Work Text:
Report on the condition of HM Sloop Antelope (12)
Lieut. Wm. Laurence (HMS St Lawrence) on detached duty, HM Naval Yard Halifax, Nova Scotia
To Capt. Marriott Arbuthnot, HM Resident Commissioner of the Naval Yard
Sir,
It is my honour to report that on the 26th ultimo I inspected HM Sloop Antelope in the company of her sailing master, purser, and the Master Shipwright. The Antelope is a ketch-sloop of the Hind class, constructed at Deptford in the year ‘44, and has served on the North America station these eighteen years, most recently under Commander Reeman on the Carolina blockade.
The view of Master Shipwright, in which I fully concur, is that the long exertions of blockade duty have rendered her entirely unsuitable for further military service. It is a tribute to her officers that they have brought her safely into harbour through the autumn storms, but the weight of her six-pound guns oppresses her cruelly, she is making six inches of water an hour in the inner harbour in a clock-calm, and there is barely a strake of copper left below her waterline so her bottom is exceeding foul.
You will recall, Sir, the reconstruction of HM Sloop Tryall and note that the Antelope is a decade older and the costs correspondingly greater, so as to exceed any possible benefit. Whilst it might be possible to refit her as a merchantman or packet, no wise man would trust himself to such an ill-found vessel in these waters, and our unanimous recommendation is that she be condemned and broken up.
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
Lieut. William Laurence
Note from Naval Storekeeper Richard Williams to Master Attendant David Hooper
Davey - Antelope is to be condemned, we’ll have her towed round to Sherbrooke ‘for breaking up’, and if the buyer sails her away from there, not our problem is it? Only thing is, some of the warrant officers have got wind of the buyer, they’ll not get another ship and they want to go with her. Takes all sorts I suppose, you’d not get me shipping out on that tub, mind I’m not sure they’ll sober up long enough to notice. So the buyer gets a carpenter, a sailmaker and a cook if he wants them. Come to dinner tomorrow, got some good wine from the captain’s steward on Indy . My share of the Antelope won’t make me rich, but I can afford to stand you a decent drink.
Dick
Mrs Faye Graham, widow, of Sherbrooke in Nova Scotia, in conversation with the editors
Everyone’s met an Elcid Barrett. Short fat man with a silly little beard, never married, but he could charm the birds out of the trees. You should have heard him telling stories in the winters, like having our own little acting troupe, he’d keep spinning yarns for days, yarns that felt more real than the cold or the snow or the boredom or the smoke. And it’s not that he was lazy either, he wasn’t, when he wanted something he had all the energy in the world. But what he wanted was my Tom to go off to sea with him and Barrett, he wasn’t the man to organise a sea voyage. He wasn’t the organising type, not at all. What did he know about planning to feed twenty men for four months, or dealing with chandlers and dockyards, let alone fighting? Sure and he’d been to sea, what man round here hasn’t, but not that kind of sailing, and not as a captain in a war. I would give him a piece of my mind if he’d lived, poor silly man, but that’s nothing to what I’d give to whoever put the idea into his head. Going off to fight those nasty Americans in a little old boat, all the way off to Jamaica they said.
Log entry from the brig Josie Brand , 10 September 1778
4th day out from St Eustice. 20*32’41”N, 73*24’10”W
Chase at length overhauled us, British privateer, name unknown. Beat to quarters at six bells in the forenoon watch. Chase fired on us at long range, minor damage to rigging. Returned fire shortly before noon. Enemy sank after brief action. One survivor rescued, severely wounded, under care of the surgeon. Josie Brand 0 killed, 2 minor wounds from falling rigging. 3 half-casks gunpowder expended, 17 remaining. Opened no.4 cask salt beef, very spoiled, discarded. Hands employed in shark-fishing, late dinner of shark soup to all hands. Complaint received from Jas. Duffy, cooper, of food not being as contracted.
Log entry from brig Josie Brand, 13 September 1778
Spoke Spanish carrack Nuestra Senora Cubierta de Pescado , bound from Vigo to Santo Domingo with a contingent of nuns. They have taken aboard our wounded prisoner, named Roger Stanlees of Nova Scotia, into the care of the Sisters. The surgeon thinks him unlikely to live and he will be more comfortable on shore.
