Having received a Letter of the 13 Inst. from my Surgeon Mr Windship, whom I sent Express to you, Intimating to me that my Crew is to be compleated with French Seamen, that I am to go from hence to Port L’Orient to be refitted & Careen’d, & from thence to America. Upon which, I beg leave to observe to your Excellency. In the first place, That Frenchmen and Americans being mix’d together, not understanding one another, having different discipline, manner of living &c. can never act well in concert, but will always disagree: and having nobody to speak french, but myself, can be of very little use. Nor would it [mend?] the matter to have french Officers. This, would create a Jealousy and two parties. It is nescessary this Ship should go into dock to be clean’d & to have her Iron work repair’d, as main & fore shroud chains; the knees under the gangway must be forged again, several of them being broken, others bent &c. She cannot go to Sea, or into harbour untill she is cleared of the Mutinous prisoners now on board. Before she could proceed to Port L’Orient to be careen’d she must be mended here, rigg’d and fitted out. Arriv’d at L’Orient she must unrig, have her Cabouse pull’d to pieces, which is built of bricks & very heavy, which must be afterwards rebuilt; besides much costly work nescessary to be done, & time required to heave-down a Ship like this, where there is no dry dock. It would, I conceive, be the most Advantageous, to Sheath the bottom of the Alliance with copper, at once, & thereby prevent a deal of future expence & trouble. No Frigate in the world can better deserve it, on every account; she is new, & that would last as long as the Ship. She sails extreemly well already, she would still sail better, and be stiffer under sail at sea, which is what she wants to be. As there are no dry docks in America, she will never have occasion to be grounded in the usual manner, which is so predjudicial, yet nescessary to Ships unsheath’d. In Boston, the Ships have always been obliged to tarry, after having their bottoms pay’d, five or Six months at least, to recruit their men. By which time their bottoms are again foul: & so they must proceed to Sea. This was particularly the case with the Raleigh, and the Cause of her being taken.

I have enquired of the Captain of this Harbour, who informs me, that there is plenty of Sheet Copper here, that the Vessell may be sheath’d in one of the dry docks in four days & will cost twenty eight thousand Livres. As a Ship is obliged to be repeatedly clean’d, to be of service, the time & expence of doing it, is of very great consequence, & worth notice. Many arguments, & more than nescessary perhaps, might be used to enforce the Sheathing the Alliance. She might be always at Sea, going, coming or cruizing; which would make her as good as two such Ships that remain six months in the year in harbour. Here a very great expence would also be saved, in keeping her better & longer man’d; for as soon as she arrives in Boston, her cruize is out & every man free to go where he pleases; & If the ship has not something exceedingly encouraging for the men to enter again, she may lay as usuall, upon very great expences a long time in that harbour. Her fast sailing & a copper bottom, might possibly induce a crew to enter in good season. The difficulties in recruiting are many; one half the men are generally lost by desertion, altho’ as many are kept on board as possible, at a great expence, & by being obliged to recruit double their complement, to have one crew, it is augmented surprizingly, above what it ought to be. The Oeconomy in these instances, besides the other advantages, that must nescessarily accrue, from her being always ready for Sea, without the trouble of unlading & altering the Stowage of her hold, and pushing out before the crew can have oppertunity to abscond, may be sufficient to offer to the consideration of your Excellency, & I think it my duty, with submission to your wise determination, to mention these nescessary matters, being immediately in a striking point of view so greatly advantageous, in my opinion.

After being sheath’d she might go to port L’orient & touch into several other ports in France, by which means she might very probably compleat her crew with Americans & being thus equipp’d, I sincerely believe there would be no Frigate in the world, her equall. The chief advantage the British cruzing ships have over us in the American seas, at present, is their Copper bottoms & if the first expence of adding one to this, was not a saving one in the end, which I think there can be no doubt of, it would be well bestow’d on a Ship that has arriv’d so near to perfection already, And if your Excellency should have any other Commission for her besides returning to America, she would be well prepared for it, & even for a long voyage.

We have been fortunate enough to recruit nine Americans here, & several on board different ships have wrote to me; but upon application I could not obtain them.

I am with the greatest respect Your Excellency’s most obedient & most humble Servant