Chase, Reuben Chase, John B
2 and a Numbers of others, Americans Now Prisoners in Different Prisons in France Dinant Mayenne3 in Britange &c. which I Think are as good Subjects as any America has as I know thay given Numbers of donations to asist the Americans in England Such as has got out of fourtune Prison and Else whare and done all that is in there power to get them To France. And I am Very Certain that they would be Very glad to go in the American Service as I know the greatest part of them has been obliged to go in the English Service being First Taken by and ceeped on Bord of Man of War and gard Ships for a number of months. Some longer Some Shorter.
If you will be So kind as to get them Clear of Prison you Much Oblige your Humble Servant
An inadvertance caused by the change to a new year.
Together with Caleb Gardner and Ecobud Clark, mentioned by Chase in a letter of 8 Feb. (PPAmP: Franklin Papers), the men listed here had all been involved in the English whale fishery. John Blyth, the last listed, whose surname Chase begins and then crosses out, and Clark, Folger, Lock, and Macy were all known 330to the Commissioners. Chase renewed his plea, particularly for the release of his brother, Reuben Chase, in his letter of 8 Feb. No reply to this letter has been found, nor is there any indication that the Commissioners took any action on Chase's request.
Dinan is in Brittany, but Mayenne, where the prisoners were presumably housed in the castle for which it is noted, is in the old province of Maine.