Samuel Tucker to the American Commissioners
ALS: American Philosophical Society
<On board the Boston, Port Louis, July 12, 1778: The Frenchmen
I took on at Bordeaux have given me much trouble.
When we arrived here eight of them got shore leave; their
sergeant complained so much of their treatment that the
King’s officers, including General La Touche of Lorient, came
aboard yesterday evening to ask them whether they would
stay or go ashore. They said they would go, since they were
volunteers. But I had enlisted them for Boston; I was not permitted
to take volunteers, as I told the General. Better to
leave them, he said, and let them forfeit their wages and prize
money; they had in fact drawn more than that from me and
the purser. The General told me that he was in command
while aboard. I produced my authority and the Congressional
regulations, under which the Frenchmen were guilty of sedition
or mutiny. I commanded at sea, I told him. He would
complain to the court and the commissioners, he said, about
my two officers who had mistreated the King’s subjects; but
the two had done nothing contrary to my orders except box
the ears of a Frenchman flogging a small boy. I do not blame
them for what they did, only for not informing me. On the
recommendation of a Mr. Frazier, late major in the continental
army, I took on this penniless sergeant in Bordeaux; he is
going to join a French warship commanded by the General’s
son, I understand, and so am not surprised that he was
cleared. All the men wanted to return aboard, but I would not
have them. My complement is a hundred and forty-six, with
whom I shall put to sea and hope to join Capt. Whipple.>
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