John Paul Jones to Franklin and John Adams
ALS: Dartmouth College Library; copy: National Archives
<Lorient, December 9, 1778: A Virginia pilot boat arrived in
twenty-three days from Boston. Her captain reports that
comte d’Estaing had sailed on a secret mission a fortnight before,
that the Somerset was lost on Cape Cod and her crew
made prisoners, that the Providence, Boston, and Ranger arrived
with prizes, that the Raleigh was taken east of Boston and her
crew made prisoners, that three of Byron’s fleet were ashore
off Nantucket, and that Barbados and Grenada were taken.>
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