Correspondence between the Merchants of Halifax and Lloyds of London
Gentlemen,
Regarding the insurance taken out the 6 April ultimo against our Ship Antelope, Elcid Barrett Master, we are Sorry to Tell you that she is reported overdue at Barbadoes, having sailed from Montego-Bay on the 10 September and no word heard of her these three months.
This Serves to Desire you will please to pay out Insurance on the Antelope , Vizt On her Hull to the Amount of £1500 Sterling, and on the Armaments and Prize-Cargo £1200 Sterling, for as we averred she was a good Vessell, Strong & well found, & hope you will be able to get it Done expeditiously for the relief of our investments and of her Master’s relations. We how ever hope she may be heard of, having befallen some accident not fatal, before this Reaches you, but if not, judge it no way prudent to Neglect making this claim.
This we Send to you by the Plymouth packet St Ann , with fair copy in the schooner Blaine , direct to the Pool of London.
We can’t add as the Post is going off, but that we are with Esteem, Gentlemen, Your most Obedient servants,
Messrs Dewey, Cheetham & Howe, Merchant Venturers, of Halifax in the Colony of Nova Scotia
Given this day under our several seals, March 29, 1779
Dear Messrs, Dewey, Cheetham & Howe,
Regarding your claim dated March 29, I am instructed to advise you that no payment can be made regarding the Armaments and any potential Prize-Cargo, being as there is no evidence of any prizes having been taken. We note furthermore that the sum insured for the hull is almost double the mean auction value of HM Sloops sold out of the service at Portsmouth. As it is in keeping with the sum originally insured, and in view of your previous good name and the credit necessary to be placed in Halifax in the present conflicts, we will indeed make payment with a bill upon the Syndicate’s bankers, who are Hoares. I am further directed to inform you that in view of this discrepancy we will accept no further business from yourselves of this kind.
I remain, Sirs, your obedient servant,
H.D.V. Bredon. Lead Underwriter, at Lloyds of London
Memorial erected by the Merchants of Halifax to the memory of Elicid Barrett in St Paul’s, Halifax NS, 1781.
Erected by the Honourable Merchants of Nova Scotia as a grateful testimony to the valour and eminent services of ELCID BARRETT, CAPTAIN of the PRIVATE MAN-OF-WAR ANTELOPE; who, on the 4th of June 1778, put to sea from Halifax in the patriotic cause to harry the commerce of the AMERICAN REBELS. Sailing from Montego-Bay against the REBELS, on the 10th of September 1778 he gallantly engaged the American brig BRAND, a vessel of considerably superior force out of ST EUSTICE. After a well contested engagement, ANTELOPE was sunk with all hands, her colours nailed to the mast and her guns firing to the end. The example thus given of valour and devotion to their homeland’s welfare being all the stronger for their hitherto unwarlike character.
“ Let me speak proudly: tell the constable. We are but warriors for the working-day”
Letter from Mgr Ambrosio Martini OP to the Archbishop of Havana, 5 November 1778
…
Your Grace, finally I must inform you that we have here in our care a distressed British sailor whom the Sisters acquired on their voyage from an American blockade-runner. He has no legs, but with the blessing he is otherwise making a good physical recovery from his wounds. He babbles constantly and his English is very different to the English spoken at Douai. But the one thing I understand for sure in his speech is the constant repetition of “God damn them all”. I believe that he may be possessed of a demon, as all the heretics of those cold islands are prone to be. I shall keep him on a low diet, away from sources of temptation, and we may yet restore him to his right wits and the True Faith.
Letter from a subsequent Archbishop of Havana to Mgr Martini, 7 November 1784
What do you mean by telling me you have a legless English heretic sailor quartered in your nunnery? Do you not know we are at peace with the English? They fought us in the time of Philip V over some merchant’s ear. What might they not do to us over a sailor’s legs, pray? Yes the Armada may come to our defence, but the Armada is very far away and our former colony of Florida is a nest of their privateers practically within sight of my palace. And why is there a man in your nunnery anyway? Is he a eunuch? Send this sailor back to England on the next ship or your next promotion will be to the Cannibal Isles!
Summary report from the Intertemporal Research Office, 2179 CE
Well, looks like the song was pretty accurate really. Except for the bit about insurance. Difficult to find rhymes for "syndicate" or "false statement" I suppose.